Tom of Finland

The hit of The 2017 Mardi Gras Film Festival and I can see why..

I couldn't help thinking watching this movie a few days before we find out if Australia has .voted YES hopefully or No ,heaven forbid to marriage Equality how far our GLBTIQ historic journey has travelled and we still have a long way to travel.

This film is more than a biography of the creator of Tom of Finland , its a document that shows the vilification persecution and intolerance that we experienced in the journey to liberation and the shut closet furtive underworld that younger GLBTQI, thankfully don't experience today.

If Tom of Finland was introduced as a cultural icon today for gay male sexuality he probably wouldn't have had the impact that he did in today's world of internet and technology but he deserves his place in our history and I'm glad he's being celebrated in this entertaining movie.

I enjoyed the film which spans the war years to the terrible AIDS holocaust years ,where a generation was lost forever. Well directed great script and wonderful performances by all the cast ,Tom 's not a film for everyone but up till today I had only a little knowledge of Tom of Finland . Of course I knew the raunchy sketches and their iconic significance to Gay culture but no idea about the creator Toulouse Laaksonen or the background to the creation of Tom.

So grateful to Adam and Kirsten and Mt Vic Flix , if it wasn't for them we would miss out on the very best of today's cinema.

Film about Touko Laaksonen a gay Finnish man who fought in World War 2. He returns home with serious PTSS. He finds the only way to battle it is drawing men in leather and in various sexual positions. He also meets and falls in love with adorable Vali (Lauri Tilkanen). However homosexuality was against the law in Finland back then. The film chronicles how Touko invented the Tom of Finland name and got his work published.

Well-done film with good direction and it moves quickly. However there are two serious liabilities here. One is Laakksonen. He's terrible in the title role. He never EVER reacts to anything. He always has a blank look on his face so I didn't know how to take his lines. By contrast Tilkanen is great as his lover. I kept wishing the movie was about him! The second liability is the script. It goes swinging all over the place. We're given no clue of what era it is and what's going on. Very frustrating. Other that I liked it but those are two huge problems.

Australia is on the verge of a social milestone in the gay rights movement as it awaits the result of the marriage equality survey. This makes the historical bio-pic Tom of Finland (2017) a timely reminder of the dark history of homophobia and the liberating power of equality. It is a true story of an artist whose work became the rallying iconography for gay pride.

We meet Touko Laaksonen, aka Tom of Finland (Pekka Strang), at the end of his Finnish military service just after World War II. The army was an oppressive environment for a gay man at a time when homosexuality was a crime. Inspired by the machismo of military uniforms, Tom secretly developed what became a universal artform that became emblematic of gay culture. His sketches depicted the exaggerated muscularity and sexual power of a social underclass that was regularly lampooned as effeminate, passive and weak. Leather-clad riders on powerful bikes with bulging genitals were regarded by authorities as pornographic but they became iconic self-identity images for the gay community. His early work was dangerous: while being interrogated under suspicion of being gay, a policeman tells him "we used to throw scum like you into concentration camps". While he was an underground criminal in Finland, he was a hero in America. When he arrived in California he was overwhelmed by the openness of America's gay culture, and throughout the 60s and 70s sexual revolution his work was widely exhibited and published. Today he is lauded as one of Finland's heroes.

This story engages at several levels. It is a tale about a gay man's coming out in a repressive society and the global impact he had on the recognition of the LGBTI community. That alone is a big story. But beyond the bio-pic narrative, there is a larger story about the power of art to transform the human condition. Across millennia, art has objectified physical beauty for visual pleasure. Tom's creative sketches beautified the male body in a way that re-defined gay masculinity, empowering those suffering from persecuted sexuality. The strength of the film is in its capture of the mood, fashion, and upheaval of the times. In its two hours spanning four decades of change, it leaps across time and space with editing that can feel disjointed. The cinematography is excellent and the filming palette portrays the gloom of repressive Finland, brightening into the kaleidoscopic colours and music of free America. Key performances are played with understated realism to emphasise the role of Tom's art in social change rather than Tom as a person.

If you have ever wondered what inspired the butch styles made famous by the Village People, now you know. Regardless of where this film is seen, Tom of Finland (2017) is a reminder of just how long it has taken for the gay community to enjoy equal rights and the struggles that still remain. This interesting well-made film sheds a warm light on an artist whose work has left a lasting impact on the creation of a more inclusive society.

It's not bad, it's just not memorable. By trying to insert many years of Tom's life, the writer lost the chance to insert some gravitas into it all. It seemed like the focus was going to be Tom's relationship with his sister but then it kinda fizzled out... was it going to be about his love life? Nop, a sudden off-screen ending to that, its publishing process... just a bit here and there, easily and fastly solved. Hence, the lack of memorability.

Tom of Finland has his own autobiographical movie now, done by Finns themselves. Appropriate because he is one of them and spent his whole life living among them. Which was brave, because in his time, being found out as homosexual could meant effectively the end of the life as one knew it, including losing your life. Just like, say, paedophiles or terrorists today.

I am a bit surprised if you don't know the great late artist's name and/or haven't seen any of his work. Like, for example, Walt Disney or Herluf Bidstrup, he surely is one of the greatest artists of modern time, instantly recognizable and unforgettable for its style and soul.

I would say his drawings are like nothing else out there, although I actually don't know much about gay culture and its antics. But this is art at its purest and most powerful. It's unique, it makes you feel something and it talks to you, regardless of your sexual orientation and/or attitude towards homosexuality. Lust is universal.

The story is nothing original, the classic "rags to riches" success story blueprints made popular by Oliver Stone's "Wall Street" (1987) that the other movie makers still eagerly copy.

Which means that you can often guess where it's going and because of that, there's a risk of reaching the saturation point before the end, probably in the last third.

I enjoyed the ride in full, actually, but the risk is real. Maybe it would help that every movie using this formula wouldn't be around two hours long? It's not like it's gonna become magically fresher in long movies after 30 years.

But the formulaic story and the typical low-key "I am a Finnish movie" look are not what make "Tom of Finland" shine.

But what it lacks in inventive storytelling or visual flashiness, it more than makes up in heart and conviction. It's not just an re-enactment of a famous person's life, you can literally feel the lust that drove him, and men like him, on screen.

This is well conveyed by actors, especially Pekka Strang who seems to be straight in real life but does not shiver back from releasing his inner man-eater in hope for making everything come alive on screen.

This is not a comical role, and he really dives into the role so you can really buy him as the great artist. All this longing, need to break free from social chains, and satisfaction with getting what he wants seem authentic and real when they show on his face on screen.

Watching the gay scene, forced into hiding and later coming out in the open, is interesting as well. Creeping around, always giving out and trying to read subtle signs from other men, and desperation in the danger of being found out. The director has done a great job bringing this alive, as history lesson which is also entertaining to watch.

This is Finland's entry for the Best Foreign Language Film competition at 2018 Academy Awards. I think it's not "serious" enough to have a realistic chance of winning... but who knows. Dome Karukovski is quite a big deal among modern Finnish movie directors, says IMDb.

So... "Tom of Finland": an artist and now a movie even straight people can like! I know I do.

If you want recent similar movie suggestions, check out 2013's "Behind the Candelabra" starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon, it's great!

If I have any gay or bi readers, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the movie.