That The Old Guard’s Joe and Nicky are unapologetic about their love allows queer people, and gay men in particular, the opportunity to see that throughout all of history, we’ve been there all along - and in such a mainstream, typically heteronormative medium, no less. The times that queerness does pop up in popular, mainstreamed ancient histories, myths, and legends, it can sometimes come across like it’s written in code, or is found buried in footnotes, or is glossed over as “brotherly” love or friendship, not romantic affection. Straight people are regularly part of myths and legends, but LGBTQ people rarely feature in them.
Even rarer is that we’re allowed to watch Joe and Nicky share a passionate kiss and other physical moments of affection throughout the film.Īnd The Old Guard takes their love story a step further. Joe and Nicky aren’t the main protagonists in director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s film, but since the film’s release on July 10, they’re the characters who have garnered a lot of attention because of how rare it is that gay men are featured in action movies. Joe ( Marwan Kenzari) and Nicky ( Luca Marinelli), the couple that rounds out Andy’s never-dying family, are the lucky ones among the group - because they have each other, forever and always. And it becomes one of the first things Andy teaches Nile ( KiKi Layne), the newest addition to her chosen family of immortal soldiers. Booker, another of Andy’s fellow immortals, tells Andy from personal experience that watching your kids die isn’t something you want to reckon with. She has over time learned that the only way to survive forever is to never let mortals get too close to her. The story is set in the present day, but Andy’s birth predates the ancient Greeks. Andromache of Scythia, has been alive long enough to know this better than anyone. But it’s really about the aching loneliness of being a killing machine who can never die.
The Old Guard, Netflix’s newest blockbuster, is actually multiple love stories in a big action flick coat.īased on the 2017 comic book written by the indomitable Greg Rucka and drawn by Leandro Fernandez, The Old Guard is ostensibly about a group of killing machines who can never die. In each edition, find one more thing from the world of culture that we highly recommend. Well, here’s a short overview of personal favorites within gay cinema of the 2010’s, followed by some anticipated LGBT-themed films in 2016.One Good Thing is Vox’s recommendations feature. The former an instant classic, the latter a drag. Two French queer films, albeit totally different from one another, which gained quite some attention and praise.
It lurked in the shadow of La Vie d’Adele, which shook the earth by showing a tumultuous lesbian love affair in all its aspects. What surprised me even more was that it didn’t stir up any controversy when it was first shown at the Cannes festival last year. L’inconnu du Lac received much critical acclaim ( also by other The Filmtransition staff members), which surprised me, to say the least: it’s likely one the most overrated (rest of and dull films I have seen in a while. When French gay thriller L’inconnu du Lac was released in Dutch cinemas it made me come up with a list of the best LGBT films I’ve seen this decade. But since everyone’s doing it… these are the most interesting, gripping, funny movies that are in some way ‘gay-themed’. Defining movies as ‘LGBT’ or ‘gay-themed’ is in fact a bit stupid, as it has nothing to do with a genre at all.