GUILT - Friday Blog #24 - Film Recommendations #2
Throughout the projects development, GUILT tunes in and out of Thomas's family life, which from the start of the story is strained. Little is mentioned of Thomas's family picture early on, though family is still something that troubles Thomas, and his acceptance from them, without needing to say it explicitly, is all he ever wants. His earlier attempted coming out with his father severely dented his relationship with him, and the confidence in himself.
This is the overall focus of GUILT. A late teen away from home for the first time, exploring himself and queer life, with a fractured and unaccepting family.
This weeks film recommendation tackles this subject incredibly well, with a religious backdrop.
Prayers For Bobby is a gut-wrenching film, based on a true story of a mother who's intolerant religious views push her gay son away and towards his end. The film follows her coming to terms with his death, and her views on her faith.
Sigourney Weaver is a guilty pleasure of mine, and is one of my favourite actors, hands-down. Prayers For Bobby was another early LGBTQ+ film for me, and I doubt I would of even taken notice of it, had I not seen Sigourney Weaver's name plastered over it.
I never took Sigourney as a drama actor, growing up in awe of her in Alien, Holes, Ghostbusters etc... however, the casting was absolutely perfect, and she delivers such a painful and emotive performance, it's difficult to even consider it having been anyone else.
I admit, it has been a long time since I watched Prayers For Bobby, and that is simply because it is... depressing? It is a story that sticks with you, and hits hard, although it is completely necessary viewing.
I see parts of its narrative as glimpses across GUILT, the first and most important of which is what I personally refer to as 'the event', the explosive shouting match Thomas has with his father before the start of the story. There are a lot of examples across media of a bad coming out story between a child and their parent, but this films example is just so to the point, so rejecting, so certain in it's choice of words, that I can't see anything in 'the event' other than the coming out scene from Prayers For Bobby.
This influenced my handling of coming out, and 'the event' to be so different, because it's been done so perfectly, so many times across media before, so in SENSE, it has happened already, off-screen, right before the story starts, and it changed Thomas to an extent that he can barely think about, let alone consider, coming out again.
The most influential elements of 'the event' stick with him, and when it is bought up, it is only the parts, the actions, and the precise words that stuck with Thomas. It is my plan to reveal Thomas's account of the coming out throughout GUILT's first three volumes, dealing entirely with its fallout and ramifications, rather than its actual occurrence.
-Kai Kennedy