Whoa, talk about pointless and melodramatic. This short film, A Bitter Pill (directed by DiJon Delonté), asks the question, “Would you take a pill to make yourself heterosexual?” So even though it takes months of chemotherapy to drive Cancer into remission, one pill is all that would be needed to “cure” something engraved into DNA like sexuality.
Plausibility aside, this short was pretty much an overall waste of time in that it didn’t examine or explore any of the thought-provoking ideas inherent to the premise. Hell, we got better critical analysis on the idea from our readers when Octavius Williams posed the question on this very website. Literally nothing happens in the film. Nothing is explained or resolved. Its all first act with the last two seemingly left on the editing room floor.
Personally, I think the premise is very disturbing in that it implies that there is something “wrong” and “diseased” about bisexuality and homosexuality, which in turn makes viewers (even gay/bisexual viewers) consider the question from from this negative standpoint. For example, would we ever see a film where a white heterosexual man must consider curing white straightness? No, because that is considered “normal.” An analogy to the question posed here is one where a serial killer wishes he didn’t have homicidal urges (as we see in the TV series Dexter) or a film where a pedophile hopes to cure his sexual desires for young children. In those scenarios, much like this film, there is some negative trait or disease that needs to be “cured.”
If you are gay and you would even actually wish or consider taking a hypothetical gay “cure” pill, I pity you. We may as well go to high schools and ask young black kids if they want to take a pill to make them white. I’m sure that will help their self esteems.
Yeah, I feel pretty strongly about this…Check out the comment I left on our original Question of the Week:
“I’m truly glad some of you weren’t around during Slavery, Jim Crow or the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s. You’d probably be wishing you could take a pill to be a Caucasian Sharecropper…If you think that Heterosexuality is the solution to your depression/troubles, just take a look at all the miserable straight people in the world. They also have dating issues, they also have the risk of STDs, they also have relationships that they have to hide from others, they also have the worry of infidelities, they also have insecurities forcing them in to isolation and seclusion and many of them also end up alone in their senior years…But on TOP of all that they also have loveless marriages they feel trapped into, high divorce rates and they have the burden of accidental kids/families. So take your hypothetical pill and be just as unhappy as the rest of the of the straight married men tossing away their paychecks in strip clubs.”
Call me judgmental all you want…I know full well that people wrestle with accepting their sexuality, but life is too short to be wrestling for too long. But I’m just one guy with an opinion. Who am I to tell folks not to consider taking a white hetero pill to cure their diseased black gayness?
Regardless, it was nice to see Karen Malina White again, even just briefly. Although she’s been in many things since then, I will always remember her from Lean on Me and the TV shows, The Cosby Show and A Different World.
What are your thoughts on the film and the premise itself?
It lost me when he didnt remember if he used protection or not…a week ago. I’ll just chalk it up to this being a metaphorical short than a literal one.
Cute..good acting, nice angles and effects…I thought it was good. its a movie Nick..dont get so wound up over it!
LOL…Welcome to Cypher Avenue…you will soon learn that we get wound up over just about anything if it can spark a greater discussion.
Good short film I can see the jest between reality and the real world of someone who is gay. I probably dream this movie when was in my early 20’s but reality is one pill can not cure your sexuality. Good movie and good acting…
The movie and the acting were on point but I gotta agree with Nick. They should have taken the movie further. I’m left feeling like I just got cheated! At least the movie was free though… Not $11 like the main theatre. LOL.
The short film was ok, but getting down to the premise if there was a pill that could change my process of sexual attraction, I would ponder take it. I truly believe that if something like this exist I think all gay men would consider and think about it.
Hmm…interesting film.
However, I’m pretty positive that I could not and would not take this “cure”. It’s not that I insist on being different. Lord knows that as a gay, Black man, I wish I could blend in with everyone else. It’s just…my gayness, like my blackness, are two very important parts of my make-up. It’s been pretty difficult being both at times, but they make me who I am. And each day, I grow to love these aspects of myself more and more. It’s been a struggle to learn to accept myself, and grow into who I am. If I ever took a pill to change that, then that struggle and growth would have been for nothing. If I was not Black, and if I was not gay, then I would not be who I am. I wouldn’t have the same goals, the same dreams, the same visions for my future…and those too have become a part of me. So I couldn’t do it. BUT…I still understand why anyone would want to. Sometimes, it’s really hard being different.
Could be longer in duration, and has the potential to be..good for a short tho, IMO
And still makes me revisit previous thoughts on whether I’d take the pill or not…
I’m happy where I am now, and right now, I like what I like. These are facts I accept, so I’ll grow from there, and all the while starting to thoroughly accept my sexuality. Thus, I deny the pill..
**And where has Karen White been?!!? MIA
what if they made two pills so you could just go gay for the weekend . wouldn’t that b fun . or straight on Saturdays . lol
Interesting..The acting was good..But the plot could have been developed more..