Celebrate Pride Month
Essentially the starting gun for the New Queer Cinema of the 1990s, Todd Haynes’ debut feature was a surprise hit that made all kinds of headlines. This groundbreaking American indie was the most fervently debated film of the 1990s and a trailblazing landmark of queer cinema. As a work of immense visual invention, it’s also audacious, disturbing, and thrillingly cinematic.
In addition to being the surprise Grand Prize winner at the 1991 Sundance Film Festival, Haynes’ film (and Haynes himself) was publicly attacked and berated by right-wing figures including Dick Armey, Ralph Reed, Jesse Helms, and minister Donald Wildmon. It’s a safe bet that none of them saw the film, and, really, is there any better press for an LGBTQ ’90s movie?
Inspired by the writings of Jean Genet, Haynes deftly interweaves three transgressive tales that build toward a devastating climax. “Hero,” shot in mock TV-documentary style, tells a bizarre story of suburban patricide and a miraculous flight from justice. “Horror,” filmed like a delirious ’50s B-movie melodrama, is a gothic tale of a mad sex experiment which unleashes a disfiguring plague. And “Homo” explores the obsessive sexual relationship between two prison inmates.
Haynes has gone on to stake a claim as one of America’s finest filmmakers—Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, Safe, Far From Heaven, Carol, and May/December would all be submitted as evidence—but Poison remains a signature work.