‘Better Nate Than Ever’ is Disney’s most gay movie, released at its most horrifying time

I I don’t want to shock anyone, but I was really into the music scene as a child. I’ll give you a moment to process this horrifying information.

As a 12-year-old boy who will stage one’s works Grease in his bedroom, belted “Adelaide’s Lament” from Boy and Doll in the bathroom, and wouldn’t have appeared in years if he had been asked in a pinch to star in and perform the role of Anna Leonowens in a production of King and Iis a good thing.

Why can’t it? Have you seen a musical? People made funny jokes, danced a bit, got smitten and kept popping the song in the middle of it all. What a glorious prison break!

Escape is exactly that, because being a 12-year-old boy obsessed with musicals is also a very isolating thing — something repressed and kept secret. Doesn’t mean giggling. And whisper. And the worst thing: not being “normal” like everyone else.

Listen, I’m not making any news here about growing up not even closed, but questioning or uncertain about what your gender will be like in the future. [year redacted]. This is not the heartbreaking, unique story of a young man named Kevin. Millions of kids have gone through this, and many of us have worked with it and have since thrived. We all remember that whole “It gets better”, I don’t know how to describe it… the campaign? Move? Illusion?

Recently, this latter description came to my mind.

All these feelings and memories were dug up this week because I got a chance to watch the new Disney+ movie Better Nate Than Ever, this is possibly the most active and positive youth incentive program Disney has ever released. And it’s emitting at the strangest of times.

Consider all the news on Disney, Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill and the disturbing escalation of unwarranted anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric disseminated by politicians As a GOP expert, it could be argued that this is the best time for a movie like this to come out. It is definitely the strangest.

The movie, in the most beautiful sign of progress and the biggest compliment I can give, is something I so desperately wanted growing up. It’s a love letter to children — to theater kids, and most especially theater kids, who are made to feel ashamed or ashamed of who they are. and how they act, and who are probably, almost 100% of the time growing up gay.

Tim Federle, writer and director Better Nate Than Ever based on his Nate book series, was one of those people, even becoming a Broadway performer on his television and film career. (He’s also behind the popularity—and similarly uncanny acceptance—High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.)

Nate (Rueby Wood) is a 13-year-old suburban boy who lives and breathes musicals; The movie is just a few minutes away from the battle between the 2004 Tony Awards Q Avenue and Evil is mentioned, while he describes his mother’s relationship with his aunt as having “Glinda energy that antagonizes Elphaba in Act One.”

He was devastated when he didn’t get the lead role in his studio production Lincoln: Unauthorized rock music. To cheer him up, his best friend, Aria Brooks’ Libby, plans a getaway bus ride for the two of them to New York City, where an open audition is taking place for a newbie Lilo & Stitch Quantity.

Hijinks ensued, as they did when unaccompanied 13-year-olds ran through New York. In this case, many of them are daydreams involving large-scale music production. They run into Nate’s aunt, a struggling actress played by Lisa Kudrow, who has been ostracized by her family for pursuing a stage career. Despite the disparity, Nate’s auditions actually went well, and for one obvious reason: He finally feels free to be himself and embrace all the parts that make him who he is. especially. Turns out, it was the things he was silent about that made him great.

He auditioned with a monologue that Dixie Carter performed in an episode of Women design. I have never felt more represented on screen.

There are hints that Nate might one day recognize himself as gay, which is well known, although that label was never explicitly stated. Not everyone at 13 is capable of handling or understanding that about themselves; I certainly don’t. But it’s a movie about how exciting that can be for him. This is a movie about following your dreams, finding your tribe, and learning that there are people out there who will ecstatically love you for who you are, just as you are. This is a movie about the wonderful, unbreakable relationship between a gay man and his single aunt.

Disney

That Better Nate Than Ever targeted at the youth demographic, this is a pivotal moment for Disney. After all, not long ago, it was rumored that the company was in disarray Love, Victor came to Hulu from Disney+ out of concern that its themes would not be suitable for all Disney-loving families. So how to deal with this with everything else going on?

Disappointing revelation that Disney backed Florida representatives who voted for the “Don’t Say Gay” bill — read more about its cruelty here — and initially chose not to condemn It sparked a flurry of news and sad facts about the company. Pixar employees claim that gay displays of affection have been curtailed by company executives. Multiple reminders that there hasn’t been a single major LGBTQ+ character in a studio movie. Its Pride’s awkward embrace was brought up again.

This week, when the controversial bill was officially signed into law, the company released a statement contradicting its initial remarks, which said the company should not meddle in politics and change the law. into it, funnyly speaking, its content instead. The new statement said the law “should never have passed” and that its goal as a company was “to have this law repealed.”

It is good? Sentiment, albeit a few weeks and hundreds of thousands of dollars in late donations, is much appreciated. But you cannot save a child who is about to be irreparably harmed by this law with some affection. Now, my sending of a tweet is worth as much as my swearing that the conflict in Ukraine must end.

Federle was asked about all of this. It’s an almost impossible position: a creator behind something representing such progress on a platform where that advancement makes legitimate sense, but for a company takes action that impedes that progress and meaning.

“In my few years with the company, I am so happy to see us win the GLAAD award, we had our first kiss of the same sex. And what I want to bring to this is a slightly younger POV of a middle school student exploring. For me, who didn’t grow up with a movie like this, I knew this movie would make me feel so much more watched and less alone,” he said. Diversity.

“Ultimately, good representation doesn’t cancel bad laws. And what I hope is that the first steps Disney is taking now are just the first steps towards making the world a truly safer and more inclusive space. ”

I definitely don’t have the answer to any of this, other than being overjoyed and emotional Better Nate Than Ever exists, and is still appalled and angry about Disney’s involvement in the passage of this legislation.

We will all never stop using Disney projects or watching Disney+. Skeptical because it’s possible, at least yes Better Nate Than Ever to make us feel hope again.