June!

Happy Pride, y’all :). Love Island dominated the peak time of day I normally watch movies, so this was the only movie I watched besides the excellent The Furious. Victim (1961) feels very special to me – an activist movie made by and about gay men at a time when that was still very much illegal, the love and pain that went into making this is so clear. I watched it on HBO, I’d recommend everyone watch it (it’s also a great neo-noir!), Dirk Bogarde’s performance is just stunning to watch.

Look, I’m not proud. Just kidding! I’m not in the habit of apologizing for my media habits and I’m not about to start now. I’ve never watched Love Island before, but what’s kept me going isn’t so much the show itself but the communal aspect of viewing. I have about 7-8 different friends watching every night, and the experience of sitting down and watching at the same time is one I’ve been missing. I think I’m most interested in Love Island as a microcosm of surveillance and the way people behave in a hyper-specific social group – and while I COULD make a comment about the horrors of straight dating, there is something fascinating about watching this extremely specific set of roles and expectations play out, especially the ways I’ve seen the audience interact with them. To me, a trans nonbinary viewer, none of this feels very relatable, but what I am relating to is the way these men and women are punished for stepping outside their expected roles and performances. By watching, we all become our most judgemental selves…and boy is that so delicious to indulge in. Anyway my hot take is that Kenzie basically discovered on the island that she’s non-monogamous but doesn’t have the language for it yet, and the Zach/Bryce edits went from cute to homophobic like two weeks ago.