Renaissance

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.

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.

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.

Based on real events, this poignant and melancholic romance focuses on the complicated relationship developed by two Manhattan wounded souls, the former promiscuous painter Ben, and the African-American tomb researcher Sam. Directed by Matthew Fifer and Kieran Mulcare, from a screenplay by Fifer, who also plays the lead character Ben, the film subtly blends fiction and doc, as both men delve into a personal self-analysis, exploring their real experiences as modern gay men. Contagiously delicate and humane, it depicts the obstacles imposed by trauma against love and commitment, and how we must fight it. Highly emotional and intimate, it also points to relevant facts on racism, intolerance and abuse.

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.