WATCH: Elliot Page returns home for the first time since transitioning in this moving improvised drama
Pageboy, producing projects under his Pageboy Productions banner, and starring in the Netflix superhero series The Umbrella Academy (which returns for its final season this August).But the upcoming drama Close To You represents Page’s first on-screen narrative feature since 2017, and his first since coming out as a trans man in December 2020.Subscribe to our newsletter for your front-row seat to all things entertainment with a sprinkle of everything else queer.That makes the film a perfect reintroduction to Elliot Page: Movie Star—not just because its a fine spotlight for him as an emotive and soulful actor, but also because it’s one that, in many ways, echoes Page’s own journey.From British filmmaker Dominic Savage and based off a story co-conceived by the director and Page himself, Close To You follows Sam (Page) as he travels from Toronto to his hometown on Lake Ontario, where he’ll be anxiously reuniting with his family for the first time in years on the occasion of his father’s (Cool Runnings‘ Peter Outerbridge) birthday.Sam hasn’t spent time with his family since transitioning, and though the progressive suburbanites have been supportive from afar, it becomes immediately clear they’re unsure how to communicate with or relate to him now.Happy Transgender Day of Visibility!On one end is Sam’s mother, Miriam (Air Force One‘s Wendy Crewson) who gets overly upset and apologetic after accidentally misgendered her son.
But then there’s his brother-in-law Paul (The Boys‘ David Reale), whose initially polite facade is masking some cruelly casual transphobia.Meanwhile, the visit finds Sam unexpectedly reconnecting with his former high school bestie Katherine (deaf actress Hillary Baack, best known for Sound Of Metal).
