Four Queer Movies About White Toxic Masculinity and Homophobia
Plenty of movies deal with the ways in which internalized homophobia hurts the gay and bisexual men who embody it. In Brokeback Mountain, Ennis is stuck in a mindset of toxic masculinity, and for the most part this manifests in his own misery as he's unable to really have a life with Jack Twist.
In contrast, the films below look at characters whose toxic masculinity and internalized homophobia manifest as violence against other people - namely, out gay men. And for some reason, this is a sub-genre of film that I find intriguing. So here are a list of 4 movies about toxic masculinity and homophobia, as explored through a queer lens.
All these movies have trigger warnings for: violence, blood, sexual violence, and homophobia.
In chronological order of US release:
Tom at the Farm (2013) (directed by Xavier Dolan, based on the play by Michel Marc Bouchard) - Tom at the Farm is a French-Canadian psychosexual thriller in which Tom (Xavier Dolan) travels to rural Canada to attend his boyfriend's funeral. While there, Tom finds out his boyfriend hadn't come out to his mom, Agathe (Lisa Roy) or his brother, Francis (Pierre-Yves Cardinal). The psychosexual aspect comes from the interaction between Francis and Tom. Francis is extremely homophobic and physically violent to Tom. Yet he's also clearly attracted to him. And Tom is drawn to Francis, as he deals with his grief at the loss of his boyfriend. (Additional trigger warning for choking).
Drown (2015) (directed by Dean Francis, based on the play by Stephen Davis) - Drown is an Australian sexual thriller/horror movie in which Phil (Jack Matthews), an out gay lifesaver (lifeguard), joins a new lifesaving club. Len (Matt Levett) and Meat (Harry Cook) are forced to contend with their own secrets and repression as Phil disrupts the status quo. The story is told through Len's perspective and there the camera depicts a really queer eye. Which is good, in that it ensures that the audience understands what's motivating Len from the outset. He's hiding himself from everyone around him, but the audience knows. The tension and horror aspect come from not knowing how queer Len will let himself be before breaking, and also not knowing how far Len's going to take his homophobic violence - will someone end up dead. (Additional trigger warnings for vomit, parental abuse, and sexual assault).
Beach Rats (2017) (written and directed by Eliza Hittman) - Beach Rats is an American movie that takes place in Brooklyn, New York. Frankie (Harris Dickinson) spends his summer days hanging out with his friends on the beach, doing drugs, and picking up girls on the pier. But he's also secretly going online to hook up with older men at night. This is more of a straight forward drama than the other movies on this list. The tension here comes from Frankie (and the audience) not knowing which life and choices he'll make. (Additional trigger warning for sexual assault).
Consequences (2018) (written and directed by Darko Stante) - Consequences is a Slovenian film about a teenager, Andrej (Matej Zemljič) who is sentenced to a youth detention center after committing some small crimes. While there, he ends up attracted to Željko (Timon Šturbej), the self-appointed leader of a group of boys at the detention center. The adults who run the center are largely incompetent, and so the boys largely do whatever they want - which means a whole lot of vying for status in their hierarchy. (It's been awhile since I've seen this film so I'm not sure if there are any additional trigger warnings).
