TV Review - Stranger Hearts

Writer-director Kevin James Thornton released his debut feature film last year. Judging him by that one work, you'd think that he's a filmmaker who leans more toward the avant-garde. His debut feature, How To Get From Here to There (2019), is a bit more experimental or just sheer strange in terms of its narrative. Certainly in structure, his debut feature and this series are radically different. This series is way more straightforward. There is a nod to Angels in America (2003), but that's about as avant-garde as this thing gets. There is at the core in both this and Thornton's previous project something similar and strong, which is the theme of gay men and their mothers, as well as using death or the threat of death to instigate the examination or self-reflection of the gay man in regard to his relationship with his mother. Thornton's debut feature felt a bit more navel-gazing than this series, which is more expansive and outward-looking.

It's a wonder though if Thornton is a fan of NBC's This Is Us. Thornton presents three, seemingly disparate men. All three seem to be involved in three, separate stories. However, Thornton reveals throughout the series that their stories aren't so separate. The three stories are actually interconnected. Obviously, This Is Us didn't invent this concept of separate stories in the beginning being revealed as interconnected in the end. Robert Altman in the 70's and 80's utilized this concept. Alejandro G. Iñárritu did it in the 2000's. Paul Haggis exemplified it in the Oscar-winning Crash (2005). I make the comparison to This Is Us because it represents the tone and level in which Thornton's series operates. It's not like Crash for example. Thornton isn't juggling an ensemble while weaving together some grand tableau or tackling some grand issue like racism. As mentioned, he's basically looking at gay men and their parental figures.

Matt Moran stars as Billy Bower, the owner and head of a boutique media company that appears to do marketing or advertising. The company seems to have only two employees, Billy and his assistant. The way he behaves, what he does and how he lives are very reminiscent of the character of Brian in the American version of Queer As Folk (2000). He's a highly successful businessman who can put on a designer suit and charm or seduce anyone in the board room or any office space. He then goes from bubble baths to being a leather daddy who can go into a gay club and score any guy he wants.

Yet, he doesn't seem to have the circle of friends that Brian had. Billy is more of a lone wolf. His only companions are his one, aforementioned co-worker or possible assistant and his employees, including his maid and his landscaper. He has an active sex life, but, like Brian, his sex life consists of a string of one-night-stands. He's likely never had a long-term relationship or if he had, it perhaps ended so that he could focus on his career or work. Billy's issue is that he's more concerned with his career and building his wealth, which likely stems back to his coming-out.

Amo or AMO is a reality TV star who recently appeared on MTV's The Real World. Amo is also a trans artist and musician who identifies as being non-binary, meaning Amo doesn't go by either the male or female pronouns of he or she. Instead, Amo goes by the pronouns they or them. Amo was presumably assigned the male gender at birth. However, Amo doesn't identify as either male or female. Amo has also said in interviews that they identify as pansexual. Amo co-stars in this series as Luka David, a non-binary and possibly pansexual person too. The beautiful thing though is that Luka's gender identity and even sexual orientation aren't the most important things about them. In fact, it's probably the least important. Those parts of Luka are of course acknowledged, but those aspects aren't driving their story.

At times, Luka seems like he could be related to another reality TV star, Jonathan Van Ness from Netflix's Queer Eye. Luka though is an aspiring artist who likes to take pictures. While Luka struggles to express oneself through art, Luka mainly struggles with how to pay the bills. That starts with finding a job, any job. When it comes to employment, Luka hits a lot of brick walls or comes to a lot of dead ends. As a result, Luka does what a lot of queer and trans people do, turn to sex work in order to survive. However, Thornton doesn't give us the cliché negative or dark depiction of sex work. For those who haven't seen Mapplethorpe (2019), Thornton also gives what could be a tribute to an influential queer artist.

Qua Harper Robertson also co-stars as Andre, a young black man who could be compared to the protagonist in Moonlight (2016), if that character hadn't been taken in by a drug dealer and if he hadn't been raised mostly by a drug-addicted mother. When it comes to his mother with whom he lives and his friend whom he sees regularly, Andre remains in the closet, unable to come out and in one scene unable to go in... into a LGBT center. Unlike Moonlight, we don't get much of Andre's childhood to make us understand his reticence, but Robertson's performance speaks some volumes.

Yet, the beauty of Thornton's series is that it does go beyond Moonlight and gives us a more positive portrayal of a gay black man or black man with same-sex attraction. In other words, we don't see that black man abused or shamed for being who he is and we actually see him express his same-sex attraction as an adult. This series certainly goes way beyond Moonlight in its showing us an ultimately positive relationship between a queer black man and his mother, something that is sorely rare in mainstream media.

Not Rated but contains graphic nudity and sexual situations.
Running Time: 14 mins. / 5 episodes.

Available via Dekkoo.