In this documentary, the Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black looks at how his relationship with his mother motivated his L.G.B.T.Q. activism.
Dustin Lance Black’s acceptance speech for best original screenplay at the 2009 Academy Awards is featured twice in “Mama’s Boy,” the new HBO documentary about Black and his mother, Anne. It’s no wonder that the writer, who won his Oscar for “Milk” (2008), the biopic of the L.G.B.T.Q. rights activist Harvey Milk, ended up in Hollywood on that podium: He’s a commanding and affecting speaker. Even when Black’s voice wavers onstage or during interviews for this film, his belief in storytelling as a tool for empathy and activism pours from each word. That stalwart belief has its advantages and disadvantages.
Adapted from Black’s memoir, the film has him tracing the life of his mother chronologically, from her childhood in small-town Louisiana and her unwillingness to surrender to polio to her gradual acceptance of her son’s gay identity. Black’s childhood memories, and how his life was irrevocably shaped by both his mother’s conservatism and her resilience, appear to be the backbone of Laurent Bouzereau’s film. Anecdotes about their intimate bond, such as Christmas traditions, give texture to the film’s thesis.
Yet “Mama’s Boy” lands as somewhat naïve in the contemporary climate of L.G.B.T.Q. rights. That the screenwriter’s mother was changed by her empathy for people different than her is an admirable value to have. But the film takes a somewhat myopic approach to Black’s reach-across-the-aisle activism philosophy, focusing primarily on his work toward marriage equality. It doesn’t consider how political polarization can make the strategy of sharing space with others, as his mother did, difficult to execute when many places go out of their way to bar those different from them from even entering in the first place.
Mama’s Boy
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 42 minutes. Watch on HBO Max.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
