STAGE MOTHER
Canada, 2020, 93 minutes, Colour.
Jacki Weaver, Lucy Liu, Adrian Grenier, Mya Taylor, Alaster McDonald, Oscar Moreno, Jackie Beat, Hugh Thompson, Anthony Skordi.
Directed by Thom Fitzgerald.
Director Thom Fitzgerald has made films with gay themes for over a quarter of a century, The Hanging Garden, The Event, Three Needles, Cloudburst… He is Canadian and this is a Canadian production, with settings in Texas and San Francisco but filmed in Nova Scotia.
What would happen if a churchgoing, choir-conducting matron from Texas inherited a gay club in San Francisco?
The film establishes the gay club, failing business, rather gaudy, sometimes coarse acts, and the owner, taking drugs, collapsing on stage and dying. In fact, he is the matriarch’s son, dying without a will and so she inherits the club.
This film is a star vehicle for the very versatile Jacki Weaver, establishing her career in Australia for many decades, and receiving an Oscar nomination for and finding a whole new world of filmmaking in North America. In this film, she is the devoted mother, Maybelline, cut off from her gay son for a decade, remembering in flashbacks her happy times with him, going to San Francisco for the funeral, put off by the very camp ceremony, clashing with her son’s partner, Nathan (Adrian Grenier).
What helps her is the friendship with an unmarried mother, sienna (Lucy Liu) with a baby. This leads to Maybelline becoming more involved with the club, using her background in choir to train some of the drag Queens in harmonies, getting better outfits, opening the club with a new program, despite the hostility of Nathan. There is a personal touch, distance from her husband back in Texas, the encounter with the concierge at a San Francisco hotel and dating him.
As expected, in this kind of genial drama, there is ultimate success in the club, with Maybelline herself finally singing on stage. But, she is a stage mother, involving herself in the complex lives of her three main drag Queens, gender transition, drugtaking, family alienation.
On the IMDb it has an enormous amount of sympathy and support.
- A genial, gay-friendly comedy-drama? The San Francisco setting? Filmed in Nova Scotia?
- The contrast between Texas, the small town, everybody knowing each other, church, choir, attitude towards homosexuality, and San Francisco, the vistas of the city, streets, the Castro district, the club, interiors?
- The musical score, the range of songs, performance?
- The opening, Ricky, preparing, the acts in the club, the audience, collapsing on stage, his death, Nathan and his reaction?
- Texas, Maybelline and Jeb, years of marriage, Jeb’s disapproval of his son, cutting off contacts for years? Maybelline, friends, the choir? The news of Ricky’s death? Her decision to go to San Francisco, Jeb’s disapproval?
- The funeral, Dusty officiating, the camp style, the guests, the performances? Maybelline arriving, wary, put off, leaving, Nathan seeing her, his attack on her?
- The situation, Ricky owning the club, Nathan being manager, the partnership, the relationship? The financial situation? The decline in audience?
- Maybelline, the encounter with Sienna, the baby, the friendship, going to the apartment, Maybelline looking after the baby, Sienna and her background, link with Ricky, with the club? Her back story, relationships? The meal, Nathan coming to the meal, his anger, taking Maybelline to see Ricky’s apartment? All the theatrical gear?
- Maybelline, not going back to Texas, the phone calls, going to the club, her studying the legal papers, the ownership, friendship with the staff, the barman and his playing the piano and singing, the other members, the encounter with Dusty, the stage mother, upset, leaving? Nathan and hostility? Maybelline and her initiatives, the remaining trio, the singing practice, their harmonies, costumes, the new act, the posters, going to the hotel, meeting August, his response to her, the posters, inviting him to the opening, the later meal together, not explaining her husband, her kiss? And later his bewilderment at seeing her with her husband?
- Success, the range of performances, the piano playing, singing? Nathan eventually reconciling?
- The back stories, Joan, her name, drugs, singing capacity, taking the drugs, Maybelline finding her, going to the house, destroying the drugs, her motherly advice? Tequila, the severe woman in the street, his mother, Maybelline and the baby going to visit her at work, sharing mother’s stories, inviting her to the club, the mother coming, accepting her son? Cherry, transition, being held up, going to visit the wife, the need for permissions? The characters of each three, together?
- Jeb, coming to San Francisco, wanting to sell the club, Maybelline and her difference? Keeping the club, the conditions? Her going back to Texas, meeting her friends? The decision to leave? The encounters with her sister, the sister’s visit to San Francisco, loud? Her sister giving her the money when Maybelline returned?
- Meeting August again, the bond with him, the success of the club?
- Maybelline, the stage mother, but her performance on stage, the reconciliation with Nathan, his support?
