At the beginning of National Anthem, writer-director Luke Gilford’s exquisite-looking and subversive debut feature, 21-year-old Dylan (Charlie Plummer) lives a particularly burdensome and monotonous life. Within his small, rural, isolated New Mexico community he supports his family by shoveling gravel at temporary construction gigs and returns to his one-bedroom home to feed and take care of Cassidy (Joey DeLeon), his younger brother. Most nights his alcoholic hairdresser mother goes out late and returns home with drunken flings, forcing her two sons to sleep on the couch. It’s a difficult, lonely existence, and throughout his primary caretaking Dylan sees no opportunity to escape.
But that pendulum shifts when Pepe (Rene Rosado) pulls up in a pickup truck and offers a group of day laborers some extra work. Lacking many options, Dylan obliges and soon discovers an alternative lifestyle just 30 minutes down the road. Initially tasked with bailing hay at House of Splendor,...
But that pendulum shifts when Pepe (Rene Rosado) pulls up in a pickup truck and offers a group of day laborers some extra work. Lacking many options, Dylan obliges and soon discovers an alternative lifestyle just 30 minutes down the road. Initially tasked with bailing hay at House of Splendor,...
- 3/11/2023
- by Jake Kring-Schreifels
- The Film Stage
Toward the end of National Anthem, D’Angelo Lacy in splendiferous drag sings a powerful a cappella rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” while an assembled group of Queer Rodeo competitors and spectators stand in reverent silence through that hymn of patriotism, hands on hearts. Given that the recently passed Tennessee bill banning drag performances is looking to spread through red states and legitimize transphobic discrimination, the scene takes on added poignancy. That helps bolster the emotional heft of first-time writer-director Luke Gilford’s gentle New Mexico-set story of self-discovery in a chosen family.
Gilford knows the setting well. He grew up in the Southwest, with fond memories of attending rodeos with his father as a kid, only later becoming aware of how homophobic and narrow — white, Christian conservative, macho — mainstream rodeos could be. Returning after years of studying art and working in New York, Gilford discovered the International Gay Rodeo Association,...
Gilford knows the setting well. He grew up in the Southwest, with fond memories of attending rodeos with his father as a kid, only later becoming aware of how homophobic and narrow — white, Christian conservative, macho — mainstream rodeos could be. Returning after years of studying art and working in New York, Gilford discovered the International Gay Rodeo Association,...
- 3/11/2023
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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