Shank

I like sharing movies, especially ones that move me. I recently watched Shank. Shank is about a young man named Cal. According to the official summary of the movie, “Cal is an 19-year-old closeted gay gang member who has nothing in his life except drugs, sex, random acts of violence and a secret that he keeps hidden from his mates.”

Some parts of the movie were predictable, but many of the twists surprised me. I will warn you that there is a rape scene in the movie. The scene itself did not trouble me, but the fact that I clearly understood the rapist’s motivations did. The movie does a great job of setting up the tension between the characters. About halfway through the movie, it was clear that the main character and one of his former friends were on a collision course. Don’t worry this information doesn’t ruin the movie. Anyone with eyes and half a brain could see that someone was going to be raped before the end of the movie. Fortunately, the movie is far bigger than the rape. 

Shank shows a young thug’s slow acceptance of his homosexuality. Cal goes from beating gay people up with his friends, to stopping his friends from attacking a young gay man. Cal is deeply flawed and screwed up in so many ways that the audience can only imagine what things he must have experienced as a child. He is imperfect but he is coming in to his own as a person. He grows by leaps and bounds over the course of the movie. By the end, he has accepted who he is and he has taken responsibility for his shortcomings. I thoroughly enjoyed the journey and I’m sure you will too. I usually don’t give movies higher than a B+, but this movie deserves an A-. I really can only find a few faults with the movie and none of them are big enough to warrant lowering my opinion of the movie.

Watch the movie for yourself and see if you agree:

Late Night Ramblings

I’ve been working hard towards making it possible for me to leave my day job. I’m hoping that working from home will give me the freedom I need to write more often because I feel like my life is missing something when I don’t have a chance to write. I need to write the way some people need to breathe. Like most people, I gave a few dollars to the 600 million dollar Powerball. I couldn’t help myself, but I’m a realist, so I’m not counting on a huge lottery win to make my life easier. I know that I am going to have to work extremely hard in order to make my dreams come true and I have finally reached the point in my life where not pursuing my dreams isn’t an option. In a couple of weeks, I will be 30 years-old and I can’t say that I have taken any legitimate risks in my entire life. I confess that I have lined up a few work-at-home positions because I can’t fully commit to writing. It’s not that I don’t believe in my writing, it’s that I have bills to pay and the rational person in me frequently reminds me that I need a reliable source of income in order to continue life as I know it. I’m not sure why I’m writing this. I guess I just want to get it out there. I can’t believe that I am taking a very real step towards having more free time in order to write. For the first time in a while, I’m excited about the future and I can’t predict my next move. It feels good!

Young Love

In March, I saw an article about a young gay black couple who got married on January 18. They were both 19 at the time and their wedding was featured on My Teenage Wedding. I haven’t seen the show so I don’t know what channel it was on, but the article did provide the following clip:

The show’s description read: David and Tre'Darrius, both 19, are young, black, and gay, and getting married in not-so-progressive Memphis. But the odds are stacked against them. Once very popular, David's friends ostracized him after he came out in high school. Neither mother is responding to the wedding invite. And their only adult supporter, Tre's uncle Theo, thinks they're too young to marry ...

Though David and Tre’Darrius reminded me of Keith and D (Bump This), I felt conflicted about the wedding. The logical part of me agreed with the uncle, but the hopeless romantic in me was pulling for them. I love hearing stories about couples who fell in love as teenagers and are still in love forty years later. Something about those stories confirms the power and the strength of love and gives credence to the Disney idea of true love. I haven’t tried to find out how they are doing as a couple, but I truly hope they are doing well and I wish them luck.

O beautiful

It’s been a while since I posted. I’ve been sick and tired and just overall miserable, but I’m feeling better and I’m ready to get back to writing and blogging. 

I sometimes appreciate artsy movies. Creative filming or storytelling inspires me and makes me want to work that much harder so that I can create something beautiful too. By now you know that I search YouTube for videos quite frequently. I found this one and it wasn’t a great story but the filming combined with the story made it impossible for me to look away. It kind of reminded me of my old story, The Science of Us because you got to see the events unfold from both boys’ perspectives.

I’ll warn you in advance that the story is a bit “off,” but there is beauty throughout the awkwardness and the filming alone will keep your attention. The summary of the short film is: A young man is left in a field after a brutal attack by some of his fellow classmates. A classmate comes to help the boy after the beating, but all is not as it seems.

O beautiful