June 4, 2024
FILM: THE MATTACHINE FAMILY
DIRECTED BY: ANDY VALLENTINE
STARRING: NICO TORTORELLA, JUAN PABLO DI PACE, EMILY HAMPSHIRE
RATING: 2 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
The Mattachine Family is a true 21st Century gay-themed story. The premise concerns a relationship between two men that could be in jeopardy because one wants a child while the other is more interested in his career. This says a lot about how far the LGBTQ community has come in the last two decades. Gone are the coming out and AIDS-based stories that wore themselves out and now seem (perhaps incorrectly) like a distant memory. So, why isn’t The Mattachine Family a more interesting movie?
It stars Nico Tortorella as Thomas, who, at the beginning of the film is married to Oscar (Juan Pablo Di Pace.) They’ve had a foster child, Arthur, for the past year that is now going back to his birth mother. Thomas is devastated having grown deeply attached to the boy. Oscar, while a bit saddened himself, has a career as an actor and is soon whisked away to Michigan to shoot a series. This leaves Thomas alone to deal with his grief while trying to figure out just what it is he wants in his life. Thomas is friends with a lesbian couple who are also attempting to have a child of their own. One of them, Leah (played by Schitt’s Creek’s Emily Hampshire), is experiencing difficulties with a pregnancy. This and her long friendship with Thomas creates a bond between them that seems pretty strong. It’s not clear how the both of them became so interested in having children but then this is apparently a new reality for some same-sex couples.
I like the fact that writer/director Andy Vallentine (who’s own story inspired this film) is interested in depicting a version of LGBTQ life which is more focused on family than one night stands. We’ve seen enough of that in recent film history. One character expresses that there is no rule book for gay couples anymore and that we should all do what feels right, including starting a family. The problem is that we never really get to understand why a character such as Thomas has become so obsessed with being a father. We learn that his own father died suddenly when he was young but that doesn’t quite explain his current paternal needs.
His husband Oscar is not given much depth aside from his history as a child star who was outed and is now seeking a return to the spotlight. We don’t see what his relationship was like with young Arthur during the year the boy lived with Oscar and Thomas. The latter, through voice over, tells us that everything was pretty perfect during that time. So, why doesn’t Oscar share Thomas’s enthusiasm for having another child?
Vallentine spends most of the time within Thomas’s fairly woeful state. He doesn’t balance out the story with much detail about Oscar or the overall quality of the couple’s relationship in the previous years. Instead of giving us only Thomas’s perspective on the year with Arthur why not open the narrative up to more of Oscar’s view on what that experience was like?
So, if “gay can mean anything now,” why not explore that with more depth? The Mattachine Family operates on a fairly surface level. Thomas wants to be a father. Period. There’s got to be more to say than that.
The Mattachine Family will be available to rent or purchase beginning today on Amazon Prime and other streaming platforms.
FILM: THE MATTACHINE FAMILY
DIRECTED BY: ANDY VALLENTINE
STARRING: NICO TORTORELLA, JUAN PABLO DI PACE, EMILY HAMPSHIRE
RATING: 2 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
The Mattachine Family is a true 21st Century gay-themed story. The premise concerns a relationship between two men that could be in jeopardy because one wants a child while the other is more interested in his career. This says a lot about how far the LGBTQ community has come in the last two decades. Gone are the coming out and AIDS-based stories that wore themselves out and now seem (perhaps incorrectly) like a distant memory. So, why isn’t The Mattachine Family a more interesting movie?
It stars Nico Tortorella as Thomas, who, at the beginning of the film is married to Oscar (Juan Pablo Di Pace.) They’ve had a foster child, Arthur, for the past year that is now going back to his birth mother. Thomas is devastated having grown deeply attached to the boy. Oscar, while a bit saddened himself, has a career as an actor and is soon whisked away to Michigan to shoot a series. This leaves Thomas alone to deal with his grief while trying to figure out just what it is he wants in his life. Thomas is friends with a lesbian couple who are also attempting to have a child of their own. One of them, Leah (played by Schitt’s Creek’s Emily Hampshire), is experiencing difficulties with a pregnancy. This and her long friendship with Thomas creates a bond between them that seems pretty strong. It’s not clear how the both of them became so interested in having children but then this is apparently a new reality for some same-sex couples.
I like the fact that writer/director Andy Vallentine (who’s own story inspired this film) is interested in depicting a version of LGBTQ life which is more focused on family than one night stands. We’ve seen enough of that in recent film history. One character expresses that there is no rule book for gay couples anymore and that we should all do what feels right, including starting a family. The problem is that we never really get to understand why a character such as Thomas has become so obsessed with being a father. We learn that his own father died suddenly when he was young but that doesn’t quite explain his current paternal needs.
His husband Oscar is not given much depth aside from his history as a child star who was outed and is now seeking a return to the spotlight. We don’t see what his relationship was like with young Arthur during the year the boy lived with Oscar and Thomas. The latter, through voice over, tells us that everything was pretty perfect during that time. So, why doesn’t Oscar share Thomas’s enthusiasm for having another child?
Vallentine spends most of the time within Thomas’s fairly woeful state. He doesn’t balance out the story with much detail about Oscar or the overall quality of the couple’s relationship in the previous years. Instead of giving us only Thomas’s perspective on the year with Arthur why not open the narrative up to more of Oscar’s view on what that experience was like?
So, if “gay can mean anything now,” why not explore that with more depth? The Mattachine Family operates on a fairly surface level. Thomas wants to be a father. Period. There’s got to be more to say than that.
The Mattachine Family will be available to rent or purchase beginning today on Amazon Prime and other streaming platforms.