CANNES – There have been a ton of gay movies that have attempted to speak to power in pop culture over the past 30 years or so. And by “gay” we mean the G-A-Y in capital letters, gay ones. Screaming in rainbows, crop tops, glitter, drag queens, San Francisco, and lesbians portrayed as the most repair handy professionals in the group, “gay.” Let me tell you, “Jim Queen and the Quest for Chloroqueer” is so gay it might make its predecessors appear as heteronormative as an episode of a Taylor Sheridan show. And that’s a compliment.
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A passion project for directors Nicolas Athane and Marco Nguyen, this French-language animated film is outrageous for outrageousness sake, while still attempting to have something profound to say. And bless the Festival de Cannes for including it as a Midnight premiere out of competition. More of the world’s film festivals need fun swings like this one.
But, let’s get to the…gay.
Set in Paris, our hero, Jim Parfait, aka Jim Queen (voiced by Alex Ramirès), is a ripped muscle influencer who lives at the gym and for the weekend circuit parties that dominate his social calendar (we’re not sure they are referred to as that term specifically, but that’s certainly what they are). His best friend is Nina (Shirley Souagnon), a nurse by day, who puts up with Jim’s narcissistic tendencies because deep inside she thinks he’s a good guy (she also loves poppers and dancing, I mean, who doesn’t?). When Jim discovers – to his horror – that one of his abs has disappeared, he panics. It’s a known symptom of a virus that is spreading across the city, Heterosis. A disease that turns gay or queer people…straight. And, uh oh, there is no known cure.
Much to his shock, Nina informs him that, yes, he does have the virus. As Jim wallows in despair, it appears a twink may come to his rescue. The twink-iest of twinks, in fact.
Lucien (Jérémy Gillet) is a young, skinny, and blonde-haired sheltered gay boy. He lives in a gorgeous Paris mansion with his mother, the French Health Minister, Christine Mayer (Elisabeth Wiener). A politically conservative woman who doesn’t want to hear even a mild insinuation that her son could be…homosexual. She refuses to acknowledge the obvious, even though Lucien has a shrine in his closet to his hero, Jim Queen (it writes itself, oui?).
Telegraphed from the start, Lucien escapes his mother’s clutches and ventures out into the real gay universe just as the virus begins to explode. He meets his crush, and the pair begin a crusade across queer Paris to find a cure for Heterosis. On this trek, Athane and Nguyen throw every conceivable sub-community within the community on the screen, and some are depicted more creatively than others. There are the Bears (animated partially as real bears, cute), the techno almost fascist but let’s not use the word fascist Mister Leather and his puppies (their headquarters resembling Berghaim is a nice touch), sneaker fetishists (a decidedly French choice), and of course, drag queens. Lucien’s fairy godmother comes in the form of Glamydia (Harald Marlot), a member of San Francisco’s historic Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence who gives the movie a fun musical number you knew was coming at some point (she also intriguingly resembles the first “Drag Race France” winner, Paloma, which makes us wonder why someone else voiced her, but we digress…).
As the disease begins to destroy Paris’ LGBTQ+ community, Lucien and Jim learn more about themselves, and what really matters (although, be honest, abs don’t hurt, amirite). Again, you see this all coming a mile away. There will be some comfort in that for many viewers, but it’s almost too obvious for a film that thinks it’s smarter than it is. Perhaps there is an allegory to be explored here or there, but “Jim Queen” never wants to get that deep about it. If you figure it out, great. If not, that’s O.K., a fun romp can sometimes be enough.
Here’s the kicker, though. Despite some fun streaming-level animation and some good one-liners, this movie would not fly in English. Someone would certainly make it, but only the Francois sheen really differentiates it from the plethora of over-the-top “gay” films that have come before it (let alone numerous TikTok and Instagram viral vids where you’ve heard all these jokes before). That’s not to denigrate what Athane and Nguyen have pulled off. There is a place for this, but the inherent ideas are often, for lack of a better word, basic. Overall, it’s simply not clever enough to transcend the genre. And you could argue the choice to animate only highlights that inherent issue. Maybe it would resonate more in live action. Maybe not.
All that aside, is “Jim Queen’s” heart in the right place? Does it have a positive message for the world? I mean, sure. Will it open the eyes of some young queer person somewhere? Very likely, and that means something in an era where queer media is under attack. Will you at least chuckle? Absolutely. Does this seem destined to be a double feature with next month’s “Stop! That! Train!” at queer screening nights a decade from now? Guaranteed. But anything more than that? Sorry, Queen. Might need to swipe left on this one. [C+]
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