Cloudburst

The brief synopsis of this story is that it's about two old lesbians living in Maine who pick up a hitchhiker. That's not a very good synopsis. This movie is about two people who have loved each other and lived together for 31 years. Age and a selfish granddaughter threaten to end the relationship so these two octogenarian ladies decide to run away in an old, red pickup truck through the back roads of Maine to Canada where they can be married. Along the way they pick up a young, male hitchhiker who happens to be a modern/exotic dancer from New York. This trio then takes an unlikely road trip with a series of misadventures and adventures through the beautifully photographed landscape of eastern Canada.

Olympia Dukakis plays a role you might never expect to see: a crusty old lesbian with the mouth of the saltiest sailor. She is magnificent. Brenda Fricker plays the blind, wise old woman. You root for her every step of the way. A very funny Ryan Doucette plays the hitchhiker. You'd never know this was his first movie.

This movie places everything you expect from a romantic comedy/drama and pours it into new vessels not previously used to hold this vintage. The movie has already played in theaters in every country but the US. In the US, the Lifetime cable channel purchased it, so the language is not likely to survive un-bleeped. Not to worry, it appears on DVD in July, 2013 so you can see it as the author intended: sweet, salty, and well done. (We just saw this movie in San Jose, CA as part of the Camera Cinema Club.)

(TLDR: I definitely recommend watching this.)

The title sums up my initial thought about the movie - a lesbian COMEDY? A lighthearted lesbian movie where nobody goes to conversion therapy camp and nobody cheats on their husband? Nobody goes through a traumatic coming out to their family and friends which then Have a Hard Time? Wild, unbelievable.

Hold your horses if you got too excited by this crazy occurence though - we couldn't do without at least one typical lgbt-movie thing - It's an lgbt themed movie so of course someone dies (not tagging as spoiler because honestly - you most likely already knew that, this is how common this is).

Also there's a weird ammount of naked men in this for a movie about lesbians.

I liked the raunchy over the top, brainless humor - it's just really not something you get enough of for this type of movies. Something you Also don't get a lot of is portrayals of gay people which are older than like, 20, and actually had a decent life in a stable relationship. We need more movies like this, more normal movies which are not all striving to be High Art and talking about how being gay is a tragedy that will Ruin Your Life Forever. Not because those grim movies are not relatable - they ARE relatable for most lgbt people and that's the problem.

This is a cute movie that's just something random you can watch with a popcorn and not have an existential crisis over. So cheers to that and I'm hoping for more movies like this. Taking away the two stars for some cringy moments, and the "wait it's gay so someone has to die".

Really! Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker portray lesbians that have been in my life, foul mouth and all. To those who says this movie is not 100% realistic, well, thank heavens for that! These characters are real enough and the humor is great. The real life consequences of getting old, living as unmarried, unrecognized partners is very real and can be very painful. And those issues are brought forth with irony, clarity, raunchiness and loving tenderness. Just like life.

The young hitchhiker character was endearing, bringing another additional layer of the complexity of human relationships into the mix. This movie is lighthearted at times, laughing out loud funny here and there, and dramatizes the struggles of being homosexual, elderly, and being authentically out of the norm.

Cloudburst is a 2011 Canadian-American adventure comedy-drama film by American-Canadian writer and director Thom Fitzgerald. This hilarious foul-mouthed, lesbian road movie co-stars Oscar (R)- winning actresses Brenda Fricker and Olympia Dukakis as Dot and Stella, a crackerjack lesbian couple on the run from a nursing home. You'll laugh so hard you'll cry. Stella and Dot have been together for 31 years and have faithfully accompanied one another through life's ups and downs. Now in their seventies, Stella is hard of hearing and Dot is legally blind. Dotty's prudish granddaughter, Molly (played by Genie Award-winner Kristin Booth), decides the best place for Dot is a nursing home that will provide all the necessities. This forces Stella and Dot to make a bold decision: they will leave their hometown and make their way to Canada, where same-sex marriage is legal. It's a last-gap bid to stay together. En route to Canada, they pick up a young hitchhiker, Prentice, played by newcomer Ryan Doucette. A small-town boy turned modern dancer, he is returning to Nova Scotia to visit his dying mother. Despite his bravado, Prentice is a confused and wounded soul who has much to learn from Stella and Dot as they wage their own unexpected battle - after three decades, can they keep their family together? One of the most sweetest love story which will bring tears n smile in the same time.

It has been a long time since I have enjoyed a movie as much as I did when I watched Cloudburst last summer. My daughter and I watched it together and we laughed and cried all the way through it. I had not heard anything about the show before seeing it and it was a thrill to be so surprised at how great the show was. While all of the cast played their parts wonderfully, my favourite character was Ryan Doucette and I look forward to seeing him in many more future movies. I hope it comes out on video so I can buy a copy to add to my home collection. I can't wait to watch it again. Thank you for such great entertainment and keep up the great work Ryan.