Directed by Thomas Bezucha, Big Eden can be found currently on Netflix and frankly is worth a watch. It's not the most groundbreaking movie in my opinion, but it's very cute and is the gay equivalent of a Life Time Movie. Henry Hart, played by Arye Gross, leaves his hectic life in New York to go back to his small home town in Montana after his father has a heart attack. There, Henry finds out that his childhood crush Tim is also back in town, having recently divorced his wife. As Henry tries to catch Tim's eye, Henry has caught the eye of local store owner Pike Dexter, played by Eric Schweig. The film then follows Henry's journey of leaving behind an ambiguously straight crush from his childhood and figuring out where his home actually is. There isn't much else to the plot but it is an interesting enough film.
I enjoyed watching this movie and found it endearing how the whole town sort of gathers together to try and get Pike and Henry together by the end of the film. Despite this, there were aspects of this movie that I found just a little weird. Take for example the characterization of Tim, Henry's childhood crush. For a good majority of the first half of the movie, Tim is casted in this more or less clueless straight guy light. Henry pines after him but it's established that he's gotten over this crush that has hindered him from moving on in the form of other relationships. That is, until one evening when Tim drives Henry home and they have a Moment. This moment, of course, is when Tim and Henry almost kiss. Tim gets flustered and leaves Henry wanting more. When Tim and Henry actually kiss, Tim's character takes a weird turn. He kisses Henry but voices how he can't do this. He expresses how he wants to be able to be with Henry but physically cannot.
Henry and Tim fight about this later, during a Thanksgiving dinner. Tim wants Henry to give him time to adjust to a relationship with a man, wanting to make things work between the two of them. Henry, on the other hand, is understandably fed up with this and wants to move on. This plot point of the film seemed a little off to me while watching it, but I suppose it's no worse than any sort of straight equivalent to this movie. And it does end well, with Henry and Pike ending up together. The film does a good job on setting up the tension of whether or not Henry will stay in town and stay with Pike, or go back to his life in New York.
At the end of the day, Big Eden is just a nice movie. There isn't anything really to write home about. The plot is straight forward and interesting enough. It does have the advantage of setting itself apart from other gay movies via the interracial representation. Pike is Native American and it's a nice change from the white twinks homosexual centered movies usually focus on. It's not my favorite LGBT+ movie but it sure is one I'd recommend for anyone interested in just a nice little movie that isn't all that long.
Directed by Stephen Dunn, Closet Monster stars Connor Jessup as the main character, Oscar Madly. Closet Monster is a gay coming of age story focused on Oscar's journey to accept his own sexuality. I watched this movie on Netflix because it looked relatively interesting. And it honestly was relatively interesting. I wouldn't say that it was the most thrilling movie I've ever watched and it certainly wasn't my all-time favorite gay movie, but it had a good charm to it and it was very well made. The soundtrack to this movie was pretty stellar and it's cinematography was extremely appealing. This movie was a wonderful modern day coming of age story for a young gay man. With that said, this movie brings nothing new to the table. Even though I enjoyed it, it was yet another white skinny gay kid put into a main character slot. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed myself while watching this movie and it was absolutely a good watch.
The film follows young Oscar Madly who's struggling to get into a New York art college and his confused sexuality. As a young boy, Oscar witness a couple of bullies brutally beat up a gay kid at his school. Along with his parents getting a divorce, Oscar's young life leaves him traumatized and confused about his identity. Basically, Oscar falls in love with a boy at his place of work (named Wilder) and he begins to go on a journey into himself. But the events of his past prevent him from loving another boy. The first instance of this is when Oscar tries to masturbate to the thought of Wilder in his work's bathroom. He is frightened away by his gay thoughts when a pipe bursts out of his abdomen. Then, later on at a costume party Wilder invited Oscar to, Oscar finds a fellow gay and they try to get it on in the bathroom. Before anything could truly happen, Oscar throws up, only to us, the audience, it seems as if Oscar is throwing up blood and nails/screws. It isn't until the last scene of the movie in which Oscar "pulls out" the pipe inside of him. The pipe and nail/screw imagery all is meant to represent Oscar's internalized homophobia. If this movie brings anything substantial to the table, it has to be this; the fact that the film has a relatively good analogy for internalized homophobia. And this was probably one of my favorite aspects about this movie, besides the wonderful cinematography.
At the end of the film, Oscar comes to terms with his sexuality and also finally stands up to his abusive father, deciding to live with the mother who abandoned him as a young child. Although he gets rejected from the New York art college he wanted to go to, his mother sends him off to a pretty sick looking art college somewhere else. And how could I not mention Buffy? Throughout the movie, Oscar has this hamster that is named Buffy. Buffy acts as Oscar's subconscious almost, talking to Oscar over the course of the movie. Buffy is killed by Oscar's father by the end of the film and is arguably the catalyst for Oscar's realization of acceptance. I really enjoyed this little bit of the movie, every time Buffy was in the scene it was really cute. Honestly, if you are able to watch this movie sometime, I'd highly recommend it. This movie was cute and was a good coming of age story for a gay main character.