NewFest Pride 2024 Wrap-Up

Ring in June the right way with NewFest Pride! This year, we caught a few solid gems we wish to highlight, alongside several highlights we have previously viewed. Catch our full NewFest coverage just after the jump…

Films

CLOSE TO YOU

In his first major cinema role since coming out as trans, Elliot Page leads indie drama Close to You. Page plays a character not at all foreign to his real life persona. Sam, formerly Sammy, has not been home in nearly five years. As a gesture of good faith, he heads off via public transportation for his father’s birthday, hoping to at least show face, if not work on repairing the fractured relationship he has with his family at large. On the journey, Sam bumps into old flame Katherine (Hillary Baack), a sweet deaf woman he went to high school with. I found it unique that Katherine’s deafness earns nary a mention. Assumedly, viewers will long for Sam and Katherine to get back together over the course of the film. The issue with this direction lies not in Katherine being deaf or in Sam being trans, but that neither characters have any genuine chemistry with one another. I will say that the tension between Sam and his family once he returns home presents Close to You at its most effective. Sam, certain his parents are disappointed in him, gets to have a cathartic moment with his father that is easily the best scene. On the other hand, hearing people droning on about pronouns and being generally nasty about transgenderism has grown stale. Nothing here carves out a fresh story with anything significant to say. Witnessing Elliott Page coming into his own, however, definitely feels worthy of celebrating.