Movie Review: Summerland

Look, if you haven’t watched “Summerland,” just stop reading. Because everything I have to say about “Summerland,” legit everything, has to do with its ending. OK, so are we clear? This thing is filled with spoilers. Go it? Great. Here we go.

So, yeah, how about that happy ending? I started watching “Summerland” with very few expectations other than it had something vaguely to do with a past lesbian love. And as I watched “Summerland” those expectations remained largely intact. And then, it ended entirely happily and I was genuinely a little shocked.

No lesbian died in the making of this movie. No lesbian was physically hurt in the making of this movie. No lesbians were left with ambiguously open-ended endings after the making of this movie. It just ended with the lesbian couple living happily ever after together. I know. What?

Set in World War II-era England, “Summerland” follows a cranky writer named Alice (played by Gemma Arterton who has played gay before in “Vita & Virginia”) who lives by the seaside in Kent and is saddled with a boy from London taking refuge from the blitz bombings. Alice lives alone, but flashbacks show us it wasn’t always this way and she once had one of those beautiful, always lit-during-golden-hour relationships years earlier with another woman named Vera (played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw who has played gay before in “San Junipero”).

But then Vera left Alice because she wanted kids. Now Alice isn’t doing that great with the unwelcome kid, named Frank, in her house. But, as often happens in movies, they start to warm toward each other. And then perhaps the biggest unspoken lesbian romance wish-fulfillment twist in all of moviedom happens when Frank’s father dies in the war and then Alice realizes Frank’s mom is…wait for it…VERA.

Yes, we are talking long-lost lesbian loves who reunite after the inconvenient husband has conveniently passed away and they…wait for it again, but I promise it’ll be worth it.. get back together and live happily ever after together. I mean, they virtually walk off into the sunset together, but this is still Britain so it was a little too cloudy for all that.

Look, it’s not a perfect movie. They could have made the flashbacks a little meatier, and a little less bathed in golden nostalgia. Things move a tad slowly, and there’s an awful lot about the boy. But any movie that had Gemma and Gugu making eyes at each other is over a parasol cannot be all bad. And, indeed, “Summerland” is perfectly pleasant. And, again, it’s genuinely something that the twist in this lesbian period piece is that the lesbians get to live happily ever after together after all.

Summer Girls

Gosh, ‘tis truly the season of lesbian period pieces with heavy literary bents. After “Wild Nights With Emily” and “Vita & Virginia” and “Tell It To the Bees,” and – of course – “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” we now have “Summerland.” The British drama is set during the London Blitz of World War II. Gemma Arterton plays a writer who reluctantly takes on a young charge to do her part for the war effort and all. And as they get to know each other she reveals she was in love once, with a woman who looks remarkably like and in fact is Gugu Mbatha-Raw.



Talk about your actresses from lesbian roles colliding in new lesbian roles. Gemma was of course just in “Vita & Virginia” and Gugu will always be the “San Junipero” of our hearts. I have no idea, ultimately, where there love story will go. But if they don’t get to grow old together, which it seems to be hinted at here, may we have enough glorious flashbacks of vintage gay love to at least make it worth the heartbreak. And if that also involves old-timey swimsuits, so be it.

Just Another San Junipero Monday

I rewatched “San Junipero” for the umpteenth time last weekend. But like a fine wine and some cheeses, it only gets better with age. I don’t know how you can look at this behind-the-scenes shot of Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Mackenzie Davis and not smile? Because you simply cannot. Now that’s a way to start your week. Happy Monday, kittens.

Vacation Vixen: Gugu Mbatha-Raw

I’m so terribly pleased that Gugu Mbatha-Raw is having her moment. Certainly, she has done very good work before “San Junipero” (“Belle,” “Beyond the Lights”). But now with “A Wrinkle in Time” and the new “Cloverfield” movie coming up she seems poised for a moment. See, lesbianism works. p.s. Also, I’ve been doing a slow binge of all of the reboot of “Doctor Who” and was tickled to find she’s Martha’s sister.

SGALGG: Emmys Edition

To be honest, at this year’s Emmys there were so many Gay Gals Acting Like Gay Gals at the Emmys we hardly need a Straight Gals Acting Like Gay Gals. Plus we’ve got Straight Gals Acting Like Gay Gals With Gay Gals. Hell, at this point it’s just one big gay jumbles and I’m here for all of it. Though, if any of this smorgasbord of sexuality is causing any lingering confusion, please allow me to clear things up.

SGALGG: Mackenzie Davis & Gugu Mbatha-Raw

San Junipero forever (like, literally, forever).

GGALGG: Lena Waithe & Alana Mayo

Thanking your girlfriend in your Emmy speech is like 1 million Girlfriend Points, no?

SGALGGWGG: Sarah Paulson & Thandie Newton

No one tell Holland.

GGALGG: Samira Wiley & Lauren Morelli

Happily married photogenic couple is happily married and photogenic.

SGALGGWGG: Samira Wiley & Oprah

No one tell Gayle.

SGALGG: Anna Chlumsky & Ellie Kemper

My Girl is Unbreakable. Sorry, they can’t all be winners.

GGALGG: Evan Rachel Wood

I lied. Evan Rachel Wood and her vests can always be a winner.

SGALGG: Zoe Kravitz & Tessa Thompson

Unfortunately, rainbow dresses don’t actually make you gay – yet.

GGALGG: Kate McKinnon

Gay Lady World Domination Tour starts here.

SGALGGWGG: Kate McKinnon & Nicole Kidman

I see Kate’s already attracting tour groupies.

SGALGG: Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern & Zoe Kravitz

I may or may not have cropped Shailene Woodley out because she had the gall to brag about not owning or watching television on the red carpet of a television award show where she was nominated for acting on a television show to a reporter broadcasting it on a television show. Also I’m pretty sure she voted for Jill Stein.

SGALGGWGG: Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton & Jane Fonda

Legends only.

Vacation Vixen: San Junipero

Have you had a chance to get sucked into our possible near-future dystopia yet? No. Well, that’s fine. I know it’s more than a little unnerving to see a society that has scapegoats godlessness as the reason for its problems and stripped women of their most basic rights aso ne of the solutions. But, hey, who’s to say that future is ours. Maybe, just maybe, we get the good kind where we all get to live forever while listening to effervescent 80s pop? I mean, a girl can dream.

p.s. If you have not experienced “San Junipero” yet, do not press play above. Go watch, and maybe rewatch (and rewatch again) and then press play. Trust me, the wait is worth it because wondering is practically the best part.

My Weekend Crush

The night is too often dark and full of terrors. But sometimes, just sometimes, it hands us these little gifts. These precious surprises. These unexpected moments of grace. “San Junipero” is one of those little gifts. If you know anything about “Black Mirror,” the anthology series that adds a dark technological spin to the “Twilight Zone” concept, you know happily ever after isn’t necessarily its thing. But I had heard about its “San Junipero” episode since last fall when it premiered. But then life, and the horrifying world, got in the way.

But this month, finally, I found the time and head space to sit down and watch. To really watch. And, goodness, am I glad I did.

If you haven’t watched already, I really don’t want to give too much away. Figuring it all out for yourself is such an essential part of this journey. Through the whole episode I felt as if the answer was right there, so close, I could graze it with my fingertips. But I never got their until they wanted me to, until at last I could embrace it.

But the set-up is a flashy good-time girl named Kelly (the vivacious Gugu Mbatha-Raw) meets a bespectacled quiet girl named Yorkie (Emily Blunt look-alike Mackenzie Davis) in 1987. They’ve found each other in San Junipero, a place of seemingly endless, all-night parties. And there’s an attraction, almost instantly. Which is fought because these things are always fought. But then it isn’t. And there is Belinda Carlile. Forever.

Plus, and again I do not want to give too much away, it features perhaps the most clever subversion of the Bury Your Gays trope to ever be seen on screen.

The questions evoked by “San Junipero” are the biggest ones there are. What is a happy ending? How long can love last? Who defines consciousness? Is the 80s your era?

What I will say, because you should really experience this for yourself, is that at times it seems we have so few shots at happiness in this world. And even when we find it, it can be so fleeting. So when you do, enjoy the hell out of it. Enjoy it for as long as you can – however long that may be. We make our own happy endings. Happy weekend, all.

My Weekend Crush

[Click to Embiggen the Queer Ladies Saying GTFO]

I’ve decided that my aesthetic for 2017 is going to be Queer Women Calmly Dismissing Dudes Who Can’t Take a Fucking Hint. Like, ladies, we have all been there. We have all endured this exact same situation. We have all been interrupted when we are just trying to enjoy each other’s company. Yes, all queer women. In fact, all women – period. But you know what, in this Grab ‘Em By The Pussy Age we have to be even more resolute in standing our ground. Men who are not invited into our spaces need to get the fuck out. So, dudes, you are officially on notice. Speak when spoken to. Interject when invited. But do not assume your presence is exactly what’s missing whenever a woman, two women, a group of women are sitting somewhere. Because, in fact, in almost every instance the exact opposite it true. Yes, dudes. Really. Happy weekend, all – but especially all you ladies.