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.

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.