“Dancing On My Own” — Robyn

While we were talking about famous Swedes in Swedish class today, Robyn came up (Noomi Rapace surprisingly didn’t), and for the rest of the day, I’ve been humming this song of hers.

How appropriate, since I discovered today that someone I have a huge crush on is in fact straight.  Sigh.

Looking forward to the week– er, Wednesday…

And thenI will finally be rid of this research essay.  Why is this causing me so much grief?  Ugh.  I mean, it’s an interesting subject and all, but holy crapola, there’s so much information.  Perhaps but essay is too broad… I think it might be.  My thesis is quite direct but I’m summarizing a lot of info and that’s taking forever to do because there’s so much to say and sources are so wordy sometimes and now I’m just rambling instead of doing it so I will go now…

On a side note, according to wikipedia: “In 1979, a number of people in Sweden called in sick with a case of being homosexual, in protest of homosexuality being classified as an illness.”

I think this is super cool.

Patrik Age 1.5

There are some godawful gay-themed films out there.  The list is so long and, frankly, kind of shameful that they ever had a budget that I won’t mention any titles.  But every once in a while, there comes a decent film, semi-popular amongst the gays.  For the last few years, it’s been Shelter, Were the World Mine, and last year, it was Undertow.  Although Patrik Age 1.5 is a 2008 film, it somehow seems to have been left somewhere in the background of other gay films.

Which is a shame because it’s one of the best gay-themed films I’ve seen.

Patrik tells the story of a gay couple living in Sweden who have moved into the suburbs to try and start a family.  They’re on the waiting list to adopt a child and when an offer arrives, they grab the chance.  Unfortunately, there’s been a typo on the form (see how critical proper grammar is??) and they take in a 15 year old homophobic deliquent. Lots of room for laughs there.

What makes the film so remarkably good is that it feels real.  While watching, I was pleasantly surprised at how realistic all the characters were.  Some of the best characterization I’ve seen!  The acting, is also really top-notch and certain scenes are really emotional and moving.

You can probably guess the ending of Patrik Age 1.5 but in a way, it fits into everything in the film.  What could have been an extremely corny, cliched film with stereotypical characters reveals itself to be much, much more than that.  Fantastic film.

Grade: A

Patrik Age 1.5 poster