BFI Flare: Onda Nova

 In my final post from this year's Flare I cover a feature and a short both set in and around a women's football team. 1983's Onda Nova was banned in its native Brazil and is now getting a revival after a digital restoration. Rarely has a film irritated me so much. 

The Seagulls are a football team in Sao Paulo who are getting by and we meet various members of the team in various states of undress. This is Onda Nova's calling card, a mix of softcore sexuality, a bit of football and lots of ridiculous situations. The only characters who really stood out were Lilly, the goalkeeper, who is the smallest member of the team, Neneca, who is quite tall and the only black character, and Rita, a blonde woman who drives a gorgeous purple car. 

There is no real narrative, no character development, just a series of scenes that appear to have been shot, thrown in the air and edited together. Characters have a conversation and then for no discernible reason have sex wherever they are, whether in a clubhouse or a car. Most of these are male-female couples and it is disappointingly straight for a film showing at a queer festival. 

There is a lot of camp, mostly in the form of the singer Helena who performs early on and then just turns up in her boyfriend's kitchen and flirts with his daughter Potato (yes, really). No idea what Helena was up to. Ditto for most other characters in the film.

My favourite bit was the opening credits, spraypainted on sheets by two characters. PFFT. 

The short Solers United is a bit more coherent, featuring a football team facing the loss of its ground while a love triangle develops. This was good fun but felt like a proof of concept for a longer film.  

And that is a wrap. 

Onda Nova trailer

BFI Flare: Four Mothers

 This Irish indie comedy is an absolute joy, albeit with some sadness. Novelist Edward (James McArdle) is caring for his elderly widowed mother who is recovering from a stroke and cannot speak. For rather incredulity inducing reasons, he ends up looking after three other elderly mothers after their sons dump them to go to Winter Pride in a Spanish town. 

So, Edward is left running to keep up with the demands of his visitors, while also trying to pursue his writing career and keeping his dormant private life at bay. There are moments of farce but also the sadness of seeing someone losing himself in the service of others, while also recognising that the four women are also seen as a burden. 

The mothers are outstanding, especially Fionnula Flanagan as Alma, Edward's mother whose entire performance is wordless. Niamh Cusack turns up as a medium in Galway, sparking a moment of realisation for Edward about his relationship with his dead father. There is also the pull of a possible romance with Raf, his mother's carer. So much angst! 

Fish is a short written by and starring Cara Mahoney in a semi-autobiographical comedic tale of a woman coming out as bisexual while having lots of second guessing. There are some funny moments, mostly sparked by her panic over not knowing what gold star means. 

Four Mothers trailer

FOUR MOTHERS will be released in UK cinemas by BFI Distribution 4th April 2025.
Break Out Pictures will release the film in Ireland 4th April 2025.
 

BFI Flare: Lakeview

 My viewing has been a bit short on comedy, so this Canadian indie was quite the treat, featuring dyke drama galore, heartfelt songs and some gorgeous scenery courtesy of its lakeside setting in Nova Scotia. 

Writer-director Tara Thorne serves up a gathering of assorted ladies with a shared history who are attending their friend Darcy's divorce party, as you do. What ensues is a weekend of simmering resentment, raging sexual tension and quite a few hilarious off the cuff conversations riffing on pop culture (Swifty alert). I also detected that the character names cover all three boygenius members, plus some more musical icons. Cute. 

But after a lot of laughs, the last third turns serious and melancholic in a way I had not expected. Can we not have one totally fun lesbian film? Apparently not. Lessons must be learned the hard way and the morning after is not nearly as fun as the night before.

BFI Flare: Summer's Camera

 This Korean drama starts out as a coming of age tale and segues into a reflection on grief, mourning and finding your way. First time feature director Divine Sung crafts a really thoughtful and dreamy meditation on first love as teen Summer finds herself attracted to football star Yeonwoo while also grieving the recent loss of her father. The two girls move toward each other tentatively, watched by their gossipy friends. 

But really Summer's relationship with her lost father and her use of his old camera becomes the focus of the film as she discovers mysterious pictures on the last roll of film he shot. Then she meets someone from his past, prompting her to question her family relationships. It is really intriguing and very clever use of analogue (the tech I grew up with) camera equipment to chart her developing feelings, as well as memories of her dad. I especially liked the idea of listening for the shutter click before you take the photo.

The ending is a bit cryptic and abrupt but this is a fine debut from Sung with standout performances from the two girls. 

 Trailer

BFI Flare: Really Happy Someday

 This Canadian drama from J Stevens is a laconic meditation on changing bodies and minds as Toronto musical theatre performer Z struggles with the effects his intake of testosterone is having on his voice. Over the 90 minutes, his relationships with his agent, his girlfriend and his boss at the local bar all undergo stress and strife. 

After a failed audition, Z hires voice teacher Shelly to try to get back the upper range he has lost and over their sessions, he repeatedly expresses frustration at the shift in this crucial musical instrument. At one point, he exclaims, "I fucked up!" and bemoans how taking T has caused him to lose control of the one thing he could count on. 

My question was why did he not know this would happen? Surely if you are about to embark on gender alignment, you would do a lot of research to understand what changes that might bring, especially if your livelihood depends on your voice? I could not understand his utter bewilderment at his voice changing. 

Generally, Z is a pretty passive protagonist, constantly whinging to his girlfriend, friends, colleagues but failing to actually take control of his life. And he also smokes and drinks, which surely would do more damage to his fragile voice. I got pretty annoyed with him but OK, I guess it provides more drama. 

Watching the changes over time provides some interest but there is something a bit detached about this film which stopped it really moving me.

BFI Flare: Sally!

 Not really sure why the exclamation mark is there, but director Deborah Craig's doc on writer and agitator Sally Miller Gearhart touches on significant sections of US queer and feminist histories over the last 55 years. 

Gearhart was well known to me when I lived in SF back in the 1990s even if I now cannot remember exactly why. Protest marches? Talks? Events? Writing? All entirely possible. She was an academic, public speaker and all around lesbian icon. I did not know her life story, and this film is an eye opener. 

A Southern belle and established teacher who moved to SF in 1970 and immediately bought a motorbike and became a prolific seducer of women, Gearhart also bought land in the north of California to establish a community in line with her book The Wanderground, about a women's utopia. This I knew nothing about and the archive footage is fascinating but also familiar--lots of nakedness, laughing, cats and dogs and power tools. Ah.... a forgotten Eden. 

But the film has its darker strands, too, as Gearhart falls out with an ex whose stepson offers some cryptic comments about not speaking to her later in her life. 

And then the bombshell: Gearhart was suffering from dementia in her later years. Which begs the question: why the tittle tattle when she was in no condition to defend herself? The film seems ever so keen to move her away from her stated separatism to a more centrist position, as if to satisy some off-screen viewer. But can't people just have their belief systems? Why wouldn't a thinker and activist hold a range of views that might change over time? 

The saddest thing is they had to sell the land to pay her carer bills. So much left to do to achieve a just and equitable system to allow elders to age with dignity. 

But a cracking film about someone who is not necessarily as well known as she should be. 

Sally! trailer

BFI Flare: Respect Your Elders

 "Hey, old lady!" is not a greeting I have heard, but it surfaces several times in the delightful Korean dramedy Manok (dir/writer Yu-jin Lee). The titular character is not even all that old, perhaps mid 40s, but the teens she encounters in her small home town are not especially deferential. Having moved back from Seoul where she owned a queer bar, she is finding her feet but her every move is thwarted by her vengeful ex-husband, who is the town chief or mayor. When she realises how controlling he is, she vows to run against him. 

At times hilarious and then sad, Manok is a special film, brimming with wonderful performances, absurd set pieces (a rap battle in a police station comes to mind), and a timely message about people overcoming their differences to realise what they have in common. Manok's interactions with her ex's gender non-conforming child allow her to realise that the youth of today perhaps don't have it easier, as she thought. I thought a plot line might develop in which she pursued an old love, but this was a red herring. Never mind. Perhaps there will be a sequel. 

In the short Shoobs, an awkward teen attending a house party is shadowed by a mysterious older figure who offers her advice in pursuing the object of her affections. It gradually emerges who this fashion doppelganger is... An intriguing premise with a cryptic ending, it looks at how people get caught up in what might have been. 

Manok trailer