Bengiyo's Queer Cinema Syllabus
For those who are not aware, I have decided to run the gauntlet of @bengiyo’s Queer Cinema Syllabus and have officially started Unit 2: Race, Disability, and Class. The films in Unit 2 are: The Way He Looks (2014), Being 17 (2016), Naz and Maalik (2015), The Obituary of Tunde Johnson (2019), Margarita With a Straw (2014), My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), Brother to Brother (2004), and Beautiful Thing (1996)
Today I will be writing about
Naz and Maalik (2015) dir. Jay Dockendorf
[Available on Amazon, Run Time- 1:24, Language: English]
Summary:
Two closeted Muslim teens hawk goods across Brooklyn and struggle to come clean about their sexuality, as their secretive behavior leads them unknowingly into the cross-hairs of the War on Terror.
Cast:
Kerwin Johnson Jr. as Naz
Curtiss Cook Jr. as Maalik
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Another great film down, and plenty more to go. I very deeply appreciate the authenticity of this film in the way it highlights religion and the shittiness of cops.
I like that there is a kind of war against the older ways and the newer ways between Naz and Maaling. Naz appears to be much more religious than Maalik, he wears a kufi, he gives alms, he tries to pray five times a day. Not to say that Maalik isn’t religious, but he isn’t as hung up on what is and is not haram, he’s more comfortable in his sexuality, more willing to engage in PDA, but he’s less idealistic about the world.
I love the hustle and grind we see from these boys, but even more so I love when they spend time alone together. I love how much time we get to see them goofing off, touching shoulders, flirting, racing, just having fun. I love how much time this film dedicates to showing how Naz and Maalik’s relationship works. How it could work. I love that in New York City they have so many shots dedicated to just the two of them, to the peace and quiet and light that follows them when they are together.
I love even more that they fight, that they are messy and complicated, and how much of that is driven not by themselves, but everyone else around them. This film takes place post 9/11, during the War on Terror. For those who are not aware, the War on Terror is/was a global counterterrorism military campaign following 9/11. And like I said, this film does some pretty decent realism, especially when it comes to the portrayal of the FBI agents that spend all day tailing Naz and Maalik because they have been #profiled.
One of the main conflicts kicks off when an undercover cop tries to sell Naz and Maalik a gun. Maalik, trying to be funny, haggles for the weapon but does not end up buying it. But engaging in a joke like that is enough for this FBI agent to decide they should be followed. At which point, these two FBI agents essentially end up acting as voyeurs to Naz and Maalik’s secret love life.
The FBI waits until each boy is alone and isolated to question them, and Maalik is completely honest while Naz, scared about his parents finding out about his sexuality, lies about where he had been the night before. Once again, I loved the portrayal of this, of two eighteen-year olds trying to navigate the system that was built to punish them. Not because I’m thrilled they are being harassed, but because I am appreciative of not being subject to propaganda about law enforcement and how “good” they are.
I liked seeing the dichotomy between Naz and Maalik’s handling of the FBI agent, versus an older Black man handling questioning. How he’s trying his best not to give her any information, how he cites his right to not say anything to her without an attorney present. And in response he is treated with suspicion, the FBI agent tries pressing and pushing for more information, because that’s what cops do.
And I remain unsurprised when the FBI agent pulls a gun on Naz when he reaches in to his bag. I think there are statements being made when the FBI agent is pissed at Naz and Maalik for “wasting her time” and that the boys are compelled to apologize for the inconvenience, despite the fact they were literally just existing as Black muslims and the FBI agent decided that not buying a gun was enough of a reason to tail them all day.
But it is those outside pressures, the concern that they will be outed, that they will be disowned, that they will lose everything that starts driving a wedge between Naz and Maalik. That Naz’s sister finds out and Naz is scared she’ll tell their parents. Those all start when the FBI starts questioning them, though there are multiple other forces at play.
Now. I think I wrote up a post after I watched Love of Siam, and how fucking furious I was that they ended that film on a separation. But that does not mean I hate separation narratives in queer cinema (I hated the one in LoS because I felt tricked). But Naz and Maalik separating at the end makes sense given their circumstances. There is no winning here. Naz is too kind to slaughter a chicken, Maalik feels compelled to show that he can do it, and Maalik ends up wounded and the chicken ends up dead without either of them laying a hand on it. There are repercussions here, a car accident, an injured person that could have been spared by just killing the chicken. I like that despite the fact that Naz and Maalik do have multiple fights in the film, it is not a fight that breaks them up.
They both knew this was an inevitability, there aren’t hard feelings about it. It’s sad for both of them, but it happens almost casually. TI did find the ending of the movie very interesting. Because they chose to end it before Naz arrives home. Naz gets on the subway, sad about his separation with Maalik, scared about what is waiting for him at home, and he is stopped by the very same cop that tried to sell him a gun the other day. He is ticketed for riding his bike in the subway, and one of the last lines Naz has in the movie is something like “don’t I know you from somewhere?”
Because no matter what, he’ll just never catch a fucking break.
As an aside, I love how frequently homeless people are included in this film and how they are never regarded as scary or terrifying. One guy is mostly quiet and he either stares or sleeps. Another man is loud, rambunctious, and fucking funny. Naz and Maalik talk to a homeless woman, talk to some boys begging for money for medical treatment. I just love when homeless people are humanized, and I am glad that Naz and Maalik spends time focusing their lens on the people society often refuses to look at.
By/For/About Queers
Naz and Maalik is loosely based on an interview director Jay Dockendorf did with a closeted Muslim man that he sublet a room from. Dockendorf used this man’s life story as a jumping off point for his film. And it certainly feels like a film that is made for queer people, the way that it is structured. So ultimately, I think this is a gay trifecta.
Favorite Moment
My favorite moment is near the end of the film. Naz and Maalik have just made out and Naz has rejected the offer to take things further. Naz and Maalik lay in bed together, in just their boxers, and they read each other these shitty little poems that are attached to beanie babies that Naz acquired earlier in the film. I just love gay boys and their plushies, I’m a simple person. And once again considering that Ben created this syllabus to be a wind up to BLs, I think the plushie moment is worth noting because boys and their plushies is a recurring theme in a number of BLs. Teh and Oh have matching monster plushies in I Told Sunset About You. Bai Lang’s entire apartment is covered in plushies in My Tooth Your Love. Chinzilla keeps a plushie of a chinchilla on an alter in the music room in My School President. etc. etc.
And I love plushies every time because I love seeing moments of softness portrayed on screen.
Favorite Line
“Barack Obama*. It’s crazy. It makes white men smell like black men, so white women will like black men more.”
*fake name of a scented oil
I mean…come on. It’s perfect.
Score
8.5/10
I think the story was pretty good, and there are these incredible bright spots of powerful acting. But the director allowed space for a lot of improv, which in some capacities I think is good. However, it does often result in awkward line deliveries, that tend to take me out of the story because the acting fluctuates so much between brilliant and smooth, to conscious and stilted.
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@patrichornkissed THANK you for this WONDERFUL THOUGHT JOURNEY!!! under a cut
who came out first -- matty came out to brady first but brady came out to their parents + young sister first. matty came out to their extended family first but brady came out to all their shared friends first. it absolutely was the most headass competition after that initial fear when brady came out to matty, a couple months after matty came out to her.
not to eldest-daughter code matty but sometimes u set an example for your younger siblings and the things that brady had been wrestling with that felt too big and too much suddenly felt accessible and manageable. once she reconciled that with herself, she came out to matty, and the two of them engaged in the world's stupidest game of one-up-womanship. this caused so many problems in their personal life and they loved every minute of the chaos.
did quinn and brady get married immediately -- SORT OF. they get married when quinn graduates college. childhood sweethearts, broke up in college when quinn went to umich and brady went to a state school. and yk how it goes with teenagers going to college they're like, this CANNOT work bc now we are ADULTS in COLLEGE, we need to SEE OTHER PEOPLE because young love ISN'T REAL, and then brady makes it through one year of college and goes this SUCKS!!! academically and emotionally, drops out after one year. spends a year bouncing around trying to make her life work without quinn and having an low-stakes but meaningless fling with timmy from her beer league team. and her life DOES NOT MAKE SENSE without quinn. so in quinn's junior year she comes back to quinn and is like hello. you are the love of my life. i want to be with you forever. and quinn has been in a strange little polycule with various swedes and americans and he's like ...yeah. no. i miss you too. this is great but it's not right.
and then they're together for the rest of their lives, hanging out and doing whatever. getting married literally like two months after quinn graduates. they spent about five minutes trying to plan a wedding and get bored and annoyed and then handed it off to brady's mom, who has a blast bc she has realized that matty is at least twenty to thirty years off of being functional enough to get married and brady is going to be way less fussy.
important wedding notes because i am an incurable romantic when it comes to parties:
takes place at some random lake in michigan, no one really cares about the ceremony except parents and grandparents, the reception is in a big banquet hall but the afterparty is in a barn, matty and timmy hook up in a random shed, it's magical, everyone has a GREAT time, including matty, up until she hooks up with timmy
elias and brock and thatcher are there, deeply involved in day of wedding prep and making sure everything goes according to plan and they're so helpful and so competent, and no cishet family member realizes they're quinn's ex-polycule for a solid six hours, like until WELL into reception, at which point it's too late for anyone to say anything
the tkachuk sisters are brady's bridesmaids, the hughes bros are quinn's best men. obvi. the hughes bros are the ones crying during brady's deeply stupid vows though
quinn wears a suit and he looks so handsome. brady wears a dress but the hemline is literally mid-thigh and it has no sleeves. she is a bombshell ofc
brady and quinn's first dance is to "suga suga" by baby bash. the closing song in the afterparty (post-reception) is "moment's silence (common tongue)" by hozier which brady picked and quinn didn't look at the lyrics beforehand. and is thankfully too drunk to notice, but luke and taryn do and they're both so stressed out by their older siblings having oral sex that they leave immediately with matty beniers, and josh norris to go sober up in a denny's at like 2am lol.
sorry i know you are anti-marriage, but i love to think about queer weddings bc the only lesbian wedding i've been to was so clean and heterosexual that it makes me actively sad to think about lmao. brady and quinn's wedding is like...bro queer
does matty ever get her shit together -- like. a dozen years in the future after her final trainwreck relationship with leon. it takes a lot of therapy bc while she came out first to brady, she never really felt safe or comfortable as herself around anyone BUT brady. and obvi brady cannot be there every moment of her life. and part of the reason every relationship she's in ends up being kind of a wreck because she hates herself so much but covers it up with so much bravado and big energy and zero honesty or emotional intimacy. like u cannot be inauthentic in a relationship and expect it to work out yk?? but then she meets sasha (i changed my mind, they use any pronouns) who is like ok. i am willing to try this. i am very attracted to you and i could fall in love with you easily. but you NEED to figure your shit out if you want this to work in the long term.
and no one has ever made that kind commitment to matty, so she tries her hardest to reconcile the parts of herself that are ugly and cruel to herself, and turn it into love. and it takes like. over a decade. because she's also a corporate lawyer. but she finally gets there in the end 😭
sasha is quite happy to live in sin for several years lol he grows heirloom vegetables and works on a farm doing most of their farmstand and farmer's market stuff bc they are gentle and kind, but she's also like yeah now that i'm dating someone in corporate law, i do not have to worry that much. so he waits for matty to get right with herself, and she raises some heirloom chickens that matty does his therapy homework with. a fun (???) digression
thank you for asking!!!!! i love them 😭😭😭
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What does lesbian mean/genq
im answering this in good faith because im assuming that you’re asking it in good faith but if this is an attempt at some terf shit you can get off of my blog :)
a lesbian is generally defined as a nonman who is romantically or sexually attracted to nonmen. (usually exclusively, but sexuality as a social label is always changing and many people who are mostly attracted to nonmen with some attraction to men also ID themselves as lesbians and that’s a-okay)
as a queer label, lesbianism isn’t really set in stone and can be defined by a lot of different things. lesbians often have complex relationships with gender and can present and identify in a whole myriad of ways without sacrificing their lesbianism. butch lesbians are a subculture of lesbians who exhibit masculine characteristics and present in a stereotypically masculine fashion, for example, and there are a lot of us in the lesbian community
while the typical view of lesbianism is women loving women, things aren’t usually as dry-cut. Non-binary lesbians, trans lesbians, bi lesbians, oriented aroace lesbians, (as well as many other identities) may experience things differently and sexuality is deeply personal
for example, i am a butch lesbian. i present masculinely and am often mistaken as a man when i got out and about. this doesn’t really bother me as i identify as genderqueer and use all pronouns. despite not being a woman per-se, it is undeniable that i am a lesbian
sorry for the long ramble, tldr lesbians make the world go round!
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