Nimona - Queer False Dragon
Thoughts On: Nimona (2023)
A gay sci-fi knight and trans-human girl save a city from its corrupt institution built on lies and xenophobia.
Though very dumb and highly unoriginal beyond elements of its political façade, Nimona is actually enjoyable. The animation style is slick, the plot moves fast and the brass characters never become fully insipid. This is then perhaps a pretty key marker of the integration of queer cinema into the mainstream, commercial space. Refused by Disney, who prefer to use slight of hand in place of clear statements, this dares to be unpretentious where so much commercial cinema with queer, political elements gets caught in a mire of ostentatiousness. What this then does successfully is make its statement with its characters and then get on with telling a story less so than making a spectacle out of its politics. Is it a great story: not at all, and we should be honest about that. But it stands on its own two feet and I was keen to finish it. It attempts to not merely be about inclusion and openness, instead truth and honour, yet unfortunately fails to do so with much substance. So by no means do I think this is a particularly good movie or a story to be praised and heralded as meaningful before children. Our titular character is, after all, an emotional brute that requires unconditional love as not to hide from the world or kill herself and someone to literally hold her heart so she can make an attempt at heroism - which is childishly unrealistic and certainly not honourable. However, the comedic and unserious tone of Nimona saves it and - above all else I would say - demonstrates the false dragon that is queer cinema itself. In such, insofar as we do not pretend that this is meaningful or that Nimona is not an anti-hero, I don't feel it is at all problematic. Presented through Disney and Marvel, queer cinema is rather sickly; which goes to show that they, hesitant and bland in the realm of the symbolic, don't know how to translate this type of cinema into something entertaining. Stepping beyond broken walls rather than knocking cracks in it, Nimona proves that talking straight through a bent, gay smile rather than moaning feebly is the way to go; pretty meaningless but little more so than minions, lightsabres and wacky talking animals, this is all right. Not to be taken seriously, but certainly can be enjoyed.
