#THEY DON'T SHY AWAY FROM PORTRAYING GAY PEOPLE AS GAY ONSCREEN

[rawdashh]

finally watched nimona and. Oh my god. Holy Fucking Shit. i wanna put nimona in a trebuchet and launch her. i want to English Teacher the everloving FUCK out of that movie. i want to scream and yell and break things. i want to tenderly kiss (or equivalent) everyone who worked on that movie. i would sell my soul to make something half as good

0 criticisms, 10/10 for gay people and relateable shapeshifters

[a-taste-of-the-sky]

Duck Butter is the First Film that Made Me Feel Truly Seen and Understood as a Queer Woman

This is a big claim, but it’s true.

Duck Butter, an indie dramedy, was released April, 2018. It stars Alia Shawkat and Laia Costa, was written by Alia Shawkat and Miguel Arteta, and is directed by Miguel Arteta. Though the film received mixed reviews from critics, Alia Shawkat was awarded Best Actress at the Tribeca Film Festival for her performance.

CREDIT: VULTURE.COM

The premise of the movie is that two women named Naima (Shawkat) and Sergio (Costa) meet and decide to do an experiment where they spend 24 sleepless hours together, and having sex every hour on the hour.

The two talk about how they have both been disappointed by falseness in previous relationships. This prompts Sergio to say, "I want to know you, for real. I want 24 hours and I want to come with you every hour . . . I want to see you taking a shit and getting angry . . . we can do it. We can fucking skip time."

This decision essentially fast forwards their relationship, and their intimacy, so they can see each other’s flaws, and also see each other getting angry and sad. So they can get to know each other "for real." However, the two barely know each other when they decide to do this experiment, and things don't exactly go as planned.

As a gay woman, I’m always looking for media that represents my experience when it comes to life and love. However, when it comes to LGBT+ media, I am often disappointed. For one, more films are dedicated to a queer male experience than a queer female experience. (I should also note that there are more films dedicated to gay or bisexual experiences, than transgender or nonbinary experiences; trans and nonbinary people are definitely lacking in representation as well.) There are also often bad tropes that pop up in films centering on sexuality. Gay people often die, or cheat, or hate their gayness and struggle to come out. And when a queer person finds love in a same-sex relationship, AND has a happy ending, AND the movie has quality writing, acting, and production, it almost feels like a miracle. I feel like at this point, I’m almost always expecting a subpar LGBT+ movie, and I’m pleasantly surprised when the movie is well done. So when I do see a quality LBGT+ film, especially about queer woman, I make note of it, and try to tell people about it.

Duck Butter is my favorite LGBT+ movie, that I’ve ever seen -- and I’ve seen a lot of them. This is (1) because I think it is a quality, artistic film, that explores interesting questions, and (2) because of the fact that I finally felt like I could see my own queer, female experience reflected back to me onscreen.

That being said, I’m not going to claim that every woman who loves women (or every LGBT+ person) will love this movie. Sometimes it’s sad, sometimes it’s uncomfortable, and sometimes it's shocking. I also don't think everyone will love the way it ends. But this movie doesn't shy away from the intense parts of relationships; it leans in.

This movie made me feel seen and understood as a queer woman because of how real, and how normal, the two queer women interacting felt to me.

CREDIT: COURTESY OF TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL

The two elements that made Duck Butter feel the authentic to me, especially where other movies failed, was the conversation in the movie, and the sex.

Conversation: In other movies that depict queer women in relationships, I’ve often felt that there was not enough conversation -- and maybe even little or no conversation -- where the characters got to know each other deeply. I’ve noticed that there’s often a focus on the physicality of attraction. In movies like Kiss Me, the lack of serious conversation between the two women in a relationship seems to imply that the intensity of physical attraction will overcome anything they would need to talk about, or that their relationship is somehow inevitable. The lack of deep conversation in other films showing women in relationships always bothered me. The conversation in Duck Butter, though, is not only there, it's constant. The conversations are sometimes deep and meaningful, sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes intense, sometimes meandering and playful. But the dialogue between Naima and Sergio allows these characters to become known to each other, as well as the audience, in a way that I haven't often seen before in films depicting queer women. I think by making conversation between Naima and Sergio such a strong part of the film, Duck Butter seems to say that conversation IS important in relationships, same-sex or otherwise. It shows that people DO need to talk a lot, and talk through difficult things, in order to try to start a relationship with one another.

Sex: The other big reason I loved this movie was the the way queer women’s sexuality was portrayed, and how it lacked the male gaze. I've often felt that sex scenes in other lesbian movies are unrealistic, often made either too innocent, or overly sexual in ways that appeal to the male gaze. Duck Butter, however, felt different to me. The film is full of sex, nudity, and discussions of sex, but it always feels safe and intimate, and most importantly, made for queer women. This feeling was created intentionally, and discussed prior to shooting, by Shawkat, Costa, and the Director of Photography, Hillary Spera (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6m460lrjOuc). Shawkat is also out as bisexual in real life, and her knowledge as a queer woman seems to have greatly impact how this movie was made. It shows gay sex and intimacy in ways that feel normal -- in other words, in a way straight people always expect (and get) to see themselves represented on screen. The movie is also never about the characters’ struggles with their queer identities, simply about two people navigating love and sex, in a way that made me, a lesbian, feel seen and understood.

I also liked how this movie depicted queer women’s loneliness, and desire for something real, and I liked how it asks important questions about love and relationships. I also really appreciated the quality of the writing, acting, and production. 

This movie was a super important one for me as an LGBT+ person, because of the authenticity I saw in the actors’ performances of love between two women. It really portrays these women and their relationship as something normal and beautiful, and interesting to explore. It definitely gets intense and weird at times, but I really valued the realness of it, and it’s something that made me feel seen. If you are LGBT+ as well, or value authentic representation in movies, I would recommend it.

And even if you don’t watch it, or don’t enjoy it as much as I did, I think the fact that movies like this are being released now, is an indication of how far we’ve come, and how we’re headed in the right direction in the future, in terms of authentic LGBT+ representation.