Some Kind of Paradise is showing at the Tribeca Film Festival from June 6 – June 16. BOOK TICKETS
Sometimes, a brief encounter, a fleeting yet powerful connection and a passionate electric embrace can change everything. These brief encounters take many forms in our digital world, from online hookup apps to swipe-and-pick dating sites and online chat. Yet, we have never been lonelier, and part of the reason for that lies in the very digital devices we now rely on.
Rather than talk to each other or physically introduce ourselves, we have been trained to look at a single photo on an app and decide whether it matches our shopping list of requirements without uttering a single word. We swipe right or left, or send a like, based on whether a picture appeals to us. How many people do we pass up because they don’t quite fit our “type,” and how many potential relationships do we discard in the process? These themes find a powerful voice in Nicholas Finegan’s beautifully written, directed and performed cowboy drama Some Kind of Paradise.
Tyler (John Brodsky) is a bartender and line dancing instructor in the small town of Paradise, Arkansas, where he lives in a trailer. As he opens the bar, works until late, and then closes, each day merges into the next. Openly gay, in a town that sees plenty of men passing through, Tyler’s gay life centres around the smartphone in his pocket, where he carefully selects each potential hookup based on his set likes and dislikes.
When Raphael (Gabriel Leyva), an actor working on a film set down the road, messages him, Tyler initially dismisses it, saying, “he’s not my type.” But when Raphael turns up in Tyler’s bar, a spark of potential attraction turns into a blaze of interest and desire. Could Raphael be “the one?” Will Tyler let him in and let down his guard? Sometimes, a single meeting or the briefest encounters can change our outlook and promote an optimism that cuts through the daily treadmill of life.
At some point, we have all felt stuck in repeating patterns of behaviour, with each day merging into the next and each month a repeat of the last; co-written with Talisha Elgar, Finegan’s Some Kind of Paradise beautifully explores these themes and the antidote to our feelings of loneliness or boredom, letting someone new into our lives.
One person, one meeting, and one kiss can change your world instantly, so forget your “type” and use your app to embrace conversation rather than avoid it; who knows where it will take you? A quick fuck is fun, but like cottonwood floating in the breeze, it quickly vanishes. But conversation, touch, laughter and connection can last a lifetime.
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