LGBTQ+ Cinema Club: My Life with James Dean (2017)

“Sometimes I like to be sentimental.”

Welcome to the very first entry in my new series: LGBTQ+ Cinema Club!

If you’ve followed me for a while, you probably remember my 365-movie-a-day challenge — where I posted a whole bunch of film reviews, one after another, until my eyeballs were basically permanently glazed. I had a lot of fun with it (and watched some truly bizarre things), but I also got some feedback that made me pause. A few readers mentioned my posts were… a tad long. And that the lack of headings made them feel a little like falling into a dense thicket of film opinions. Fair! I did use paragraph breaks (I swear!) but I guess it still got a little heavy.

So this time around, I’m switching it up. For LGBTQ+ Cinema Club, I’ll be breaking my reviews into clean, easy-to-digest sections — like bite-sized pieces of a queer film snack tray. Hopefully that makes things more readable and more fun for everyone. I plan to keep this format going forward, so if you like it, let me know!

Anyway, let’s talk about our first pick: My Life with James Dean — a whimsical little French comedy that made me want to take a long, pensive walk along a windswept coastline and flirt awkwardly with strangers.

 Quick Info:

• Title: My Life with James Dean
• Year: 2017
• Directed by: Dominique Choisy
• Starring: Johnny Rasse, Mickaël Pelissier, Nathalie Richard, Juliette Damiens
• Where I Watched It: Dekkoo – a streaming service for Gay men. They have a lot of art house films.

Queer-o-Meter:

🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈 (4 out of 5 Pride Flags)
Rated on how gay it feels — characters, themes, vibes, chaotic queer energy. This one? Pretty darn queer.

One-Line Summary:

A sweetly awkward film director stumbles into a seaside town to promote his new gay indie flick and gets tangled up in small-town shenanigans, unexpected romances, and some very charming chaos.

Standout Scene:

There’s this moment where Géraud (played with fluttery-eyed melancholy by Johnny Rasse) is left alone in his hotel room and just… spirals. It’s not dramatic or anything — more like quietly existential. He watches his film alone in bed, mopes adorably, and looks like he’s one sad playlist away from writing angsty poetry in the margins of his travel itinerary. It hit me square in the “wow I’ve totally been there” center of my soul.

Favorite Line:

“Love is always possible, isn’t it?”
Why does this line live rent-free in my head? I don’t know. But it does.

Would I Rewatch?

•  Absolutely ✔
•  Maybe… with wine
•  Once was enough
•  I’ve already watched it 3 times, send help

Review:

Okay, so here’s the thing about My Life with James Dean: it’s not a big, sweeping romance or a high-drama coming-out story. It’s a quirky little mood piece that sort of meanders in the best possible way. The film follows Géraud Champreux, a timid and very soft-spoken filmmaker who’s traveling to Normandy to show his obscure gay film, “My Life with James Dean,” to like, three people and a confused usher. He’s a delicate little disaster of a man, constantly losing his phone, getting stuck in stairwells, and quietly pining for any man who makes eye contact. Basically, he’s all of us.

The town he arrives in feels almost Wes Anderson-y in its weird stillness. There’s a theater manager (played by Nathalie Richard) who’s very intense and very French, a boyish projectionist (Mickaël Pelissier) with dreamy eyes and a motorbike, and a whole cast of oddball locals who don’t quite know what to make of this melancholy gay film they’re supposed to be screening. And somehow, amidst all the social awkwardness and sleepy seaside pacing, this film becomes the backdrop for Géraud’s accidental flirtation with the projectionist, a sweet, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it romance that made my little heart squeak.

This isn’t a movie that throws big plot twists or steamy drama at you. It’s tender. And kind of weird. The characters all feel like they’ve wandered in from different plays but somehow make it work. It’s also got this meta thing going — the film is about showing a film about James Dean, and at one point you start wondering if you’re watching the film being shown within the film, or if time has folded in on itself. (I love when French cinema does this sort of thing without feeling the need to explain itself.)

Visually, it’s charming as heck. Normandy looks overcast and poetic. The soundtrack is spare but lovely. And the acting? Subtle, understated, and a little theatrical — like everyone’s performing in an indie stage play they’re only half-memorized. But honestly? That’s kind of the appeal. There’s something refreshing about a queer film that isn’t trying to make some big Important Statement, but is just vibing with soft longing, creative insecurity, and tender weirdness.

Final Thoughts:

This one snuck up on me. I thought I was in for a slow, artsy detour — and I got that, sure — but also ended up giggling, sighing, and feeling a little fluttery in the chest. My Life with James Dean doesn’t try to impress. It just is. Like an awkward hug from a stranger you accidentally bonded with over your mutual love of Jean-Luc Godard. It’s sweet, strange, and unapologetically queer in its own meandering, low-budget way.

Also, random true fact: James Dean once said, “Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.” He never actually visited Normandy, but his ghost kind of haunts this film in spirit. (Source: Biography.com)

 The Cinema Club Verdict:

⭐⭐⭐⭐
4 out of 5 Stars. Docking one star for the kind of pacing that makes you wonder if you’ve forgotten to press play.

If you’ve seen My Life with James Dean — or have one I need to add to my queue — let me know in the comments or yell at me on BlueSky.

Until next time,
Stay fabulous and keep watching queer stuff!