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.

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" is the at times a disturbing and hilarious biopic of extraordinary, bold, brave era defining gay artist Touko Laaksonen. A sort of scatter-gun cover-all script does not detract from the essence of life that superficially and externally was seen as being something akin to "high illustration pornographer" but at its core was more about an uncompromising right to self-determination. Chapeau to the Finns who as part of their 2017 celebrations of independence, put this man's extraordinary life and this film up there with the likes of Sibelius in the country's centenary cultural repertoire. There is no denying Laaksonen's (and arguably the) talent for art and in life. Despite a sense that the writers have tried to cover too much touching on everything from Post war PTSD, AIDS, and the post war oppression of homosexuals, the director (Dome Karukoski ) has done a good job in turning a subject matter of potential distraction (the art itself) into the vehicle of a craftsmanship that deserves respect and as tool (if you'll forgive the pun) of an era impacting human rights advocacy.

This was a hit tonight at Tribeca Film Festival. A very fine biopic. I came away thinking how paradoxical that Scandinavia was so far ahead of the US in its relaxed attitude towards sex -- but only of the hetero variety. This film shows how tragically oppressive life was for gays (at least gay men) in Finland as late as the 1970s. When "Tom" / Touko Laaksonen arrives in L.A. to the adulation of the gay community, it's a joyous catharsis. But I disagree with the reviewer who wrote that the film wouldn't make anyone blush. Many viewers -- outside the Chelsea NYC crowd that attended tonight -- will indeed blush and even squirm, if not at the (albeit discrete) gay sex scenes, then at the artwork itself which is beyond explicit. I would advise viewing Tom of Finland's XXX-rating-worthy art before seeing the film. If you're open-minded, you will be well-rewarded... It falls short of a 10 for me because it lags in places, and the time and place contexts are often confusing. Other than that, it's an extremely well-made film that portrays the soul of an artist brave enough to break the constraints of his society and the times. It also powerfully depicts Touko's wartime experience, and how that filters into his later life -- a universal theme.

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.