Spoiler Alert review – bland gay weepie leav dry ey the hoe | Romance films | The Guardian

Contents:

• SPOILER ALERT REVIEW – BLAND GAY WEEPIE LEAV DRY EY THE HOE
• ‘SPOILER ALERT’ REVIEW: A GAY COUPLE GETS THE ‘BIG SICK’ TREATMENT FUNNY-SAD ROM-COM
• ‘SPOILER ALERT’: THE HERO DI THE GAY LOVE STORY OF THE YEAR

SPOILER ALERT REVIEW – BLAND GAY WEEPIE LEAV DRY EY THE HOE

When Billy Eichner’s poorly marketed yet richly textured gay rom Bros was released earlier this year, the crique om many queer viewers was that wasn’t queer enough. This month, Spoiler Alert, another broadly accsible story about two men fallg love New York Cy hs and Febary, a gay uple lead M Night Shyamalan’s apolyptic thriller Knock at the Cab, both reassurg signs that the dtry remas at least half-heartedly terted allowg queer characters space the Bros, Spoiler Alert is based on the love life of a nervy, romantilly experienced New York wrer but ’s ls boy-meets-boy and more boy-meets-then-los-boy. One night, when forced out to a gay bar by a lleague, he meets K (Fleabag’s Ben Aldridge), a handsome and nfint signer and the two start datg.

But then K fds out he has a form of ncer and the two are forced to reckon wh the prospect of losg each another year of back-pattg, don’t-blk-and-you’ll-probably-still-miss- blockbter fx-reprentatn, om Glass Onn to Jurassic World: Domn to Doctor Strange the Multiverse of Madns, there is somethg gratifyg seeg two out gay actors playg arguably gay characters dog visibly gay thgs a big movie whout any pearl-clutchg yns. But praisg Spoiler Alert for what ’s tryg to do rather than what ’s actually dog would be disgenuo, the film likely to lose gay dienc faster than straight a film based on the reali of an actual uple, there’s an overwhelmg lack of lived- specificy to the characters, their relatnship and their sexualy, as if ’s all been ncted by someone whose knowledge of gayns om watchg Queer Eye. Michael is grossed out by Grdr and timid about sex, which means he's a poor f for the mky dance floors of the Manhattan gay-bar circu.

In a media landspe where gay romanc are rarely allowed the happy endgs of straight on, 's an arguable fact that the real people's real liv, the (prumed—she hasn't publicly stated otherwise) straight woman survived, but the gay man didn't, what do you do wh that?

‘SPOILER ALERT’ REVIEW: A GAY COUPLE GETS THE ‘BIG SICK’ TREATMENT FUNNY-SAD ROM-COM

Such ditn is profoundly touchg, pecially to LGBTQ dienc for whom — if “Bros” is to be believed — gay romantic edi didn’t exist until two months ago (spoiler alert: they’ve been around for s). The book is flip, irreverent and disarmgly faiar, like a one-sid nversatn wh your funnit gay iend. The monumental shift gay acceptance of the past 20 years has happened alongsi the explosn of pornography, which amplifi body shame and nfince issu for so many.

‘SPOILER ALERT’: THE HERO DI THE GAY LOVE STORY OF THE YEAR

He then tak back through their liv together, om the moment he first ught sight of the “sweatband-wearg matee idol” on jock night at a New York gay club he was dragged to by his lleague Nick (an appealgly effervcent Jeffery Self), through the highs and lows of their relatnship, right up until this tragic pot. Complete wh nned lghter and tentnally treacly ngo mic, the sequenc both playfully and poignantly take through a youth spent watchg soaps wh his mom and beg bullied at school for beg an overweight gay kid wh a ad dad, wh actor Brody Ca pturg the sweetns and securi of the young Michael.

While Michael and his mother simultaneoly realized that he was gay as a pre-teen watchg Days of Our Liv together, K’s queer awakeng and self-acceptance me more recently, and when we first meet him he hasn’t yet e out to his parents, Marilyn (Sally Field) and Bob (Bill Irw). Although Michael has throughly “-gayed” K’s room by the time they arrive—wh the help of K’s “monosyllabic” queer roommate Kirby (a hilarly adpan Sadie Stt)—removg any telltale cloth, books, DVDs, and photographs, the one thg that remas is the rabow flag of giveaways, Michael himself.