Review of The Long Day Closes (1992) by Alec B — 20 Sep 2015

I'm absolutely furious that no-one ever thought to inform me that this movie existed. I can't believe I was robbed of this experience for so long.

Being gay and loving film isn't always easy. It's very rare for a movie to address homosexual themes at all, and even rarer for one to do so without drawing connections between sexuality and grim, depressive suppression, physical abuse, or subtly suggesting moral "corruption". It's still even rarer for a film to make the gay experience the center of focus while doing so in an artful, meaningful way; in that respect, I've never found anything that comes close to achieving what The Long Day Closes does in its brief 85 minutes.

Dreamily conveying the life of 11 year old Bud through musical montage and compellingly rendered family drama, Davies constructs an absolutely gorgeous period setting to convey the subtle struggles of a shy, film-obsessed gay boy (a story very clearly autobiographical given the nature of his own childhood). He builds a slice of Bud's life as one would recall a memory, pausing on warm moments and hurriedly acknowledging the painful ones, and despite the lack of any real drama, we're given a very clear trajectory of Bud's maturation, his inner-turmoil brought on by the presence of oppressive religious constructs, and his ultimate self-acceptance. It's an indescribable experience for someone who's endured similar inner-struggles, and the final moments should be considered some of the most moving in the history of cinema.

As someone who's cried a only handful of times since adolescence, the fact that The Long Day Closes was able to wring sobs out of me (entirely because I couldn't stand for it to end) is genuinely amazing. It's a masterpiece, the best gay film ever made, and undeniably one of the greatest, subtlest piece of filmmaking ever produced.