Some Thoughts on Straight Up (2019, U.S.)

So Myriam and I watched Straight Up a day or so ago together (at my behest), and neither of us enjoyed it — or found it worthwhile enough to do a joint review of it. But, after ruminating over it, I did find that I had some things I wanted to address about the movie, and why it ultimately failed to, in my opinion, actually tackle the issue of important non-romantic relationships in any meaningful way.^[1]

The summary from Netflix is as follows, “When a gay brainiac with OCD questions his identity, he enters a romantic relationship with a woman, leaving sex and physical intimacy out of it.”

Note: this review contains spoilers for the entire movie, as well as some candid talk of sex, and some cussing, because I am mad.

Lingua Franca (2019, U.S.)

Lingua Franca is a 2019 drama film directed by Isabel Sandoval, who also plays the main character. From IMDB, the summary reads, “An undocumented Filipina transwoman falls in love in Brooklyn.”

Note: this conversation contains spoilers for the entire movie.

The House of Flowers, season 3 (2020, Mexico)

The House of Flowers is a three season and two movie-long series created in Mexico for streaming on Netflix. The summary from google reads, “The outward perfection of a family-run flower business hides a dark side rife with dysfunctional secrets in this darkly humorous comedy series.”

This review is nominally about the third and final season of the show, and might contain spoilers for the whole series. But, don’t worry, so many things happen, and so few things make sense, that you probably won’t understand any of it regardless!

Shiva Baby (2020, U.S./Canada)

Shiva Baby is a 2020 comedy film, a U.S. and Canada co-production, directed by Emma Seligman. Wikipedia’s summary reads, “The film stars Danielle, a directionless young bisexual Jewish woman who attends a shiva with her family. Other attendees include her successful ex-girlfriend Maya, and her sugar daddy Max with his wife Kim and their screaming baby.”

Note: this conversation contains spoilers for the entire movie.

Your Name Engraved Herein (2019, Taiwan)

Your Name Engraved Herein is a Taiwanese film, directed by Patrick Kuang-hui Liu, released in 2020. The summary from google is, “In 1987, as martial law ends in Taiwan, Jia-han and Birdy fall in love amid family pressures, homophobia and social stigma.”

The film is available to stream from Netflix (with extremely mediocre English subtitles that definitely needed a second translation check pass).

Note: this conversation contains spoilers for basically the entire film.

Welcome to Sincerely, Queers.

A media analysis blog for queer media run by two queers!