Queerguru’s Andrew Hebden reviews ‘DRIVE BACK HOME’ “a dour triumph of a road movie”. @ BFI Flare London

Drive Back Home, written and directed by Michael Clowater, is a dour triumph. This character-driven road movie, starring Alan Cumming, painstakingly scrapes through layers of hurt and humanity. But it does it with a salty tenderness. It’s a story of two estranged brothers who barely have a shared vocabulary, except maybe the word ‘faggot’. Weldon (Charlie Creed-Miles)  is a monosyllabic but stoic plumber. His flamboyant brother Perley (Cumming) is a mystery to him. Perley is fragile, but superior acting, a veneer of expensive clothes hiding a poverty of hope. The brothers were torn apart by the horror of their childhood, living with a murderously violent father. The film’s starting point is the father’s funeral which eventually creates the space for them to reunite.The drive is across a frostbitten Canadian winter in the 1970s. Weldon has to reluctantly bail Perley out of jail where he has been held for indecency with a man. It’s not the first time Perley has been punished for his indiscretion. The first time being when his father discovered him with a man, beat him with an axe head and tried to hang Perley by the neck with a tyre chain. The journey simmers along. Everything seems unspoken except a few shared jokes suggesting that maybe they were close as children. Weldon ignorantly offers to forgive Purley for his misdemeanours. But when Weldon sees, once again, how cruelly his brother is treated by homophobes the opportunity for real fraternity is ignitedAlan Cumming finely duets defiance and despair. He clutches his stuffed dead pet pug like a child’s teddy while wearing the suits of an urban sophisticate. Perley has traveled more than any member of his family but still seems to find the world strange and unwelcoming. Whereas his brother Weldon has barely left the town he grew up in as it was always a place where he could find a homeThe cinematography is stark, capturing the icy expanse of the Canadian landscape with a muted chilly palette. It feels limited, like the brothers own relationship.  Clowater’s direction is assured, letting silences speak loudly, while the score—sparse and folksy—reinforces the austerity. Any ornamentation is ruthlessly removed. Drive Back Home is a low-key gem about resilience overcoming rejection, Its tale of homophobia is familiar yet made fresh through the characterisation. It feels like a small town story that earnt the big screen.

 

 

Queerguru Contributing Editor ANDREW HEBDEN is a MEDIA and cultural STUDIES graduate spending his career between London, Beijing, and NYC as an expert in media and social trends. As part of the expanding minimalist FIRE movement, he recently returned to the UK and lives in Soho. He devotes as much time as possible to the movies, theatre, and the gym. His favorite thing is to try something (anything) new every day