“Don’t mess with the grand diva,” says 8-year-old Arjie, usually in private or under his breath, to a world determined to mess with him from all sides. Taught to him by an understanding, open-minded aunt, it’s a self-defense mantra that sees him through various forms of bullying as he comes to terms with his nascent homosexuality — no easy cross to bear in a conservative Sri Lankan household through the 1970s and 1980s.
It’s of less use, however, when his life is more violently rocked by the first bloody stirrings of the Sri Lankan Civil War: Both gay and Tamil, young Arjie is a doubly imperiled minority. Adapted from Shyam Selvadurai’s well-regarded semi-autobiographical novel, Deepa Mehta’s “Funny Boy” ambitiously braids internal and external conflict, familial and national strife, to engrossing if somewhat heavily condensed effect. Selected as Canada’s official Oscar entry, it’s the Indo-Canadian...
It’s of less use, however, when his life is more violently rocked by the first bloody stirrings of the Sri Lankan Civil War: Both gay and Tamil, young Arjie is a doubly imperiled minority. Adapted from Shyam Selvadurai’s well-regarded semi-autobiographical novel, Deepa Mehta’s “Funny Boy” ambitiously braids internal and external conflict, familial and national strife, to engrossing if somewhat heavily condensed effect. Selected as Canada’s official Oscar entry, it’s the Indo-Canadian...
- 12/10/2020
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
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