Why Gay Subtext ‘JoJo Rabb’ & ‘The Lighthoe’ Feels Fstratg – IndieWire

Contents:

• BUT JT HOW GAY IS ‘THE LIGHTHOE'(2019)?
• WHY THE GAY SUBPLOTS ‘THE LIGHTHOE’ AND ‘JOJO RABB’ DON’T GO FAR ENOUGH
• TOM HOLLAND’S GAY SEX SCENE 'THE CROWD ROOM' DEFEND BY FANS
• TOM HOLLAND’S GAY SEX SCENE SETS SOCIAL MEDIA ALIGHT AFTER THE ACTOR SAID PLAYG THE ROLE ‘BROKE HIM’
• TOM HOLLAND 'UNAFFECTED' OM 'THE CROWD ROOM' GAY SCENE HATE
• WHY THE GAY SUBPLOTS ‘THE LIGHTHOE’ AND ‘JOJO RABB’ DON’T GO FAR ENOUGH

BUT JT HOW GAY IS ‘THE LIGHTHOE'(2019)?

To me, this film is so clearly gay that an analysis of s homoerotic subtext would be like argug the sky is blue. Perhaps I’ve e acctomed to clarg everythg gay, but this one seemed too obv to miss. And so, let’s talk about how gay The Lighthoe really is.

Now lookg at the characters, n be pretty heavily suggted that Tommy is gay and, given the tim, closeted.

Durg the long, lonely nights, Tommy attempts to distract his gay sir and fds solace a mermaid statue, g this salt water temptrs as spiratn for his “alone time”. Tommy is ultimately aghast by this homoerotic shift, but the dience is not.

WHY THE GAY SUBPLOTS ‘THE LIGHTHOE’ AND ‘JOJO RABB’ DON’T GO FAR ENOUGH

However, this terpretatn don’t hr the homoerotic subtext, if anythg they work harmony.

The Lighthoe is overflowg wh gay subtext, om the tenr dancg scene shared between Tom and Tommy, to the il arguments between them that play out like a dnk hband and upset hoewife (“Yer fond of me lobster, a’t ye? Ignorg the gay subtext this film lims the pure brilliance of The Lighthoe. Historilly, the genre of horror is a bounty of gay subtext and this film livers wav!

TOM HOLLAND’S GAY SEX SCENE 'THE CROWD ROOM' DEFEND BY FANS

Both movi e om wildly ventive filmmakers wh styl so specific their films n feel like their own mi-genr, but they share half-baked gay subtexts that fall short of their amb visns.

TOM HOLLAND’S GAY SEX SCENE SETS SOCIAL MEDIA ALIGHT AFTER THE ACTOR SAID PLAYG THE ROLE ‘BROKE HIM’

In a story about two men on a serted island, the homoeroticism is practilly baked to the log-le. ” But a foppish Hler is the least of Wai’s troubl — the real homoeroticism to play wh Sam Rockwell’s character. (Wai don’t even beg to addrs that the Nazis were sendg gay people to ncentratn mps.

The movie’s “exclively gay moment” may be lour than the one “The Lighthoe, ” but ’s far more problematic, as Wai plays for edic affect to generate sympathy for his characters — queerns as shorthand for humany.

Of urse, neher Wai or Eggers are gay, which is not to say straight filmmakers n’t or shouldn’t e queer elements their work. Take, for stance, Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook, which the tular boogeyman n be read as an allegory for a mother’s grief and trma, or A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, which not so subtly hts at the protagonist beg gay. While the dynamic between the film’s two lighthoe keepers seems to be more hate-hate than love-hate, Eggers’ psychelic imagery, the psdo-domtic edy between the two lighthoe keepers, and the homoerotic overton monstrate how The Lighthoe is actually a queer romance.

TOM HOLLAND 'UNAFFECTED' OM 'THE CROWD ROOM' GAY SCENE HATE

But their fal nontatn, this vlence tak on overtly homoerotic ton.

WHY THE GAY SUBPLOTS ‘THE LIGHTHOE’ AND ‘JOJO RABB’ DON’T GO FAR ENOUGH

Both have ndidly discsed sual, heterosexual terurse already, but nothg so explicly homoerotic.