Gay Herstory: A Review Of Andrew Durham's FAIRYLAND
(Image via American Zoetrope) I attended the opening-night screening at New Fest LGBTQ+ Film Fest Thursday night — Fairyland.
Directed by Andrew Durham from Alysia Abbott's memoir about growing up with a permissive gay dad in the '70s and '80s, this affecting film is buoyed by a truly incredibly performance given by Scoot McNairy, who plays a '70s gay man in such a convincing way it's like he was AIed in from the past.
By turns maddeningly selfish and paternal, his character's decisions are sometimes alarming, sometimes endearing, creating a vivid picture of what it must have been like to grow up in such an unorthodox setting, one that segued into a hellscape of AIDS.
Emilia Jones plays Alysia, but as transparent as McNairy's performance is, hers is frustratingly opaque, aloof even, aside from one emotional scene that comes too late to have changed my mind.
