National Anthem

There were things i liked and things i was like holy canolli what type of ranch is this? A movie for the instagram generation. But with the self absorbed free hippy love-in cult semantics, and a few other issues, I found this film hard to swallow. It was a snore-fest even with all the fabulosity and Rupaul's Dragnation it felt like a party where you look around and think I need to find the exit pronto. It's glacier pace lost me and the hyped up Group love-in i knew this was just messy bunch i would not want to roll with let alone give my time. A ranch of able bodied people living ther, and they need Mexican day workers while trans women walk around in flowing dresses doing Sweet FA. WTF? The stiff acting and laughing about a traumatic issue, making light of being kicked out of a family. This isn't a must see, not even a must stream. The soundtrack was nice. However, It's a big fat I DON'T THINK SO HONEY for me.

A queer film about growing up and awakening. The plot is a bit barren, but it constructs a wonderful queer Eden in the red soil of the American outback. There is no homophobic violence or discrimination. Everyone can be themselves and enjoy an open sex life and fluid sexual orientation. Maybe it is too beautiful and gives me a distorted illusion? Huang Zitao recently said something in his variety show, "Tolerable Love," which is enough to make people laugh, but it always reminds me of Charlie's increasingly vivid character personality in various film and television works over the years: always a little silent, suppressing his thoughts or just looking at one place melancholy. Six years after "Jockey Pete", he reinterprets his relationship with a land; even though the settings of the two films are very different, he can still find the qualities he was first seen in. Tolerable Love.

"Dylan" (Charlie Plummer) lives with his mum and younger brother and works, where he can, in construction to put food on the table. One day, he picks up some work with a travelling rodeo circus - loads of aspiring Buffalo Bills. The thing is, most of them are gay and aside from roping the ponies they put on some drag shows and have all the concomitant relationship issues that you'd expect to find amongst a community that is tightly night and highly strung. He is welcomed by all, and swiftly takes a shine to "Sky" (Eve Lindley) who is in an open relationship with "Pepe" (Rene Rosado) and for the rest of this film we follow that turbulent scenario set against more of his own family's discord and his own desires to save his cash to buy an SUV and travel the land. There is something really quite visceral about Plummer's efforts here and the grand expanse of scenery is really well captured by the photography, but the story. It's all just too safe. It's sort of like inserting a straight dynamic into "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert", only this really does lack for much humour and is, especially towards the end, a rather earnest and plodding melodrama that I thought just ran out of steam. It's a story about love, lust and acceptance, but delivers nothing we haven't seen before across an whole range of cinema genres. Indeed, it's almost compartmentalised to ensure the main plot has virtually nothing at all to do with the film's USP. It had the potential to rock the boat a bit, but I was really quite disappointed, sorry.

This is one of the best queer films I've seen. It encapsulates so much depth on what it means to be a queer person in rural America. The generous nods to gender roles and how their conformity is limiting to one's true self bled through beautifully. Dylan was a gentle hardworking young person just trying to figure it out. Maybe a lot of viewers can see your younger selves in Dylan, just a person trying to carve out our small place in this insane world whilst fighting to stay authentic to our true selves. Outside the queer lens, the scenery of the NM desert was breathtaking and the Americana imagery and motifs were consistent throughout the film bringing forth an interdisciplinary film combining elements of western and queerness together.

So many things could have gone wrong in the film. But the humanistic approach in the performances, direction and story makes this film worthwhile as we see a young man learn to find his place in this world. Charlie Plummer as Dylan carries the film on his shoulders. He has screen presence even if his character has a subdued personality at first as we see he becomes a stronger, confident and even more empathetic man over the course of the film. Many will call this a LGBTQ+ movie but it is more than that. There is no coarseness, cockiness or irritating over-the-top histrionic behavior by any the actors. There is a respect among the characters as they relate to each other that will engross and help you understand them. Charlie's home life could have felt like a simplistic TV movie of the week. But director Luke Gilford and screenwriters Kevin Best, David Largman Murray as well as Gilford care about the characters too much to let that happen and they show why, for example, in Charlie's household that despite their problems as a family they are able to live in the same home with care and understanding. His mother played by Robyn Lively is not the stereotypical struggling mother. How she relates to Charlie and his younger brother and how she conducts herself is a revelation that pays off towards the end of the film. The biggest surprises and unexpected moments come when Charlie is hired to work on a ranch for a couple of weeks. He has been working odd jobs to help his family and save up for an RV. That RV is his dream and Plummer pulls us in to his character where we hope his wish for that RV comes true. The ranch job enables him save more money but the job becomes a life experience as he meets a cast of memorable characters. He is enchanted by Sky who lives on the ranch and is beautifully performed by Eve Lindley. She becomes a mentor to Charlie to help him be comfortable in his skin and proud of who he is. She is also a spark in his sexual awakening. Mason Alexander Park as one the inhabitants of the ranch sparkles with a knowing conviction in pivotal moments to guide Charlie. Even Rene Rosado in a supporting role avoids the conventional expectation of a rancher whose character takes an unpredictable path. This film is one of the most original in its storytelling among recent films with one of the finest ensembles so far this year.