As young teenage boy Riley begins swimming for a new school, he experiences racism and homophobia. When the struggles of ignorance and stress start weighing him down, his mental health takes a toll. But with the help of his old childhood friend, Aiden, he learns how to truly be himself.
One of the reasons I love watching movies is that, much like books, they serve as windows into other times and different places. Productions from around the world offer valuable insights into the history and culture of their respective countries. And just like literature, cinema can help us understand the present by showing us the past.
On March 31st, International Trans Day of Visibility, following some COVID related delays, the trailer was finally dropped, and although Taylour Paige and Riley Keough look to impress as lead characters Zola and Stefani, a brief cameo from a queer icon was what convinced me I have to see this movie.
The 2019 film, Vai, takes us through eight stories across the islands of Oceania. The settings are unbelievably beautiful, the cast is beautiful, the languages are beautiful, and the stories are beautiful…but heartbreaking.
Lee Daniels’s Billie Holiday biopic The United States vs. Billie Holiday was released on February 26th, 2021, and my immediate reaction to it was one of discomfort.
It is not hard to make a musical biopic that pleases audiences and draws a profit. Michael is no exception.
What starts off as a success story for a single mother living below the poverty line, slowly begins to weave itself into a tangled web of greed, guilt, and destruction.
