TOM OF FINLAND – Review

The 11th Annual QFest St. Louis, presented by Cinema St. Louis, is proud to host the local premiere of Finnish biopic TOM OF FINLAND at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 7, at the Tivoli Theatre. The event will serve as an early kickoff for the 2018 QFest St. Louis, which will be held April 4-8 at .ZACK. QFest’s full schedule will be announced at the TOM OF FINLAND screening, which is sponsored by Cheap TRX.

Review by Stephen Tronicek

TOM OF FINLAND is a story of a man who simply wanted to depict the beautiful eroticism of gay men as they are and the trials and tribulations he took in order to do so. The film is more aptly split into thirds each detailing a moment in the life of Touko Laaksonen or “Tom of Finland” as an artist: the first being the time when he kept his art secret, the second being a time when his art flourishes internationally but not at home, and the third arising when his art is blacklisted in the face of the AIDS crisis, a situation where he was still driven to publish, even with the horrifying prejudices of the public weighing down on him. It is with this devious structure that Tom of Finland makes itself a great biopic.

A great biopic should mostly be a great movie before it is an accurate account of the events at play. Of course, accuracy helps, but the best biopics are usually the ones that realize that structuring the events around a filmic narrative will result in a more entertaining and satisfying experience. Take, for example, I Tonya a pretty good film that is a film first and a historical document, not even second, probably last. It may be manipulative of the accuracy of the events but it is entertaining.

If that is the case with TOM OF FINLAND, then the structure that the screenwriter, director, and editor all chose is a doozy, strong enough to allow for an ebb and flow within the narrative as we watch the slow evolution of progressive thinking towards Touko’s identity and the community around him. The larger machinery of history is something that Tom of Finland wears proudly on its sleeve, allowing for the film to hold deeper, esoteric qualities that would not be present if the film had just been a straight biopic. It also supports the more trite elements of the film, bolstering otherwise well-worn cliches.

TOM OF FINLAND also has the upside of actually being directed. Whereas many directors fall into the trap of shooting biopics “pretty” (yet usually boring), director Dome Karukoski goes for a much more visceral shooting style. What’s fascinating about this visceral filmmaking is that it never seems like a crutch. Often in films that decide to use a handheld camera, it is hard to see why. The Disaster Artist is a good movie, but the handheld camera didn’t really lend anything to the film itself. Here, the handheld camera is used ruthlessly, providing both compositional tact to the film and a sense of intensity. It helps that the lighting is incredible, stylized but not too much.

At this point, it probably goes without saying that the cast is exemplary. Lead actor Pekka Strang is the definition of a revelation, giving off a kind-eyed demeanor, in a performance that is sentimental but better because of it. Strang will hopefully have an even longer career of dramatic roles ahead of him after such a well-done performance.

TOM OF FINLAND is a film deserving to kick off this year’s Q-Fest. It is a beautiful story of a lifetime that is structured in such a way to keep it dramatically compelling, punctuated by great moments of suspense, sentimentality and ruthless joy. It is a wonderful embodiment of a man.