Left alone in the theatre where they work, a lonely queer stage manager works through their innermost feelings by dreaming up a stage production about Abraham Lincoln’s sexuality and his love affairs.
It’s not often we get to see a movie with a queer lead, a person of color lead, or a lead with a “less than typical” Hollywood body type. So the fact that we get all three of those traits combined in Lavender Men is borderline miraculous, and the film benefits immensely from the representation, making it unique and completely unlike most anything else out there. It’s refreshing to see a story that features someone of such a varied identity, someone who reminds me of one of my best friends, and for it to be so fantastical and original on top of that is absolutely amazing. While it has a few tonally awkward moments, they tend to play into the feel of the story, and how it feels inside the mind of a queer writer as they work through their own issues with loneliness, anger, suppression, judgement, and everything in between.
Directed by Lovell Holder, an openly gay member of the LGBTQ community, and written in conjunction with lead star Roger Q. Mason, Lavender Men is a fantastic look at what representation behind the camera can accomplish, with insights into the LGBTQ community that simply cannot be accomplished otherwise. While it touches upon themes that are relatable for most anybody, like the struggles to be accepted for who you are and the battle with loneliness that plagues us all, having LGBTQ people of varying identities offers us a personalized glimpse of how these things, and others, play out in the lives of the people being represented by the film’s story, and it does so exceptionally well.
With Mason in the lead role, we get to experience life through their eyes, and it’s a perspective we don’t often see in film. They carry the role with a tenderness and touching, endearing quality that has you feeling every one of their emotions, through the highs and the lows. The rest of the cast is fabulous, too, with all kinds of LGBTQ representation amongst the members of the stage production. Pete Ploszek is especially phenomenal, and even Ted Rooney is perfect as the abusive and overzealous man who can’t take no for an answer. The cast of this film is proof that you don’t need big names to make a great film.
That’s compounded with absolutely amazing cinematography, too, which makes great use of lighting to paint each frame in vibrant hues and a rainbow of colors that bring the story to life. Not to mention the fantastic musical work on display here, too. Every aspect of Lavender Men is beautiful and moving, and the visuals of the film manage to easily depict the difference between scenes taking place in reality and those being inside the lead character’s grandiose mind.
Overall, Lavender Men is a gorgeous example of the beauty that can be created through representation both in front of and behind the camera. It’s phenomenal in every way and I can’t wait to see more from these talented filmmakers and actors. Bravo!