BFI Flare: Take a shot

The 37th edition of BFI Flare holds its closing night film and party tonight, with tomorrow set aside for screenings of the best LGBTQIA+ films of both the festival and the past year. So I'll have a final report to wrap things up - including short films and my personal favourites. I had hoped to include a report on the festival's new Expanded programme of virtual reality projects, but it was only open for three days and was seriously overcrowded. So while I still have a few features and shorts to watch, here's another offbeat collection of highlights...

Golden Delicious
dir Jason Karman; with Cardi Wong, Chris Carson 22/Can ****
Warm and engaging, this Canadian comedy-drama uses strongly sympathetic characters to encourage the audience to explore big issues relating to family and societal expectations. Asian ethnicity and queer sexuality play a role in the various story threads, which remain resonant even when things get a bit melodramatic in the final act. Throughout the film, director Jason Karman maintains a wonderfully light touch, and the gifted, fresh-faced cast members are easy to root for.

Winter Boy [Le Lycéen]
dir-scr Christophe Honore; with Paul Kircher, Juliette Binoche 22/Fr ***
French filmmaker Christophe Honore tells another remarkably intimate story, once again weaving in autobiographical elements that add a powerfully detailed emotionality to the unfolding drama. While the film is overlong and occasionally feels meandering, it has real strength in the way it recounts events from a teen's specific perspective. This offers conflicting thoughts and feelings that force the audience to get involved. And the cast is wonderfully engaging.

Afeminadas [aka: Effeminate]
dir-scr Wesley Gondim; with Igor Willian, Khryz Amusa 22/Br ***.
Compiled from remarkably raw footage, this documentary visits five people around Brazil to explore the experiences of effeminate gay men. While all have their sexuality in common, what's most striking here is that each has such a distinct persona, expressing their thoughts and feelings both in unstructured interviews for the cameras and on-stage as performers on lively stages. The film is infused with life and colour, and it also completely strips away the artifice.

Fierce: A Porn Revolution [Ardente-x-s]
dir Patrick Muroni; with Melanie Boss, Olivia Schenker 22/Swi ***
While this documentary takes on an important topic and is beautifully shot, it never quite seems to get to the story the filmmakers are trying to tell. There's definitely a need for a female gaze in the porn industry, and the Oil collective in Switzerland has developed some clever ways to approach the issue. But the skilled camera crew follows them right off the topic, so the documentary leaves these lively, intelligent women looking like they're merely indulgent. But at least they're having a lot of fun.

BEST OF YEAR
Bodies Bodies Bodies
dir Halina Reijn; with Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalova 22/US ****
Gleefully mashing-up genres, this riotous black comedy takes the form of a slasher horror movie, and it's also packed with slapstick mayhem, interpersonal tension and social commentary. It's expertly assembled by the filmmakers and a seriously up-for-it cast to freak us out and make us laugh. But even more intriguing is that the movie pushes us to think about the nature of relationships for today's generation of young people... FULL REVIEW >

FROM THE ARCHIVE
Le Beau Mec [aka: Dude]
dir Wallace Potts; with Karl Forest, Frank Chazal, Philippe Renaud 79/Fr ****
Thought to be a lost film, this vintage French arthouse pornography has been digitally restored, complete with its English overdub narration. Directed by Wallace Potts, Rudolf Nureyev's last lover, it's a sharply well-made movie with eye-catching visual style and some remarkably dark themes. While it's very explicit, the film is also quirky and unexpected, with a range of sequences that catch the viewer by surprise. And it has an unusually personal perspective to even its sexiest moments.