This one's a beautiful, tender, quiet romantic drama with a moody atmosphere, set in a tight knit Welsh fishing community. It's a touching story about a man waking up sexually in the middle of his life, and how he, his family, and everyone around him deal with it, which makes it emotional and sentimental without ever getting over the top. The slow burn plays out against a landscape that's as bleak as it is gorgeous, where quiet, closed off men are stuck inside rigid ideas of what masculinity should be. Some people might be reminded of "God's Own Country," but I think both films are lovely in their own way. Jack is a middle aged guy who co-owns a mussel farm with his rough around the edges brother Dyfan, and the tension between the two of them is simmering under the surface right from the start. Dyfan's three sons all help out with the work, while Jack's sulky teenage son Tom keeps skipping out. Jack's been with his wife since they were both 16, and...
'Cherry Pop' is the local dive bar that regularly hosts drag shows. Every now and then, there is a brand new drag queen who give their first ever drag performance and are called 'Cherry'. So, we have a new 'cheery' in the mix of the regular drag queens in the bar. We have Kitten, the MC, who is katty like you would expect, we have Zaza, the queen of queens, who is being suicidal because her muse has passed away. There are 2 experienced queens who are constantly at loggerheads and ready too rip each other apart. There is a Puerto Rican young queen, a "dumb" bimbo and a young queen, who is struggling to come out to her mother and introduce her boyfriend. None of these people are kind to the cherry, just because they never are. Things becomes worse, when the secret comes out that the cherry is actually a 100% straight man and his fiancé will be in the audience to see the show. After some initial straightphobic slurs, Cherry finally performs and mesmerizes everyone. His long cherished dream of performing for an audience is finally fulfilled.
This film has an excellent cast who are clearly no strangers to the camera, reality or otherwise. They just fit the characters. I am not big into the whole drag scene but even I can see that all these were seasoned performers. The film shows us an individual performance by each of these drag queen, and in between interludes of their constant bickering and backstage drama. My only issue was everyone's surprise and dismissal of the straight guy wanting to dress in drag and performance. I would have assumed that we are all beyond that. You can't take this film seriously. This is supposed to be seen purely as a slapstick comedy strictly for entertainment purposes. It's a comedic distraction with a colorful cast both in their deliveries and ball gowns. Another thing was the annoying voice over introducing us to every character every so few minutes got a bit annoying after sometime.
Colorful, energetic, sassy and funny at just over 70 minutes, this is no great shakes, but not bad from any perspective. You feel you have just have just spend time backstage with some awesome drag queens. (5.5/10)
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