Queer filmmaker Lisa Donato who is known for her short films got her first feature film directing job from actress Yeardley Smith. Smith who was both producing and starring in Gossamer Fold, has a reputation as a good ally of the LGBTQ community. She chose well as Donato’s debut turned to be one of the most heartwarming and inspiring queer dramas this year.
Set in a Kansas suburb in 1986, it’s the story of two totally different families and their initial wariness about each other that dissipated and against all odds and they became very fast friends.
Ten year old Tate (Jackson Robert Scott) and his white middle-class family had moved from the city in the hope his parents could save their shaky marriage. However they hadn’t even unpacked when they realized it was a hopeless case as Billy (Shane West) his father was still cheating on his mother Frannie (Sprague Grayden). Billy however was less keen on apologizing for his behaviour but more focused on heaping anger on his wife. He blamed her for the fact that their new neighbor’s were an African American family that included a transgender woman.
Tate on the other with the innocence of a non-judgement child became fast friends with Gossamer (Alexandra Grey) . He had no idea why his father made such a fuss about her, but he had an enquiring mind aided by his dictionary which he carried everywhere insisting on looking up any words new to him.
As Frannie struggled with being a single mother trying to keep her job, she had no alternative to ask Gossamer and her father Edward (Franklin Ojeda Smith) to look after Tate. They were already taking care of Jimbo (Ethan Suplee) an adult with learning difficulties who had attached himself to Gossamer.
The beauty of Donato’s film is though Gossamer transitioning has not been without some severe problems …… her father still insists of dead naming her, even though he genuinely loves and respects her …. but Grey’s finely nuanced performance avoids all the cliches. She imbues Gossamer with a quiet dignity and a matter-of-factness which makes her acceptance such a easy and natural conclusion. It makes us realize that even now we do not see enough self-assured Gossamers of the world appear in feature movies
This movie however is not her story, but its the tale pf her relationship between her and Tate. The two posses this remarkable on-screen chemistry that is such a joy to watch.
As the two families, minus Billy, grow closer together, they realize that they are not so different after all.
Labels: 2020, drama, lisa donato, transgender
