(dir. Dome Karukoski)
⭐️⭐️⭐️
52-week challenge, film 52

The film itself was made in Finland, which really marks an acceptance of the artist the country shunned for decades. Learning more about this time as a Finnish soldier in World War II is worthwhile, and about his remaining family (we only see Touko from about the age 23-onwards) — his sister Kaija (Jessica Grabowski), with whom he lives. As the film begins, Touko has returned from the war with some mental scars, but also an obsession … men, especially men in leather or more traditional kinds of uniform.

He makes his living by day as a commercial artist for an ad agency, but begins frequenting parks after dark where other gay men meet for anonymous sex. One amusing scene where he first meets Veli (Lauri Tilkanen).

Their sex is interrupted by police, but instead of running, Touko composes himself and walks casually through the park — running into the police and asking them what’s going on, thus allying any suspicion that he might be one of the homosexuals. There aren’t many laughs in this film, but there are few more to be had in the final third.

Kaija doesn’t accept Touko’s homosexuality, and is mostly unaware of his predilection for explicit fetish erotic drawings. They are both talented artists, so Touko takes to hiding his “gay” portfolio in the attic. As so many gay men in the 1940s to 80s did, he skated a very fine line between looking for love (or something a bit quicker) and avoiding the police and society’s rejection.

The film shows Touko getting older, getting beaten by straight men he mistook for gay, and the other realities of life for gay men in a sexually-repressive society. He finally does meet up with Veli again (ironically when Veli begins dating Kaija), and the trio pal around for a while until Veli finally ends up with Touko, which forces Kaija to accept the situation.

The final third of the film, where Touko’s drawings begin to been seen in the US and bring his pen name great fame, is where the viewer feels things are finally coming together for Touko. He is flown to LA and sees the fetish scene he has created among the gay men there, and is hailed as a hero.

Finally getting up the courage to publish his own book of his work, he runs into a roadblock … nobody in Finland will publish him. In one of the most amusing scenes in the film, Touko and Veli finally locate a religious Jewish printer who is willing to take on the work, but is too small a shop to print and bind 10,000-plus copies. An ingenious solution ensues, and “Tom’s” lasting fame is ensured.

Now in a stable relationship and his own place back in Finland, and celebrated as a gay icon in the US and elsewhere, “Tom” has found his place in the world at last … until Veli gets sick (of throat cancer), and other gay men are being stricken with what become known as AIDS. Touko feels partially responsible for this “gay” disease, but is quickly dissuaded as the epidemic grows.

The last scene in the film is an elderly Touko, having lost Veli some years before, appearing at a fetish convention as the guest of honour, walking on stage to an army of Leatherman. As he gazes across this army of men his works inspired, his opening words are “Hello, boys …”

As with the man himself, the film’s first half is very straightforward and mostly strait-laced, at least as much as a biographical drama of a gay man can be. As with Touko’s art finding its audience, the film finally starts to loosen up and celebrate its subject in the final third, and while the first half can seem stilted and slow at times, the last act makes the journey all worth it.

Author’s note: Well, I did it. An average of one movie every week for a year, with a few days to spare, even — documented with what I hope readers will find as informative and helpful reviews. The point of this exercise was to select a bunch of films randomly, some I’d seen before but most I hadn’t, and appraise or re-appraise them to help others decide if they wanted to delve into a particular film, as well as encourage readers to take a chance on some films they wouldn’t normally make the effort to see. If you look over the whole set, I found a bunch of new gems over the course of the year.

What’s great about movies is the way they can bring you into worlds outside your own, especially in a visual way that books cannot fully compete with. Like travel, film broadens the mind, and sometimes profoundly changes some aspect of your own worldview — or just takes you out of your own reality for a couple of hours, which can be good for your own mental and emotional health.

I’ll continue to post the occasional movie review here, but for 2024 I’ve decided to take up a new reviewing challenge — I’ll be sharing with you my discoveries, delights, and disappointments (if any) once a month over a given box set of music CDs — sometimes a career compendium, sometimes a greatly-expanded album, sometimes just a curated collection of music related to a given theme. The CD format is said to be commercially dying, ironically giving way to its predecessor, vinyl — which, as you may have guessed, I find a very odd consumer choice.

Hopefully we’ll see you over at Bargain Boxset Bin Bonanza — a new page coming soon to this same website — in the near future, and we much appreciate those of you who have visited to read the film reviews.