To Russia with Love
- Director: Noam Gonick
- Writer: Noam Gonick
- Producer: Laina Cohn; Elle Flanders
CGiii Comment
When Noam Gonick set out to make this film, he must have thought - with uncontainable and understandable anticipation - that he was about to film an exploding powderkeg, the public savaging of Putin's dictaroship with all the world a-watching...WRONG!
Instead...a damp squib.
The rhetoric before the Sochi Winter Olympics was loud, proud and clear...it resonated around the world...giving the LGBT community in Russia...[a little] hope.
WRONG!
Johnny Weir (ice-skater, commentator, lover of all things Russian and the unrecognised illegitimate son of PeeWee Herman) has a remarkable talent for landing himself right in it...he states that pleasing the gay community is the hardest things he has to do...not surprising when you publicly call the activists 'stupid'. Well, Johnny stop trying to please and just shut the f**k up. Or, at least, think before you spout.
Gonick and Weir (he is the executive producer) recognise and exploit the money shot...Weir poses throughout...but, when a 17 year old Russian kid tells his heart-breaking story...Johnny gives him a gold, sparkly scarf...it's like dishing out a death sentence. The kid is going to wear it, the kid is going to get beaten.
Another Weir[d] faux pas. Gonick must have been clicking his heels. Especially when the same kid meets Billie Jean King...defiant tears will surely well-up even in the hardest of hearts. This is a broken kid asking for help...there are thousands just like him. They don't know what to do.
All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts...sadly and shamefully, these sportmen and women failed to play their part. There were no standing ovations.
But - as a film - a standing ovation is well-deserved. Gonick adapts, capitalises and exploits everything that comes his way. The result is a rollercoaster of emotions...served in unrelenting dollops. A filmmaker's feast.
But, the stars of this show are the kids, the activists, Tewksbury and Louganis...the rest...well, they have to live with their ineffectuality...they call themselves competitors, indeed...well, they let down a community. Big time.
We have a long, long way to go :(
To Russia With Love: Clip 1 from EPIX PR on Vimeo.
The(ir) Blurb...
Leading up to the Olympics in Sochi, a law banning 'propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations to minors' was passed in Russia. Gay Olympians were confronted with a tough decision: whether to protest in defense of their Russian comrades or compete in silence. Featuring world medalist Johnny Weir, Billie Jean King, Greg Louganis, Martina Navratilova, Simona Meiler and others.