Glitter & Doom

Glitter comes from a rich family, but wants to be a circus clown. Doom is a singer-songwriter from poor surroundings, trying to break into the local club scene. While Glitter has an over-abundance of self-confidence, Doom has self-doubts. They meet, and have under a month to fall in love, before Glitter leaves for clown school in Paris. Meanwhile, Doom needs to produce a promotional music track to confirm his breakout club gig.

The music is from the Indigo Girls, repurposed, rearranged, and sometimes mashed up. The songs are sung by the two principals, with a small ensemble doing some dancing around them at times. The entire combination has a magical effect.

I saw this at its world premiere at the Inside Out 2SLGBT+ Toronto Film Festival, with a fair number of the talent present. The queer filmmakers were Indigo Girls fans, and mildly surprised that Indigo Girls gave them permission to use their catalog of 300+ songs. That, in turn, helped them secure financing. Still, they shot in Mexico for budgetary reasons, while organically assembling a team that was much drawn from the queer community. Being done during the covid era, they did find a geographically diverse cast.

This was the Closing Night Gala of the festival, and I think it did a good job of leaving a good final impression on the audience.

I know nothing of The Indigo Girls and haven't heard of almost anyone involved in this movie. I usually avoid gay themed films as they tend to be depressing with a bleak outlook on life. Glitter and Doom is just the opposite. There is almost nothing to complain about here. It's a wonderful, uplifting, romantic film with fine performances. The 2 leads have real chemistry and are fine actors while the songs are well done with a few dance numbers thrown in. I was afraid it was going to be all music, but there is a story here and some well done dramatic scenes although nothing to bring the movie down. Like all musicals this isn't anything realistic but it is well filmed and a real feast for the eyes, wonderful scenery and sets. If there was any negative it was Alan Cammish's thick accent that made many of his lines difficult to understand. He made up for it by having real star quality on screen. Wonderful film.

This movie had its share of enjoyable moments, but overall, the plot felt stale. The visuals were really cool but the performances of the lead actors left much to be desired, with their delivery coming across as wooden and lacking depth. Moreover, the excessive use of autotune during the musical numbers was a distraction rather than an enhancement. They performed "Closer to Fine" really well though! And who knew that Ming-Na Wen could sing!

More humor would have gone a long way, as the existing comedic elements fell flat (other than some awesome and unexpected cameos). Furthermore, the musical numbers felt quite disjointed. Clearly a lot of love went into the production though, the sets and choreography are generally really vibrant and fun.

While not a complete disappointment, this one fails to leave a lasting impression.

The music is definitely the major part of this little indie film. It is very well acted. The leads are impressive. All their scenes felt real and sensitive.

Alex Diaz and Alan Cammish sounded great together. Missi Pyle was wonderful and sounded amazing. Ming-Na Wen is always great.

The supporting actors and dancers added to the operatic storytelling.

The Indigo Girls wrote wonderfully emotional songs and the director and screenwriter did a fine jobs blending a story and music into a thoughtful, not always straight plot or theme, but gets you to the end that they strive for.

I know the rating is not as high as my rating because I want to see a vision that is creative, fun, sweet, kind, and special and this movie is that . . . Different and cool.

I honestly had no to low expectations for this going in knowing only the bare minimum about it. I never expected it to hit so hard, but, by Gods, it is beautiful. I absolutely loved all the little cameos & Ming-Na Wen is just flawless in everything that she does. Glitter & Doom, though, played by new to me actors definitely make the movie. Which is good because it's all about them.

As someone with both walls & scars, their story just hits all the feels. There really are not alot of movies I consider 10 out of 10. I can always find something to criticize or take a point off for & I could do that here, but I simply don't want to. I just loved this movie. I'm in tears, mostly happy crying, but crying nonetheless. It was such an experience to watch. I hesitated because I thought the song use may be cringe, but it was perfect. This is the kind of story I would 5 star & have the ebook & physical copy of if it were a book. Instead it's a movie & I'm going to need a Blu-ray release so it can never be lost to me on streaming. I'm going to turn right around & watch it again now. It may not be for everyone but it was just the kind of movie that I didn't know I needed right now.