A Queer Review of the Austin Film Festival (2023)
Highlighting the many ways in which AFF 2023 illustrated that the queer experience is not a monolithic one.

Highlighting the many ways in which AFF 2023 illustrated that the queer experience is not a monolithic one.
Everyone needs a BFF and a "wing person" like Yumi (Chloris Li). Li brings the "straight person" persona, literally and figuratively balancing James Aaron Oh's perfectly timed comedic delivery as the unlucky-in-love.
“To be universal, you have to get specific”: while the film does not attempt to provoke discussions about queerness or race, those watching closely may find something resonant in Sorrentino’s love letter to the Naples of his youth.
Eternals is an interesting concept and unique visuals, but slow pacing and rushed character development suggests it should have been a mini-series.
My Beautiful Laundrette is often referenced as a positive LGBTQIA+ film because our two main characters are in a homosexual relationship with no shame, fear of violence or criticism. The struggle is not their sexuality. It is the treatment of the Pakistani citizens in England.
One Night in Miami... did not frame the racism and bigotry as something that could be solved by quality time spent between individuals. Instead, it featured four different legends of Black History together in one room disagreeing for about 2/3 of the film.