Tag: sexual preference

Leviticus

Leviticus

Director – Adrian Chiarella – 2025 – Australia – Cert. 15 – 88m

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Following treatment by a faith healer, two gay teen lovers are stalked by a being that for each of them resembles the other – out in UK cinemas on Wednesday, September 2nd

This is at once a drama and a supernatural horror movie made from a gay perspective. At no point (unless I missed it) does the film refer to anyone or anything called Leviticus. Perhaps that’s the name of the monster (who is not named in the film). Perhaps it’s a reference to the Book of Leviticus in the Bible – possibly not such a stretch since key plot elements involve a local, fundamentalist Christian church community – and such gathered groups tend to believe the Bible to be true word for word (rather than, say, using it as a text to be read and engaged with, taking into account its historical context and trying to make sense of it in today’s world).

Naim (Joe Bird from Talk to M e, Danny & Michael Philippou, 2022) and Ryan (Stacy Clausen) hang out together in the area around their small outback town. Naim is unnerved by the sight of a snake digesting a toad.… Read the rest

Features Live Action Movies

Benediction

Director – Terence Davies – 2021 – UK – Cert. 12a – 137m

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The life of First World War poet Siegfried Sassoon, his homosexual lifestyle and his heterosexual marriage – out in cinemas on Friday, May 20th

It’s been five years since Davies’ previous film A Quiet Passion (2016) and the curious thing is, both these films have been about poets and poetry. The earlier film was about Emily Dickinson, with its discussion about religion and Christianity very much to the fore; the new film is about Siegfried Sassoon and while the Catholicism he embraced in later years is in the mix, alongside that element Davies’ research revealed others of far greater interest to the writer-director, notably that Sassoon was gay. As you might expect, the first half hour or so concentrates on the First World War, but more time is spent in the middle of the film exploring some of Sassoon’s gay relationships with a small section towards the end skimming over his later years and heterosexual married life.

Siegfried Sassoon (Jack Lowden) saw action in the First World War and had the utmost respect for the men under his command – and they for him. He was appalled by the conditions under which they found themselves serving.… Read the rest

Tags active service, Anton Lesser, Ben Daniels, Catholicism, chief medical officer, conflict, conversion, court-martial, Craiglockhart, Craiglockhart War Hospital, dance, Edinburgh, Emily Dickinson, fathers and sons, First World War, fit for active service, gay, gay illegal, gay relationships, gay sex, Gemma Jones, George Sassoon, Hester Gatty, heterosexual marriage, high command, homosexual illegal, hospital, illegal, Ivor Novello, Jack Lowden, Jeremy Irvine, Julian Sands, Kate Phillips, law, literary, marital breakdown, marriage, Matthew Tennyson, military command, narcissist, offspring, Peter Capaldi, poet, poetry, relationships, Richard Goulding, Robbie Ross, separation, sex, sexual preference, shell shock, Siegfried Sassoon, Simon Russell-Beale, Terence Davies, theatre, top brass, war, Wilfred Owen, World War 1, World War I, World War One, WW1

Features Live Action Movies

Benediction

Glum heroes

Benediction
Directed by Terence Davies
Certificate 12a, 137 minutes
Released 20 May

Films about poets are few; however, the director Terence Davies has now made two in a row as different as their historical subjects. The earlier A Quiet Passion (Reform, April 2017) concerns the introverted, isolated, American spinster Emily Dickinson while the current Benediction is about First World War poet Siegfried Sassoon (Jack Lowden) – a homosexual man when this sexual preference was illegal, before the word ‘gay’ was used to describe such things.

His Military Cross earned for bravery as a First World War officer drops into a stream then sinks, an image expressing Sassoon’s dissatisfaction with the way the war is being run, and the hardships endured by the troops. He writes in protest to the top brass, but instead of the court-martial and platform to speak he expects, he is diagnosed with ‘shell shock’, partly thanks to literary mentor Robbie Ross (Simon Russell-Beale). Sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital near Edinburgh… [Read more…]

Full review published in Reform magazine.