Film Review – Patrik 1.5

I fell in love with this movie after seeing it at AFM last year. I saw it again last night and loved it just as much.

This is one movie that just grows on you and that can be watched multiple times.

*** Warning Contains Spoilers***

Patrik 1.5

This is the story of Göran and Sven, a gay Swedish couple who want to adopt a child.  They have recently married and move into a nice neighborhood with the white picket fence and constant garden parties. After a long wait and many hurdles they are finally given clearance by Social Services and are awaiting the arrival of their baby boy Patrik. Well thanks to a mix up at the social service office Patrik is not 1.5 but rather a 15 year old homophobe with a criminal record and a messed up past.

Göran (the more sensitive of the two) refuses to send Patrik back to the orphanage and decides to keep him until the find him a family to take him in. This drives a wedge between the couple and forces their separation. When Sven moves out, Göran and Patrik bond and get past their differences and Patrik begins to accept those different from him.

Just when things begin to look up for them and Göran is going to adopt Patrik, a family is found that is willing to take him in. Before he goes he helps Göran get Sven back.

Patrik comes to visit them one day and playfully tells them about his new family but that they don’t have a dog (something he had told Göran he wanted), Sven surprises us by saying that they had been discussing getting a dog and Patrik is theirs!

The movie raises issues of intolerance and homophobia without beating you over the head with them.  You see that although Sven and Goran live in a society that allows them to marry, their neighbors shun them (one father even threatens to kill Göran if he ever touches his kid again.. Göran is a doctor), and kids vandalize their property and call them “homos”.  Director Ella Lemhagen does a great job of telling a story without being preachy.

I plan on adding this movie to my DVD collection because it was just that good!

Film Review – La Mission

*** Warning Contains Spoilers***

La Mission

La Mission is a well produced film by the Bratt brothers, with Peter Bratt writing and directing the script. It is a film that portrays the conflicts of the Latino community in La Mission.

Che Rivera (played by the delicious Benjamin Bratt), an ex-con and recovering alcoholic, is a well known and respected figure in La Mission. He works driving a city bus and does good deeds for his neighbors, while teaching the youngsters the code of honor he upholds. Yet he is also a man very quick to anger, violent and very, very machista. He is a single father to his teenage son Jesse, whom he loves until he learns that he is gay.

Although the neighborhood is located in San Francisco, which is very liberal, Mission has very deep rooted traditional Latino values. Homosexuality is not only unacceptable it is also ridiculed.

Che goes from loving father to violent man at the discovery of his son’s secret. He confronts Jesse about it and the two end up having a very public fist fight where his son’s secret becomes common neighborhood knowledge. Che unable to accept his son, kicks him out and Jesse goes to stay with his Uncle Rene and Aunt Ana (portrayed by the gorgeous Talisa Soto).

Che starts to drink again and his anger basically begins to destroy his “relationship” with his new neighbor Lena and even his love for his lowriders. We get the sense that this is a drift that father and son will never overcome.

While we expect Che’s friends and family to be as intolerant as he is, they turn out to be much more accepting of Jesse. Yet not everyone in the neighborhood is willing to overlook his homosexuality and soon we see Jesse being ridiculed by some of his peers and finally shot in a confrontation with one of them. Yet even after this attack Che can’t accept Jesse’s sexual orientation and harasses Jordan (Jesse’s boyfriend) when he runs into him at the hospital. This is the final straw for Jesse who gives up on his father and finally leaves for Los Angeles (and UCLA) following his high school graduation.

Lena turns out to be a catalyst for Che’s redemption and in the end we see Che driving to LA in the lowrider car he had fixed up for Jesse as a graduation gift. Leaving us with the hope that father and son overcome the drift in their relationship and that Che has finally learned to see past his intolerance for people who are different from him.

La Mission’s likable characters and honest and believable dialogue leads us to not only enjoy the film but also care about its characters. I found myself feeling as sad, happy, distressed and scared as the characters in the film and rooting for them every step of the way.

If you get a chance to see the film, I highly recommend it.

Outfest Opening Night Gala

Moi and some beautiful people!

Moi and Christina Ricci (Outfest 2009)

Moi and Chaz Bono (Outfest 2009)

Moi and Lisa Kudrow

I am lucky enough to get invited to some cool events due to my job… and meet some really cool people!

** These pictures were taken by my friend and coworker Natasha. Check out her blog