‘Housekeeping for Beginners’ Review: It’s a Queer Old Family Time in Macedonia

April 2, 2024

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A couple of beginners (CREDIT: Viktor Irvin Ivanov/© 2023 Focus Features LLC)

Starring: Anamaria Marinca, Alina Șerban, Samson Selim, Vladimir Tintor, Mia Mustafa, Džada Selim, Sara Klimoska, Rozafë Çelaj, Ajse Useini

Director: Goran Stolevski

Running Time: 107 Minutes

Rating: R for Slurs and Awkward/Raucous Sexuality

Release Date: April 5, 2024

What’s It About?: Queer people often end up in misfit, makeshift families, and it doesn’t get much more makeshift than the one in Housekeeping for Beginners. In this Skopje-set feature from Macedonian-Australian director Goran Stolevski, Suada (Alina Șerban) shares a motley house with her girlfriend Dita (Anamaria Marinca); her two daughters from previous relationships, teenage Vanesa (Mia Mustafa) and kindergartener Mia (Džada Selim); and Dita’s gay friend Toni (Vladimir Tintor). Then there’s Toni’s much younger boyfriend Ali (Samson Selim), who gets to stay in the house after his and Toni’s first hookup. There are also a couple of other young women hanging around, but I’ve got to be honest, I’m not entirely sure who they were. Stolevski just drops us right in the thick of the chaos and leaves us to figure it out on our own! Anyway, the crux of the plot is Suada dying from cancer and leaving Vanesa and Mia in Dita’s care. But Macedonia doesn’t exactly have the most progressive LGBTQ rights, so Dita decides that she and Toni should get married for this to actually work. Alas, this isn’t exactly the steadiest arrangement for everyone involved.

What Made an Impression?: Taking Care of Our Own: Call it a parenting instinct, call it an internal feeling of responsibility, or just call it a fundamental sense of decency. But as soon as Suada passes away, Dita goes into Protective Mom mode, and there is nothing standing in her way. And that’s not because she was looking forward to this! She would have much rather that Suada had fought just a little bit harder to stay alive. And Toni’s even more resistant to playing the part of Dad, but he can’t escape that duty when one of the girls gets into trouble. Meanwhile, Ali immediately bonds with Vanessa and Mia, and while I have no idea how they would or should explain what their relationship to him is, he is also now inexplicably connected to the whole brood. When you live in this house, you’re bound at the core to everyone else, even when (perhaps especially when) they’re being huge pains in the ass.
How to Talk to Your Family: Housekeeping for Beginners isn’t just a quietly urgent plea for queer rights, it’s also standing up for the Romani people, the traditionally nomadic ethnic group that have significant modern populations in much of Europe. Several of the characters are Roma, and everyday discrimination is just a fact of life for them. But there’s plenty of energy – sometimes aggressive, sometimes steely and patient – making it clear that it shouldn’t be that way. There’s also plenty of use of a certain word that is generally considered an ethnic slur for the Roma, as well as plenty of use of an f-word slur for gay people. I don’t feel like it’s appropriate for me to use either of those words, but they are uttered in this movie by people who are close to the characters who fit those categories, as well as those characters themselves. Perhaps an in-group member can get away with that kind of language, although it’s not exactly used in the friendliest way. Although I suppose families don’t always like each other even when they defiantly love each other. And I suspect plenty of viewers will recognize their own families in the one in Housekeeping for Beginners.

Housekeeping for Beginners is Recommended If You Like: Marriage Story, Making one of your friends, Macedonian rock music

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Marriages

‘Of an Age’ is Low-Key, Queer, and Australian. But What Does That Mean for You, the Viewer?

February 15, 2023

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They’re herrrrre! (CREDIT: Ben King / © Of An Age Films Pty Ltd)

Starring: Elias Anton, Thom Green, Hattie Hook

Director: Goran Stolevski

Running Time: 99 Minutes

Rating: R for A Sexual Awakening or Two

Release Date: February 17, 2023 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Life as a teenage Serbian immigrant in 1999 Australia may not be the most ideal scenario for coming out of the closet. (Of course, what even is an ideal scenario?) But sometimes you have an unexpected experience that forces you to admit who you really are. That’s what happens to Kol (Elias Anton) on a day that starts about as disastrously as possible. His friend and ballroom dancing partner Ebony (Hattie Hook) is lost in the middle of nowhere after a drunken night out, so Kol enlists her older brother Adam (Thom Green) to help track her down in a quixotic bid to get to their performance in time. A fitting choreographic conclusion might not be in the cards, but when Adam offhandedly mentions that his ex was a guy, Kol’s conception of his own world suddenly opens up exponentially.

What Made an Impression?: As far as tragic queer romances go, Of an Age is hardly revolutionary, but it’s certainly heartfelt. And frankly, it could’ve been a lot more tragic. It’s not exactly a spoiler to reveal that Kol and Adam’s story isn’t a simple fairy tale “happily ever after.” But the 21st century offers the potential of plenty of fulfillment for both of them. This might not be the story of meeting The One against seemingly insurmountable odds, but it is a story about a formative experience that’s worth telling.

But I’m going to be honest with you: my enjoyment of Of an Age had relatively little to do with whether or not any attractions were or weren’t consummated, and a whole lot more to do with Kol and Ebony annihilating the dancefloor to the tune of Nelly Furtado’s “Maneater” when we zip ahead to her wedding in 2010. Ebony is a piece of work, but she’s the kind of piece of work who you look back at and go, “You know what? I’m glad we met when we did and that we’ve kept in touch all these years.” And “Maneater” is a bop that simply cannot be resisted no matter how much you’re struggling with your identity.

Of an Age is Recommended If You Like: Sheilas

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 House Parties

‘You Won’t Be Alone’ is a Witchy, Bloody Fairy Tale

March 29, 2022

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You Won’t Be Alone (CREDIT: Branko Starcevic/Focus Features)

Starring: Noomi Rapace, Anamaria Marinca, Alice Englert, Carloto Cotta, Félix Maritaud, Sara Klimoska

Director: Goran Stolevski

Running Time: 108 Minutes

Rating: R for Violence, Blood, and Sexaul Content – All Involving Witches

Release Date: April 1, 2022 (Theaters)

You Won’t Be Alone is the type of movie that will make you feel like your mind has been altered if you look away for just a minute. And honestly, that’s a big part of the gnarly appeal. Time jumps ahead without any hand holding, while major characters shapeshift all over the place. Not to mention it’s in a language I’m unfamiliar with, though I’d be surprised if any native Macedonian speakers find it straightforward. So go ahead and watch You Won’t Be Alone while you’re fighting insomnia or in the middle of a bleary-eyed food coma. Or if you’re a recreational drug user, consider this an ideal opportunity to indulge. But even if you’re fully awake and 100% sober, the odds are still high that your brain will be squeezed into another dimension.

For a description a little more straightforward, here’s the logline from the film’s PR team:

“Set in an isolated mountain village in 19th century Macedonia, YOU WON’T BE ALONE follows a young girl who is kidnapped and then transformed into a witch by an ancient spirit. Curious about life as a human, the young witch accidentally kills a peasant in the nearby village and then takes her victim’s shape to live life in her skin. Her curiosity ignited, she continues to wield this horrific power in order to understand what it means to be human.”

My response to reading that after watching the movie is, “Oh. I guess that’s what happened.” If I were pitching it, I would personally probably keep it a little simpler and say something like: the hallucinogenic cultural subconscious of fairy tales spills out phantasmagorically across the European woodlands. The bottom line is, Macedonian-Australian writer-director Goran Stolevski is throwing together a wide array of influences here that are bound to satisfy widescreen-loving cineastes, as well as English majors who tend toward the sylvan supernatural.

If it sounds like I’m being vague about what actually happens in this movie, well, that’s because I’m a little wary of describing anything concretely for fear of totally misinterpreting everything. But don’t let that scare you away! Sometimes it’s okay to let a film confound you, and it’s also totally okay to ask someone else what happened. And if your buddies don’t know either, you can try to figure it out together! After all, you shouldn’t have to feel alone while watching You Won’t Be Alone.

You Won’t Be Alone is Recommended If You Like: Midsommar, The Witch, Grimm fairy tales, Terrence Malick

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Witches