It's a Wonderful Knife, appeared on my Hulu feed with an interesting premise: A year after Winnie saves the town from a psycho-killer, she wishes she had never been born, and gets her wish. So she never existed, and the town is still saddled with the psycho-killer. She must team up with "town misfit" Bernie to defeat him.
Sounds heteronormative, as usual, but call-backs to It's a Wonderful Life might be fun. Besides, it stars Justin Long, one of my 1990s crushes.
Scene 1: Establishing shot of the town of Angel Falls -- Wonderful Life was in Bedford Falls, har har -- , with Mayor Henry (Justin) extolling the benefits of his new housing development. Switch to a Christmas festival, with Henry making a speech. Check out the creepy masked nun-angel atop the Christmas tree -- it will be important later.
As Main Girl Winnie and her dad and brother walk home, Mayor Henry and his Adult Brother Buck (Sean Depner, left) grab them to ask what they thought of his speech. Brother Jimmy notes that Buck has started an OnlyFans page -- where you subscribe to see videos of a guy beating off.
He asks "Buck, do you remember me? You were my PeeWee Football coach!"
Buck ignores him. Disappointed, Jimmy says "Please shoot me." A very subtle queer moment, but better than nothing: Jimmy is gay.
Sean Depner, who is gay in real life, actually does have a MyFans account, or at least some nude photos online.
In other news, Mayor Henry needs an Old Guy to sign over his house so he can build his housing development. He drags Dad off to help talk him into it, even though it's Christmas Eve.
Scene 2: The Old Guy refuses to sign, because his family has lived there for generations, and it goes to his granddaughter after he's gone. Henry: "You're the past. I'm the future. Get with the program, Boomer." Actually, he looks more like the Greatest Generation
Granddaughter Cara comes downstairs, tells Grandpa how much she loves him, and notes that they're both invited to dinner at Main Girl Willa's house tomorrow . Mayor Henry creepily says "You be safe, now," and she's off to the big Christmas Eve party.
Scene 3: At home, Mom gives a rainbow ornament to "my gay son." Ok, Jimmy is outed. Aunt comes in with her wife, annoyed because her in-laws won't believe that they are married, not roommates. Ok, she is outed in her first sentence. That's three gay characters, plus two LGBT cast members -- Willa is played by nonbinary actor Jane Widdop. This is turning into quite a queer-friendly movie.
Winnie runs out to go to the party with Best Friend Cara -- the only thing standing between Mayor Henry and the housing development plan, remember? Their boyfriends, Eddie and Robbie, will meet them there.
Back at the ancestral house, Grandpa is staring morosely at the fire, when there's a knock on the door. It's a psycho-killer dressed like the creepy masked nun-angel! Why not just steal his heart medication?
Scene 4: At the big party, Winnie wants to make friends with the Town Outcast, but a Mean Girl pulls her away -- guess what? Outcast Bernie is a girl. I bet she was a boy in the first draft, but they changed her gender so...wait...Boyfriend Robbie and Brother Jimmy arrive and brag about their scores at the big football game. Then Jimmy goes off to cruise a "brooding, artistic type," Best Friend Cara and the Mean Girl go off with their boyfriends, and Winnie is left alone.
Scene 5: Cut to Jimmy and the Brooding, Artistic Guy smooching in the woods. Uh-oh, a twig snaps. It's the Nun-Angel, leaving them alone. Not a homophobe, anyhow.
Jimmy is played by Aidan Howard, who is gay in real life. Three queer cast members.
More after the break. Caution: Explicit
