Reports from the frontline - no. 1

The "coming out" story is the only uniquely gay story, so it's unsurprising that coming out films feature heavily at the London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. This year has, for me, kicked off with a couple of them.


First up was Sigourney Weaver in Prayers for Bobby, playing a Bible-bashing Mom in redneck country, her picture-perfect family destroyed by her own inability to accept anything as The Truth other than the word of her pastor.


This made-for-tv movie is set back in the bad times of the late 1970s and early 1980s, but our hero still manages to find for himself a vast network of supporting and loving friends and lovers (although his boyfriend is -- gasp! -- unfaithful!!).


Is it just me, or does he look dangerously emaciated in that photo? Maybe he's not eating enough.

Anyway, in true melodrama style, the cute gay kid kills himself.


Did you notice he looked like the martyr Jesus there? Did you, did you??

And then we get to the nub of the film because this isn't really a gay film at all; it's a film about Sigourney's journey from self-hating preacher-woman to love-filled campaigner for gay rights.


A bit clunky and worthy, Prayers for Bobby is An Important Film, showing that, maybe, US telly is growing-up a bit.

Much less important was Leo's Room (El Cuarto de Leo), a delightful Argentina-Uruguay co-production (and how many of those have you seen?) set in Montevideo.


Except, until the final few frames, it could have been set almost anywhere since the whole point of the film is an extended metaphor about our eponymous hero who, er, stays in the safety of his room (room=closet. Geddit?!).


He knows he's gay but to the outside world he's a serial girlfriender; except that, in the privacy of his own room, things get a bit messier.


The film is rescued from its generally low levels of narrative sophistication by the novelty of being set in Montevideo, and by a compelling performance from unfeasibly hot totty Martin Rodriguez.


This is not a film of great images, just a simple story. That our hero is surrounded by the kindest, most liberal people in the world (his mother explicitly says she just wants him to have a gilfriend or a boyfriend... she's a long way from Sigourney) doesn't seem to diminish his emotional trauma and angst. But you'll be pleased to learn that it all turns out alright in the end.