Inside Out 2024: bears, boys in the sand, time travel rock n' roll and romance

21 May 2024 -

At 34, the Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Toronto Film Festival is comfortably middle-aged. Perhaps that explains the almost complete absence of buff shirtless men, who used to be the primary enticement, in the catalogue of films. But we do now live in a world where erotica is instantly available, "evil gays" is a joyful meme instead of a worrisome cinematic subtext, and the jubilant ritual of sharing art in a theatre with a crowd has been decimated by factors beyond our control. Fortunately the gravitas of passing their Jesus year hasn't affected the cornucopia of vibrant films that Inside Out 2024 has to offer. A first perusal of the catalogue found a preponderance of documentaries and dramas with trans folk returning to their hometowns post-transition. Surprisingly, many of those films (as opposed to my usual surrender to the shirtless bally) intrigued, and my wish list for screeners was startlingly mature. I guess I'm getting older too.  

The first documentary I had the privilege of previewing straddles the line between show biz gossip and flat-out comedy. I suspect that I first encountered the Where the Bears Are series of films at a previous Inside Out and I have seen at least the majority of the seven films. The films are witty and campy enough to gloss over any of their flaws, and are highly recommended. So is A Big Gay Hairy Hit! Where the Bears Are: The Documentary. While reverentially admiring of what the filmmakers accomplished, and deep diving into the radical notion that fat, hairy gay men are sexy (at the time of the first Where the Bears Are in 2012 that was an outré concept), this documentary is laugh out loud funny. Not just because the copious clips are hilarious and ribald with abundant tasteful nudity, but because the three creators are just natural raconteurs and witty, campy gay men. They created Where the Bears Are to entertain themselves and wound up with a big gay hairy hit that had, has, audiences around the world in stitches. Though it seemed unlikely at the time, it turned out that "big, hairy guys solving mysteries and having sex" is a winning formula. And so is turning a camera onto these three bears and their creative process.

The mood in A House is Not a Disco is more elegiac but you can't keep the exuberance of gay men down. Covering a year in the life of Fire Island, A House is Not a Disco begins with the opening of the timeshares. Removing the dust covers, skimming the pools, adjusting the sling. One of the rare year-round residents reminisces that "everywhere I look I see stories. This is the place I call heaven." The camera lingers on some of those stories though it is rarely intrusive and no-one is questioned beyond what they offer. It is an eclectic cast of characters: a trans activist trying to expand the white male gay dominated population to include some other flavours, a free-spirited but flaky artist with a propensity for nudity, a delightful older artist who creates tableaus with flamingos, the shopkeepers in The Pines, a determined but inept drag queen, and the crew struggling to put on the season's annual fundraising circuit party on a beach that is eroding beneath them. The older narrators have memories and are haunted by those who have gone before. And are haunted by the island being eaten away by the sea and climate change. The film demonstrates how gay men are experts at creating community across barriers. A stunning series of cuts interweaves the young artist naked on the beach with clips of naked Casey Donovan from the classic Boys in the Sand linking our history with our future. Fire Island, gay men, evolve and endure and most of the stories are entrancing.

Two screeners I did get to watch were for the feature films Sebastian and Spark. Sebastian is the story of, despite as one character says "there's no shortage of treatises on the subject," a young man, Max, becoming a sex worker. The hook in this case is that he is, or he tells himself he is, researching for a novel, also called Sebastian, about a sex worker. The film begins with what appears to be Max's first trick, an encounter with a much older man. After conversation, sex and payment, Max goes home and transcribes the encounter verbatim. This process is repeated until Max's editor suggests he needs to find more variations on the theme. That exploration eats away at Max's already confused relationship with sex, guilt and hustling. As he says, he has shame and also shame about being ashamed. Of course the occasional rejection triggers his body issues, and the transactional nature of sex work leaks into his personal life. For a film that has a lot of non-romanticized (except for a drug-fuelled orgy) sex in it, Sebastian is fairly slow-moving, more interested in contemplating the issues than in titillating. And, for all the talk of the value, validation and indignity of sex work, the final question becomes just how much one is willing to give up for literary success.

Spark is a fun mash-up of a rom-com, Groundhog Day and a vaguely supernatural mystery. Yes the plot is convoluted and doesn't always work, but there is plenty of charm, and the twist that upends and the focuses everything is a great one. Spark is also notable as the film debut of Danell Leyva who caught the attention of every gay man when he not only won multiple Olympic gymnastic medals, but looked damned hot doing it. With his hair grown out into unruly curls and a bit of scruff, the ruggedly handsome now-actor is almost typecast as this incarnation of Quentin Crisp's "great dark man." As the loops repeat, Leyva's entrances, a bumbling adorable cad in a leather jacket, never lose their impact. While the story is initially more concerned with Theo Germaine's dilemma over how much one is willing to change oneself for love and/or lust, there is that upcoming heartbreaking twist. There is very subtle and charged work from both actors. Time travel tales are bound to slip up in terms of logic and coherence, but Spark wears its heart on its sleeve as it loops and lopes along. And one does learn how to mix a perfect Old Fashioned.

Of course there are dozens of films that intrigued but that I just didn't have time to peruse (that's why taking time off for the festival is the best way to experience it: immersed). The opening gala, already sold out, is the much buzzed about My Old Ass starring current 'it' girl Aubrey Plaza, but the closing gala hits closer to home with We Forgot to Break Up. Torquil Campbell, Peaches (who also has a filmed concert, Teaches of Peaches in the festival), Gentleman Reg, and The Hidden Cameras provide songs to a band, The New Normals, who "create a dynamic rock sound that transcends gender and sexuality. But as they rise to fame, personal and romantic entanglements complicate their journey." A queer Canuck rock-lite soap opera sounds like fun. In between there is "an Iranian American trans man who time-travels through an LGBTQ+ archive on a dizzying quest to unravel his own sexual desires" in Desire Lines; a "true-crime podcaster and sleuth Lola who visits her hometown for the first time since running away and transitioning" threatened by a psychotic killer in Carnage for Christmas; and Elliott Page as "Sam who decides to visit his childhood home in Coburg for the first time since his transition" in Close To You. The centrepiece gala, Young Hearts, goes with the Inside Out thematic stalwart of hesitant young boys in love falling prey to homophobia before being redeemed.

And there are hundreds of shorts arranged into thematic bundles from "Local Heroes" to "F*ck the Pain Away." The shorts screenings are always hit and miss, but I've yet to attend one that didn't contain at least two films that startled or moved me. Completely unscientifically—ie: the blurb and/or photo appeals—I'm curious about Merman wherein "a 58-year-old Black Queer man speaks the truth about his life as an emergency nurse, a leather enthusiast, husband, and civil rights advocate;". Body of Christ wherein "after receiving his first communion, Pablo can’t stop thinking about Sebastián, the beautiful altar boy;" Stay Lost with the irresistibly sexy combo of Lukas Gage and Kelynan Lonsdale navigating when "a chance meeting with a nomadic musician sets an aimless and depressed young man’s life on an entirely new trajectory;" The Last Take wherein "facing the end, a movie star from the golden age of Hollywood must reconcile with the only man he ever loved;" and Fanatic wherein "Desperate for cash, Charlie and Gerald reunite their failed 2000s boy band for a competition that could remedy all of their financial woes." As always, these selections are less about recommending and more a brief peek into the themes and ideas that entice me. Diving into the catalogue will unquestionably find a personally programmed film festival that is designed to entice you.