Word: joslin
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...merits of Tom Joslin's film Black Star, as film technique, I'm not qualified to discuss, but as a ticket-buyer and viewer I feel the Crimson review slighted a brave and entertaining movie...
...film is more than that. It is an "autobiography" covering, at length, Joslin's family, the present and the past. The bored critic felt this was all "self-indulgence." But as a gay man I know the tribute exacted by so many people for this kind of honesty. It takes a brave person to face it and pay it, be it in the form of Mrs. Joslin's dislike of Tom's lover, his father's embarrassment, fag-baiting, physical abuse, or the activities and hatred of Anita Bryant. Unlike the critic of December 2, the audience of December...
...Joslin shows how he lives and how he came to admit his homosexuality alongside the reactions this provokes in his family. His mother attempts to be philosophical, his brothers don't really care much, and his father is extremely embarrassed at his son's "effeminacy...
...viewer does not already sympathize with Joslin and his lover, he will after being handed some blatant one-liners by Joslin's parents. Father, for example, bemoaning his son's estate, says, "When you get mixed up with the arty people...ech...that's it." He himself admires the "tough-guy" image. Mother says she is disappointed he will not have a typical family life, so she doesn't give him the land in the country should would otherwise have given...
While all the various-and-sundry-ness of Joslin's life and love have somehow made the movie an artistic, cohesive statement, they have also made it a very loose confederation. Let us hope that in his next film Joslin will first be brave enough to make the statement he sets out to make, and, second, will not feel he has to tie all the loose ends of his life and work together in just one bundle...