What makes a movie queer?
There are a lot of potential factors. It could tell a story that honors different kinds of families. It could provide a structured, intelligent critique of a heteronormative institution (like marriage, the family, or education). It could portray gay and lesbian characters in a way that honors and respects them beyond how much they fit with a preconceived norm.
Which is a key point: Not all films that contain gay and lesbian characters are queer (in fact, most aren't!), and not all films that contain only straight characters are wholly heteronormative (although most are). Which brings us to Independence Day: Resurgence.
At first glance, this is a film without queer potential. It is a relatively flat, twentieth-anniversary sequel to the original Independence Day, which was so normative along so many lines (race, class, gender, sexuality, nationalism) that I could only laugh out loud when I watched it. So why should the sequel be different?
In many ways, it's not. It's mostly action, with a few sprinklings of toxic masculinity as men get into posturing competitions that nearly kill each other, punch each other in the face, and generally try to one-up one another. The only male-male friendship that I actually liked in the film was the one between the accountant Rosenburg and the head of the Republique Nationale d'Umbutu, Dikembe Umbutu, and only two female characters gets development beyond "she's Chinese" or "she's the president."
But that's the problem: There was a smidgen of hope in this film in the form of some gay scientists. Brent Spiner plays Dr. Brakish Okun, who awakes from a twenty year coma as his partner, Dr. Milton Isaacs is dressing him in a scarf he knitted and watering his plants.
Which is adorable! And cute! They're both old and call each other "baby" and clearly have some chemistry that the director is desperate to suppress. The scenes they're in together made me smile, and laugh. I wanted more of Dr. Okun forgetting his pants and his partner gently reminding him to wear them. I wanted more of them holding hands. I wanted more of Isaacs' devotion to Okun. And I wanted them to kiss! A kiss is not even radical, but the film refuses to show it. There are even moments when I questioned whether they were really supposed to be husbands because the directing had them stand so far apart, and the script had them both so distracted from one another.
They don't kiss. They spend 24 hours running around trying to solve the alien problem and then Isaacs dies. He dies. He's killed by aliens. He is no longer living. He will not get a happy ending with Okun. They don't even kiss as he dies.
Spiner delivers a heart-wrenching performance as his partner lays dying, which is amazing and I respect him for it, but he should not have had to deliver it. This film has a bad case of Bury Your Gays that leaves an even worse taste in your mouth.
And the kicker: Despite constantly getting blown up, shot at, and stepped on, none of The Straights (TM) get killed. In fact, one of them gets a date at the end. Joy.
So what makes a film queer? Not fucking this.
Final rating: 2/10 rainbows.
Final thoughts: A promising potential of old gay scientists in love (with only a handful of annoying heterosexual subplots) was dashed in the final battle as we learned, once again, that movie writers don't believe gays deserve a happy ending. Watch the film up the point where they put the sphere in the containment field, then just turn it off and walk away. You'll feel better for it.
There are a lot of potential factors. It could tell a story that honors different kinds of families. It could provide a structured, intelligent critique of a heteronormative institution (like marriage, the family, or education). It could portray gay and lesbian characters in a way that honors and respects them beyond how much they fit with a preconceived norm.
Which is a key point: Not all films that contain gay and lesbian characters are queer (in fact, most aren't!), and not all films that contain only straight characters are wholly heteronormative (although most are). Which brings us to Independence Day: Resurgence.
At first glance, this is a film without queer potential. It is a relatively flat, twentieth-anniversary sequel to the original Independence Day, which was so normative along so many lines (race, class, gender, sexuality, nationalism) that I could only laugh out loud when I watched it. So why should the sequel be different?
In many ways, it's not. It's mostly action, with a few sprinklings of toxic masculinity as men get into posturing competitions that nearly kill each other, punch each other in the face, and generally try to one-up one another. The only male-male friendship that I actually liked in the film was the one between the accountant Rosenburg and the head of the Republique Nationale d'Umbutu, Dikembe Umbutu, and only two female characters gets development beyond "she's Chinese" or "she's the president."
But that's the problem: There was a smidgen of hope in this film in the form of some gay scientists. Brent Spiner plays Dr. Brakish Okun, who awakes from a twenty year coma as his partner, Dr. Milton Isaacs is dressing him in a scarf he knitted and watering his plants.
Which is adorable! And cute! They're both old and call each other "baby" and clearly have some chemistry that the director is desperate to suppress. The scenes they're in together made me smile, and laugh. I wanted more of Dr. Okun forgetting his pants and his partner gently reminding him to wear them. I wanted more of them holding hands. I wanted more of Isaacs' devotion to Okun. And I wanted them to kiss! A kiss is not even radical, but the film refuses to show it. There are even moments when I questioned whether they were really supposed to be husbands because the directing had them stand so far apart, and the script had them both so distracted from one another.
They don't kiss. They spend 24 hours running around trying to solve the alien problem and then Isaacs dies. He dies. He's killed by aliens. He is no longer living. He will not get a happy ending with Okun. They don't even kiss as he dies.
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| Independence Day Obliterates My Ships. :( |
And the kicker: Despite constantly getting blown up, shot at, and stepped on, none of The Straights (TM) get killed. In fact, one of them gets a date at the end. Joy.
So what makes a film queer? Not fucking this.
Final rating: 2/10 rainbows.
Final thoughts: A promising potential of old gay scientists in love (with only a handful of annoying heterosexual subplots) was dashed in the final battle as we learned, once again, that movie writers don't believe gays deserve a happy ending. Watch the film up the point where they put the sphere in the containment field, then just turn it off and walk away. You'll feel better for it.
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