After Mixed Nuts turned out to be a mixed bag, 2019’s light-hearted romantic comedy Season of Love fares much better with a cast of relative unknowns giving it their all in the tale of various queer women and their connected love lives during the hectic holiday season. Yes, this effort from director Christin Baker is another one of those Love, Actually style multi-narrative deals and this time it’s all about adorable lesbians looking for love. This one was released by the Tello Films company, an online streaming service for “LGBTQ+ women’s content”, but apparently earned some scorn for casting straight actors as queer characters, which doesn’t go down too well in this modern age of representation and fairness. However, the performances are pretty decent and I enjoy the film just fine.
Sue (Dominique Provost-Chalkley) is a guitarist and backing singer, happy to hide in the background of an all-girl trio, held back by her anxiety. It’s clear that Sue is easily a much finer singer than the frontwoman of the band but she has way too much stress going on at home, with an ill mother to care for and she’s happy to stay in the shadows. There’s conflict when her girlfriend secretly films her singing and puts it on the internet, springboarding Sue to incredibly improbable instant fame and a whole heap of stress and complications she didn’t ask for.
Elsewhere, intense workaholic Lou (Jessica Clark) is consumed by the opening of her fancy new hipster-ish brewery while fantasising about her cute neighbour Kenna (Sandra Mae Frank) who’s deaf and, coincidentally, ends up working as a welder on the same brewery project. That’s right - a foxy welder. There are some none too subtle Flashdance homages that raise a chuckle and the spirit of the whole film is breezy and enjoyable, an LGBTQ+ film that decides not to focus on hardship, but on fun and amusement.
Probably the most compelling narrative here is that of Iris (Emily Goss), whose wedding at the film’s beginning is what ties all these characters together. Poor Iris is jilted at the altar by her straight, male fiance and heads home to grieve. She’s comforted by her fiance’s attractive sister Mardou (Laur Allen), who also happens to be her lesbian roommate. There’s clearly real tenderness and chemistry between them, but will anything come of it? Who’s to say?
This one is an agreeable watch but features way too many implausible moments. Case in point - Lou is seemingly able to learn a load of complicated sign language in just four days? Sue becomes an internet sensation, pop stars queuing up to work with her over one video of her singing to herself outside a pub? Iris turns out to be bi-sexual and everyone around her knows about it apart from her best friend who is a lesbian and lives in the same house? It’s all a bit much, but the film is diverting enough if you can get past all the contrivances.
It’s great to see a film like this fronted by a crew of strong, diverse, queer female characters, while examining mental health issues in a sensitive way. I completely get where Sue is coming from as I’ve recently suffered a horrible bout of anxiety myself. At first I think she’s being a total bitch, the way she lashes out at her partner, but then I recall just how short my temper could be with my family until it was acknowledged that I needed a little breathing space. It can be tough when our loved ones, with the best of intentions, put pressure on us to push ourselves, especially when we’re hiding just how difficult we find it to get through a normal day. I’m glad things work out for Sue and I’m doubly glad my own partner has been so patient and loving with me.
This is a very festive tale too, with lots of charming holiday gatherings based around Sue’s band who do pleasing, rocky versions of Christmas standards. It’s fun though pretty disappointing that everyone’s problems seem to be solved so easily by the movie’s hard-to-swallow fairytale ending.
I’ve really appreciated dipping my toe into the world of queer Christmas films. Weirdly, I’ve especially relished the romantic films, realising I’m enjoying them on a level that normal Hollywood romance flicks normally don’t achieve. There’s something extra-specially uplifting about seeing a same-sex couple find love, especially at Christmas. If history has shown us anything, it’s that these folk have had it hard enough over the years, so it feels especially uplifting to see some fresh perspectives on classic stories and to finally see the LGBTQ+ crowd get their moment in the winter sun.
Watching these films has helped me discern that society is finally , just a wee bit, moving in the right direction. It’s telling that the majority of the ‘gay’ Christmas films that I’ve watched are very recent, implying that the world hadn’t quite been ready to embrace the idea of queer romance in their holiday movies. I’m glad to see that even the conservative TV networks have started to understand that there’s nothing wrong with acknowledging that gay people and queer love exist and that there’s room in their festive movie output for a little same-sex romantic magic.
As mentioned, watching these films makes me more hopeful than ever that my big-hearted, sweet-natured daughter will be inheriting a much more loving, tolerant, fantastic world than the one I grew up in. That’s a wonderful thought and a none-more Christmassy sentiment - that we’re giving the gift of a better world to future generations of humans, no matter their race, gender or sexual preference. It’s a shame, though, that there doesn’t appear to be enough queer Christmas films in existence yet to fill a full month via my one-film-a-day quota so for the remainder of the month, I’ll be moving on to…
Comments