In Alexis Langlois’ feature debut Queens of Drama, pop and pop are metaphors. To be pop is to be femme, to be normal, to be famous, to be closeted. To be punk is to be masc, to be non-conformist, to be unsuccessful, to be queer. At least, this is how it seems when Mimi Madamour (Louiza Aura) and Billie Kohler (Gio Ventura) meet at try-outs for France’s biggest singing competition.
Throughout the film these lines will blur, the complexities of these two people, their music, and their romance refusing to fit within easy categorization. These assumptions are for the outside world — the challenge is refusing to believe in them.
When we meet Mimi and Billie as teenagers, they’re recognizable types. Mimi is shy, not out to her mom, and still seeking approval from the heterosexual world. Billie is always on the verge of exploding in anger and announces her queerness with her butchness and her words. Mimi is told by the singing competition that she lacks personality; Billie commands rowdy punk crowds where she removes a butt plug and gives it out to the crowd.
And yet when they meet, Mimi and Billie are both wearing shirts with the same artist. Deep down, they’re similar, two queer women seeking inspiration from the same place. This internal bond that exists in contrast with their external difference leads to a bond that is palpable and doomed. This isn’t just a lesbian film — it’s a dyke film. Langlois embraces the fullness of their character’s dyke sexuality letting them lick each other’s armpits and have a song called, “Fisting to the Heart.”
Queens of Drama is notably not told from either Mimi or Billie’s perspective. The film begins in 2055 with an older transfeminine person named Steevy Shady (Bilal Hassani) announcing her return to her YouTube channel for a mea culpa of sorts. Decades earlier, she made a career as a Mimi superfan and a cruel Perez Hilton-like gay man, and feels responsible for Mimi and Billie’s downfall. In lieu of an apology, she says she’ll tell their story.
This takes us back 50 years to Mimi and Billie’s meeting which means it takes us back — notably — to 2005. This is a film about celebrity culture and homophobia and it begins two years before Britney shaved her head and ends two years after France legalized gay marriage. This is a film that both exists in its own heightened, campy reality and is very grounded in the years it’s set.
Queens of Drama is also a film told from the perspective of an outsider. There’s plenty to hold onto if you just want to enjoy this as a big lesbian musical about two toxic queers in love. But framing the film through Steevy allows for a fascinating meta layer that deepens everything that occurs. How much is real? How much is projection? These questions apply to Steevy, the narrator, and to Langlois, someone who like many of us has a clear affection for Britney Spears and the other celebrities evoked while still not actually knowing them as people.
The affection for pop music is what sets this apart from the latest A Star is Born. That script didn’t seem to understand the value in Lady Gaga’s “bad pop songs” — Langlois does. At the beginning, Billie might look down upon pop, but Mimi’s interest in the genre is driven by a genuine love, not just fame. It might be easier to get away with singing about dirty gay sex in punk music than in pop — especially in 2005 — but that’s a reflection of mainstream culture, not the actual sounds.
Queens of Drama is a true work of queer art, a film about projection and cruelty that acknowledges its own projection and refuses to be cruel. Langlois has compassion for all their characters even when they’re agents of a toxic culture, even when they hurt one another. This is a film that’s messy and complicated and sad, while covered up with fun and sex. It is, in other words, a pop song.
Queens of Drama is now in limited theatres.
