The
Actor makes a convincing plea for awards recognition in the heartbreaking true story of a father whose gay son kills himself after being bullied
There’s a rocky road to redemption for the protagonist of Good Joe Bell and the actor playing him, both gradually reckoning with an uneasy history of homophobia. When explaining why he didn’t want to take a role in Brokeback Mountain, an infantile Mark Wahlberg admitted that the gay sex scene “creeped” him out and when released, he didn’t rush to see it because it just wasn’t his “deal”. Cut to 15 years later and he’s now taking the lead of the next film written by the Oscar-winning duo behind it, a fact-based drama about the dangers of homophobic bullying, a curiously … queer decision for the star and one that should make for a fascinatingly uncomfortable press tour.
Related: Summer of 85 review – François Ozon's sunny, sad gay teen romance