My Weekend Crush

I was expecting “Wild Nights With Emily” to be gay. And it was, it was super, super gay. But I guess what I wasn’t quite expecting is how convincingly gay the movie is – and not in the “actors acting gay” sense (though Molly Shannon et al are very, very good), but the “Oh, my God, Emily Dickinson really was gay and history/humans have framed her in the most conveniently convincing yet non-threatening way possible to maximize profit and appeal”-sense. I know, whew, all that and it was funny, too!

“Wild Nights With Emily” may be the favorite lesbian period piece I’ve watched during these coronavirus self-quarantine/never-ending pandemic times. (The others being “Vita & Virginia” and “Tell It to the Bees.”) What those films had in beautiful polish, “Wild Nights With Emily” makes up for in exuberant strangeness. I’ve always loved the oddball everything of Madeleine Olnek’s work. Like if you tell me you laughed all the way through “Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same” I know we can be friends because we both wallow in the same kind of weird. Now, finally, after two years of writing about it and waiting, her newest movie is finally available to steam on Hulu.

What Olnek’s film does is completely reframe Emily, taken from extensive scholastic research into her actual work and letters to her longtime “gal pal”/sister-in-law Susan Dickinson. It’s fascinating how invested some are in keeping Emily the lonely spinster reclusive who hated fun, while her personal letters show an intelligent, passionate and decisive woman with so much of herself to give. It made me want to go out and read more Emily Dickinson, which truly is a great idea anytime.

Who gets to write our history, it always matters. And more times than not, the person granted that privilege has an agenda other than the truth in mind. It’s the reason we still have monuments to traitors who tried to tear apart the Union standing across these so-called United States. And why so many history books taught us that racism basically ended after slavery was abolished, but OK it super-duper really ended after the Civil Rights Movement, we swear!

While time may have tried to write off Emily Dickinson as just a woman defined by her loneliness, it seems the truth of her has kept burning through the ages and now onto our screens. Wild nights, indeed. Can you posthumously send toaster ovens? Welcome, Emily. We knew we always liked that lady. And, as history will tell, the feeling was mutual.

Walk On the Emily Side

In case you hadn’t caught on, it’s trailer week here on Surrenders. Now that the doldrums of bad movies the studios hid in January and February are finally over, some really interesting movies are coming out. And that include really interesting movies featuring queer women. I know, whoddathunkit?

First up is “Wild Nights With Emily,” featuring Molly Shannon as iconic poet Emily Dickinson. I wrote about this movie almost exactly one year ago, when it was at SXSW. And now it’s getting released and we can see what kind of quirky joy Molly, Emily and out writer-director Madeleine Olnek (maker of the best/strangest low-budget lesbian film of all time “Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same”) have come up with together.

The result looks fun, weird, kind of delightful and super-duper gay. Super-duper-duper-duper gay. Like, really gay. Enjoy!

Poetry in the Wild

Damn, I love it when weird things I like come together. Like, for instance, I love lesbians. And, also, I love me some Emily Dickinson. And some Molly Shannon. And definitely some of the director of “Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same.” So, imagine my delight when all those divergent weird things find each other in one movie called “Wild Nights With Emily.” The film at SXSW now is from director Madeleine Olnek of “Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same” fame and stars “Superstar” star Molly Shannon as the titular Emily Dickinson in a comedic – and Sapphic – look at her life. I know, you love every single part of that weird sentence.

Now if you know anything about Olnek’s work is it is a) very gay and b) very odd. But, you know, in a good way – for both. I really loved the quirky-to-the-extreme “Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same.” It was a low-budget absurdist hoot. Her follow up “The Foxy Merkins” was also quite quirky and gay, though – at least for me – not as endearing. But her work isn’t bland, that’s for sure.

Reviews of “Wild Nights With Emily” have praised the film’s reframing of Dickinson’s public persona. Not the spinster recluse who didn’t want to publish her work, but a vibrant, warm and brilliant gay woman who had a lifelong romance with her childhood friend/future sister-in-law Susan Gilbert.

Indiewire said the film the “Best Lesbian Comedy in Years” that is “anchored by a surprisingly touching love story” between the two women. Olnek brings also some of her favorite regulars for the film, both Susan Ziegler (as Susan Gilbert) and Lisa Haas – who were in her previous two films as well – return here. While Olnek’s work may not be for everyone, I am excited to fully embrace the weirdness and queerness of it all. Plus, I’ve always thought Molly Shannon had unplumbed depths. And, you know, she’s freaking hilarious. So there’s that.

So, what do you think? A good lesbian film to get excited about? Well, “Hope” is the thing with feathers.