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