The Boys in the Band (2020) Movie Review
The Boys in the Band is a bit of a misleading title as the story has nothing to do with music or being in a band. I was hesitant to watch this because it was originally a play and most often I don’t enjoy plays that are converted to the movie format. However, I heard from several reliable sources (mainly the folks at Next Best Picture) that there were a few performances that were noteworthy. I decided to give it a watch to see for myself.
The premise of the movie is very simple. A few friends gather at a birthday party in New York in 1968. It wouldn’t be that noteworthy except that all of these friends are gay men and you can imagine how difficult being gay would be in the 1960’s. The host of the party is Michael (Jim Parsons) and the birthday boy, as it were, is Harold (Zachary Quinto). We are first introduced to Donald (Matt Bomer) who is the former lover of Michael. The majority of the first fifteen minutes features Donald and Michael exchanging rapid fire dialogue. It could have been a great opener except for the tiny issue that Bomer and Parsons have absolutely zero chemistry at all. It was honestly a little cringeworthy.
Luckily more characters show up after that with Larry (Andrew Rannells) and Hank (Tuc Watkins) making an entrance. They were an interesting couple with Hank, a school teacher who just left his wife, clashing with the more stereotypical gay personas of the rest of the group. Bernard (Michael Benjamin Washington) and Emory (Robin de Jesus) are friends flirting on the edge of something more. The two outliers of the birthday party are the hustler hired to be Harold’s birthday present (Charlie Carver) and Alan (Brian Hutchison), Michael’s college roommate who seemingly doesn’t know that Michael is gay. These men make up the entire movie and the entire night.
If you don’t care for dialogue heavy movies then The Boys in the Band is not the movie for you. The men talk all night with some impromptu dancing mixed in. It seems the only reason this group of men are friends is their shared lived experiences of being gay in New York. They don’t seem to genuinely care for each other all that much. Indeed much of the night is spent criticizing each other or trying to put each other down. Michael is the worst offender, going on long tirades about each individual and forcing everyone to play a game wherein each person must call the one person they truly loved and tell them.
The night devolves into a drunken mess where each person must confront the hard truth about themselves. There are so many themes that are explored but mainly the movie showcases the experience of being gay during a time when it was not socially acceptable and how that experience affects each of these men differently. None of the men have a harder time than Michael, who clearly hates himself for being gay and can’t find peace with who he is. I’m not a huge Jim Parsons fan but he does give a very good performance here. The other standout performance for me personally was Robin de Jesus who lights up the screen each time he appears. It’s hard to not like him and he is the perfect breath of fresh air for the heaviness that permeates the whole movie. Tuc Watkins was also magnetic as he struggled to be accepted by the group and sticks out as the only man in a suit.
I’d have a hard time recommending The Boys in the Band to anyone unless you’ve already seen the play and liked it. It’s extremely heavy on dialogue and also hard to watch as the night turns nastier and nastier between the so called friends. It does depict several interesting relationship dynamics and aspects of being gay in the 1960’s, so if you grew up during that time period and also happen to be queer it might be of interest to you. All in all it was a hard watch but one that I wound up enjoying as the movie wore on. The performances were all stellar and despite my general lack of enthusiasm for Parsons as an actor he is outstanding. If you’re starved for LGBT content, you might get your fix here in a way that you wouldn’t have expected.
Film or Movie: Movie
You’ll like this movie if:
1. You like LGBT content
2. You like dialogue heavy movies
3. You want to see what being gay was like in 1960’s New York
