Review: The Famous Joe Project

Review: The Famous Joe Project

Famous Joe Project is a special treat for me because I usually hate gay cinema.  The films commonly fall into farce comedy and attempt to blend in a kind of hyperbolic straight-on-gay oppression story to insist upon their own gravitas as an afterthought.

FJP does not do this in any great measure.  The acting is proper acting, the lead doesn’t have to speak a word in the opening sequence, he says it all with his face- the character is young and impressionable and experiencing a fearful kind of hope- he doesn’t believe that he’s beautiful but he’s also so happy to hear someone saying it to him.

This kind of honest portrayal of the darker internal gay experience is persistent through the film, from awkward and uncomfortable sexual encounters with partners the lead has to convince himself he’s into to getting involved with beautiful men with exploitative agendas and serious personality disorders.  

The mother in this coming out story is not a plain dealing villain but a dynamic character who is effective on and profoundly affected by the transformations of the lead.  We see not just the ogre of a wicked boyfriend but we also get a glimpse of his own suffering with personality disorder and his life choices.

  Gay cinema desperately needs more honest and considered storytelling of this kind instead of the Greek play approach filled with one dimensional stock characters and escapism prevalent in gay film.

The film’s concluding segments depart from the earlier portion which vaguely resembles a sort of documentary approach to Party Monster and delivers the lead into normalcy from a fantastic, otherworldly experience, a statement both about coming out and about growing up in general.

I deeply enjoyed and strongly recommend this film.

Woah. Woah. No idea at all.

French electronics