How do I live in a world in which Moonlight beats La La Land, but most people have never heard of Saturday Church, which is streaming on Amazon Prime? Saturday Church is a coming of age story of a teenage boy’s innocent exploration of his gender and sexual identity with disproportionately severe consequences until he finds his tribe, who provide him with an unconditional sanctuary from a harsh world.
A movie does not have to be perfect to feel perfect. Saturday Church is simultaneously realistic and pulls punches, predictable and startling, uneven and polished. The film’s power resides in its emotional resonance, honest performances and visual poetry. This movie shows more than it tells, trusting the audience to draw parallels between the two worlds that Ulysses inhabits. While it has musical moments, I would hesitate to call it one in the traditional sense of the genre since the interludes are infrequent. It also features elements of cinema verite when the film shows what seems to be real footage of balls, which were introduced to the world in the landmark documentary, Paris Is Burning, then brought into the mainstream by Madonna in Vogue. At times, it can feel like an Afterschool Special, but its target audience would be for adults as a tale of caution to how you treat your children because you could be inflicting the very damage that you think that you are trying to keep at bay. My only criticism of the film is that it fails to find a rhythm between balancing Ulysses story, the realistic elements and the musical numbers. Everything works, but it does not quite make a seamless, cohesive whole.
Saturday Church unfolds in New York City in the fall. Ulysses’s family may reside in the Bronx, but his home is in Greenwich Village. I love fall, but in this film, autumn is a season of death for Ulysses as he finds himself at sea by a sudden loss fraught with an ultimate confrontation and assertion of gender normative identity whose proximity gives him no credit with those who seek to kick him when he is down. He initially learns that being a real man confers nothing but death and loss with women left holding the bag of survival and enforcing an establishment that leaves them vulnerable. The film’s choice of depicting his sexual awakening at a cemetery feels like a double-edged sword-a rebuke of the false safety promised by a heteronormative society and the real danger that he faces for being different. The only rest that he can enjoy is among the dead.
Ulysses’ home life is fraught with tension: a desire for openness and communication, but swift punishment for any expression of Ulysses’ truth. School offers more expected landmines. The introduction of his aunt, played by television icon Regina Taylor, whose voice I recognized instantly, further complicates matters as she acts as another enforcer for the informal thought and cultural police. It feels so dissonant to hear I’ll Fly Away’s Lily Harper’s voice be so hateful. Saturday Church shows the ugly underside of black women at home as people who may be willing to sacrifice themselves and provide a home, but can also become enforcers of a hateful system that does nothing to benefit them. She takes him to his church and gets him involved in ceremonial duties. While her church promulgates images that do not correlate with his daily life in any manner, it does give him a taste of the spotlight. He is given a walkway and stands under the scrutiny without wilting like the petals that fall from the trees as he passes under him. If he can bloom in this inhospitable environment, what opportunities are available in the world beyond his family’s door?
He tentatively ventures into the streets of Manhattan and is accepted by some transgender and gay young people who introduce him to Saturday Church, which is not only the name of the movie, but an actual place where LGTBQ youth find sanctuary. They can sense that he is still at the other side of where they were and though still young themselves, try to prepare him for the glorious and tragic events about to come. This church contrasts dramatically with his aunt’s place of worship, but offers more sanctuary and communion than he has ever known. What makes this movie so special is that it provides a gentle glimpse of how the heterosexual nightmarish imagination of growing up actually creates the imagined harm versus the reality, which is innocent, sweet and does not have to be inherently fraught with danger. Still as Ulysses walks on brown leaves as he ascends a staircase, a clash of worlds is about to come.
When it does, even though we know how these stories usually go, seeing it is still heart wrenching because it feels like such a waste. Ulysses is polite and a solid student. Is this really how you should react to a pair of shoes? As Ulysses must go through the gauntlet faced by many LGTBQ children, I was struck by how irrationally unreasonable it is and how security gets stripped away precipitously then grows exponentially. He goes from not being able to imagine living under such conditions to finding every second of survival challenging unable to hold on to the basics of his humanity.
Saturday Church goes there then pulls back enough so we can leave credibly feeling as if this is but a season, and Ulysses will escape the Scylla and Charybdis triumphant and beautiful, but the bravest and scariest moment for me is when Ebony, played by the outstanding Mj Rodriguez, acts as his unofficial guardian, making herself vulnerable to reopening physical and psychological wounds to ameliorate Ulysses’ return without knowing what they will face-hostility or open arms. Everyone may move beyond trauma, but it still happened and can always reemerge. The danger is always lurking.
Saturday Church has some recognizable faces. Margot Bingham, who is best known for her performances in Boardwalk Empire, plays Ulysses’ mom and looks very similar to Tracie Thoms in this role. Kate Bornstein, an actual gender non-conforming artist and academic, has a small role. Marquis Rodriguez is best known for playing Darryl in Marvel’s Luke Cage and Iron Fist and the boyfriend of the younger sister in Landline. Luka Kain may not be as well known, but as Ulysses, he successful carries the weight of the movie on his experienced shoulders, and I hope that he gets more opportunities to showcase his talents.
I highly recommend that you watch Saturday Church, especially if you are a parent. Don’t make your worst fears come true.