Set Fire to the Stars (2015)Movies

Set Fire to the StarsZorba the GreekThe Lord of the RingsPawn Shop ChroniclesDylan Thomas in AmericaLooking for LangstonMaladiesArmond WhiteMovies Not every gay film is a celebration but a work of art should, somehow, affirm life. That’s the intention of Set Fire to the Stars, a dual biography of the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas and American academic John Malcolm Brinnin, also a poet, who sponsored Thomas’ U.S. college speaking tour in 1950 recounted in the film. The prim, bookish, buttoned-up, probably gay Brinnin (played by Elijah Woods) is contrasted with the carousing heterosexual Thomas (Celyn Jones). The emotional dynamic of their literary and personality clash questions “norms” of masculinity by revealing both men’s insecurities. Shot in glossy black-and-white...