Glitter & Doom

Glitter & Doom, dir. Tom Gustafson, 2023, USA/Mexico, 116 min. 💖

Thursday, June 22, 3:30 pm, Castro • not streaming

U.S. première

Glitter & Doom

Tom Gustafson’s Were the World Mine (Frameline32) is one of my all-time favorite films — so much so that I saw it in Toronto at InsideOut and then again twice in San Francisco at Frameline. Gustafson did not disappoint in this latest.

“Glitter” is the stage name of an aspiring circus artist (Alex Diaz, pictured right), a bright, bouncy, optimistic free spirit. “Doom” is the stage name of a dark and brooding musician (Alan Cammish, pictured left). Glitter lifts Doom into the light, while Doom grounds Glitter, mostly in a good way. They go off on weekend camping trips and periodically break into big musical numbers with a dozen or so backup dancers mysteriously appearing from nowhere. It’s a beautiful musical coming-of-age story, with some family drama (on both sides) as a backdrop, and on-screen appearances by Lea DeLaria, Tig Notaro, Kate Pierson (The B-52s), and the Indigo Girls themselves, whose music is the soundtrack and occasionally some of the dialogue. Definitely a MUST SEE.

Note: the printed Frameline program indicates that this film will be available in the streaming encore, but the website says that it will not.

• IMDb page • Official website (n/a) • trailer (n/a) •