Do interesting ideas make for interesting movies? It’s a tough question and the easy way out for a PR person to tackle this kind of film is to dial up any hint of controversy in the hope that it gets bums on seats in theatres . Then, fingers crossed, the movie will have a chance to speak for itself.
Yiva Former’s Swedish film ‘The Schoolmaster Games, based on the novel by Kristofer Folkhammar, has a lot of intellectually challenging concepts, but first, we had to get over the suggestion in its marketing description that this film was an erotic movie about a BDSM relationship between a teacher and a pupil. If it had been an attempt to eroticize child abuse, we would have dropped the review or bathed the movie in words of acid. The relationship is still troubling but it is presented as one of many problems tackled through the lens of cultural criticism.
The use of critical theory is overt. It is set in the supposedly utopian oasis of an all-male gay academy. It is a fantastical place. In the opening scenes, the undergraduate-aged pupils smoke weed, make out with their boyfriends, indulge in non-binary fashion, and skate along the corridors. Physical Education lessons are all disco, gymnastics, and wrestling that is closer to cuddling. But the thrust of their activity is to prepare their end-of-year thesis whilst competing to lead the Winter Procession, a mix of prom and homecoming. The topics they choose for their final presentations are a catalogue of LGBTQ+ studies, for example, Notions of Brotherhood expressed in Contemporary Bromance Movies, or Underground Gay Culture in the 1950s. In the lead-up to this, they debate the nature of loneliness and eroticism, the limitations and requirements of friendship, and marriage as tools to reduce emotional labour. It’s a smorgasbord of Cultural Studies.
More dramatically rich is the critique created by the story arc. There is a counterpoint made between the two generations. There are the teachers, who have suffered homophobia, queer-bashing, and shame as they grew up, fighting to create safe gay spaces. Then there are the young men who now get to be themselves in those spaces. The teachers, having experienced the ‘togetherness of oppression’ discover that what they have created is hell because they are dinosaurs who are not welcome in these new spaces. Whereas the young men now find themselves forced to compete with their peers over who receives attention and social validation. The title of the movie seems like a nod to the Hunger Games.
The Schoolmaster Games’ exploration of the undergraduate intergenerational LGBTQ+ debate is almost sufficient to carry the film. That is not the easiest thing to hone into a marketing slogan. In addition, several key actors simply were simply not up to the demands of the writing. The PR team was faced with some difficult choices.
P.S. The Schoolmasters Games is screening at Outshine Miami's queer Film Fest ..... both in person and onlineReview by ANDREW HEBDENQueerguru Contributing Editor ANDREW HEBDEN is a MEDIA & CULTURAL STUDIES graduate spending his career between London, Beijing, and NYC as an expert in media and social trends. As part of the expanding minimalist FIRE movement, he recently returned to the UK and lives in Soho. He devotes as much time as possible to the movies, theatre, and the gym. His favorite thing is to try something (anything) new every day.
