Cicada

It has very good potentials but it could've been better. It has a beautiful story with a powerful topic but it fails in portraying it . It's very well shot and acted but the script is weak and the dialogues are uninteresting which makes it flat and boring. What's supposed to be emotional and deep turns out emotionless and dull.

So many gay films are too light for me. Too many films about broken souls finding each other are too heavy. I saw Cicada online through Outfest LA and found a weighty LGBT film that is also a wryly funny and engaging love story about trauma survivors.

I don't want to give too much away, but both the main characters in this film have traumatic secrets and bucket loads of hurt as potential obstacles to companionship and love. One character hides his pain by being the joker (which feels very real to this trauma survivors), while the other tends to want to walk away from painful moments. Will they make it as a couple. Will they even make it on their own? Watch and find out.

I CAN say that the film seems more interested in hearing witness than it does in tidy epiphanies or huge declarations. I can also say that that the actors are sublime and make all of it complex AND real. I found myself alternating between laughing, wanting to yell at the characters, feeling floored by the emotional honesty and crying at the tiny moments of profound hope.

Cicada picks at the affects our trauma and our past have on our current relationships. The story has a ton of depth but the acting and the script not as much.

When Cicada started, it felt to me like a slice-of-life tale of young love blooming in the Big City over the summer. And it is that, but so much more.

While the film deals with some heavy topics, it does so with a deft hand and balances intensely dramatic moments with humor - the way life does for all of us. One moment we can be in throes of panic from a personal dilemma, the next sharing a laugh with a friend. The subtext I read into was that personal tragedy does not have to define us. By putting in the effort to work on ourselves, being vulnerable with those close to us, and getting up every day to try again - we can live full, pleasurable lives. There is a resilient and hopeful energy current that runs throughout the film which balances the dark themes that are addressed. In my opinion, this is the mark of a skilled storyteller.

I found the performances and production style made the film feel very real and relatable. Shot against the backdrop of 2013 Brooklyn and Long Island; the visual side of the storytelling, including editing, maintain a momentum and intensity that keep your attention and draw you in. While many of the actors will seem fresh faces to most (hopefully not for long) - you'll see some more known players turning in great supporting performances.

I really enjoyed this movie at Outfest, and highly recommend it. I look forward to seeing it released on larger platforms so I can share with friends.

A film that draws you in with slices of life from a blooming romance, up against the internal traumas that throw obstacles in its way. Low key and really beautiful.