The 52: The Boys in the Band
From June 2023 to June 2024 I'll be watching a lgbtqia+ film each week and coming back here with my thoughts, feelings and plenty of hopes we aren't met with the "kill your gays" trope. I call this The 52.
I got very, very behind in writing and posting my reviews, so much so that I watched this (awful) film in December and it is the 10th of April as I type this review. With about 10-13 films to write reviews for, I went from the bottom of the pile and back, ending with The Boys in the Band, because I couldn’t stand to think about it until now.
This film was a nightmare. I actually hated it and watching it felt… like an ordeal and one I didn’t want to be part of. I kept hoping something good might come from it, some revelation to bring the story together or show a bit of happiness or decency in this true misery of a film, but nope. It’s drama, trauma and horror from beginning to end, and not the good sort.
In my review of A Single Man I questioned whether it was a film of trauma porn (it was) and The Boys in the Band is in a very similar vein, but it’s misery porn. No one gets to be happy, barely anyone is pleasant and, at least from my perspective, you might just hate everyone for how they treat each other, with the exception of Bernard and Cowboy Tex. If you want to watch awful people treat each other awfully and with no remorse, this is the one.
Apparently based on a play, The Boys in the Band follows a bunch of gay men in late 60s NYC, coming together for the most horrific birthday party ever (because they just can’t stop shouting at each other), where Jim Parsons plays, seemingly as ever, a terrible, terrible person! He is an incredible actor and honestly was incredible in this film, his speeches impassioned and powerful, but that was in telling the story of a vicious, evil person, someone so unashamedly cruel and violent to the people around him and careless with everything he touched, and eery second was a pain to endure.
To watch a character push and push and push his friends and companions to the brink, to watch them weep and break down and reveal things about themselves because of his relentless behaviour, it was… torturous and uncomfortable. Every actor was incredible, the performances were stunning and powerful and just flawless, but every single word hurt and I could never watch this again.
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