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Stephen Cone’s queer films are well meaning if misguided. Here he looks to examine the hypocrisies of the evangelical sect, a fertile and ripe place, and do so in an empathetic and humane way, noble choice, but Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party is trying to tackle way more than Cone’s abilities as a writer or a director are capable of handling. There are bits about racism, mental illness, adultery, eating disorders, homosexuality, and the policing of women’s bodies and sexuality. All of that in 87 minutes, and you best believe that none of it is given much depth or consideration.
It’s a very open-hearted film and characters that would be easy target practice under another filmmaker are given moments to feel like real people. There’s a humorous bit where one character is explaining that wider societal problems play a role in young women going into pornography and maybe we should be working to dissolve those barriers and problems. This is met with a rebuttal questioning whether that character has gone democrat on everyone. It lands better in action than it may in summary.
At least Cone offers several of his characters to step into their truth and obtain agency by the end, even if the journey somehow feels compromised or only half-formed. There’s the main character and his mother who both step into the murkier waters that they’ve only flirted with by the end, and his sister who seems to find the balance between her faith and prior choices. Cone sure is big-hearted and capable of working with his actors to develop real people on the screen, so let’s focus on the positive before I wrap this up. I think Ben Kenigsberg of the New York Times summarized it best when he said, “Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party feels sincere but not accomplished, empathetic but not deep.”
