The Watermelon Woman Looks at the Complexities of the Past in a Fascinating Manner

Headlines were made this summer when it was revealed that Rocketman would be the first major Hollywood production to feature an on-screen sex scene between two men. It was astonishing to imagine that high-profile American cinema had been produced for over a century and never, not even once, had such a scene transpired, but so is the sad state of LGBTQA+ representation in American cinema. Heck, it's not just films from major American movie studios that suffer from this problem, the indie American cinema took ages for proper representation even when it comes to individuals behind the camera. Just look at how it took until 1996s The Watermelon Woman for American cinema, indie or otherwise, to see its first film directed by a black Lesbian, in this case acclaimed director Cheryl Dunye.

Rocketman Shows How To Do A Music Biopic Right

Just as Avatar ushered in a barrage of movies released in digital 3D and It ensured that no Stephen King book would be spared from a film adaptation, the box office success of Bohemian Rhapsody has guaranteed that the music biopic is about to be omnipresent in cinema once again. After nearly a decade of dormancy only interrupted by Straight Outta Compton, that Freddie Mercury biopic made more than enough money to ensure that the subgenre won't be facing an absence like that for quite a long time. If we're gonna get a whole heap of music biopics, can more of them be like Rocketman? Imaginatively made, fun to watch, actually thoughtful when it comes to exploring its real-life subject, as Anakin Skywalker might say, now this is music biopic filmmaking!