The 52: Parting Glances

  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.

TW: Suicide 

I am utterly confused by this film, and I’m not afraid to admit it. It left me pensive, but pensive in a “what was that” way rather than “ah yes, I understand everything” way. So that’s fun.

Image Source: Wikipedia

So Parting Glances, huh? You want to know about Parting Glances… Um… Well, there’s running! People run around and annoy each other while Buscemi’s Nick sits alone in his apartment, waiting for MTV to play his music video, disinterested in going out and quietly alienated by his friends after his HIV diagnosis.

The main character of the film is Michael, who treats Nick like a younger brother but, it turns out, he actually has feelings for and they are not related at all. Michael is in a longterm relationship with some chump called Robert and Robert, star thinker that he is, decides they’re just too content and peaceful and settled and happy and he must get away, far away, and spend some time working in Africa. And perhaps you would feel for the departure, the longing between these two, if only they weren’t such a miserable couple. They seem to quietly irritate each other - or at least they irritated me - questions ignored, annoyances brushed aside because strange ol’ Robert starts roughhousing Michael the moment an argument appears on the horizon. And so it goes.

Now if you’ll remember: symbolism is not something that I get! And this film… had visions? I thought maybe it was the Grim Reaper, but it’s some knight in armour with a lot of mist being swirled around. I have very hazy memories of actually what took place in these scenes, because they really were like a (trippy) dream, but I think said knight had some vague words and I know he kept appearing out of doorways and around corners. I didn’t really get it.

There’s a terribly poignant scene where Nick finds out Michael cares for him and the world shifts for a moment as the realisation dawns, as the universe pauses- and I do not like Robert, and I do not like Michael, I don’t even particularly like Nick - but everyone in that situation deserves better than what they got, and I want an ending where I understand if happiness for anyone is possible.

I will say, however: it is the greatest achievement in my life that someone said I look like Steve Buscemi one time. The Greatest. Achievement. Of. My. Tiny. Life.

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