Heartache Without Orientation: ‘Supernova’ Vies for Oscar Gold

The LGBTQ community is intimately familiar with tragedy. We were rounded up and murdered during the Holocaust, we were institutionalized for centuries, and we were decimated by apathy and ignorance in the early days of the AIDS crisis.

But, on top of the aforementioned traumas, queer people also wrestle with the same indignities and injustices as straight people. We are struggling to help our friends and neighbors through the Covid-19 pandemic and we strive to mend the fractured society that seemingly crumbles all around us. Amidst it all, gay individuals are still human beings, which is the crux of the tear-jerking tale Supernova.

The forthcoming film stars Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci as longtime companions maneuvering the uncertainty and raw cruelty of dementia. Their journey is manifested as a road trip through the sublime Yorkshire countryside. It is a sojourn to reconcile the past with the present tension of their reality. The couple connects with loved ones throughout the evocative British landscape, bidding a bitter adieu to the life they built together.

The fact that Tucci and Firth play gay men is almost incidental. The nightmare of cognitive decline transcends sexuality, binding us all together in a shared yearning for memories worth celebrating… for a passion worth cherishing.

Firth is not stranger to Academy adoration. He won the Best Actor Oscar for his regal turn in The King’s Speech. Tucci has been nominated before, but this year may be his turn to snag the ultimate prize.

Both men have played queer characters in the past. Firth was a picture of restraint and refinement in Tom Ford’s sumptuous directorial debut, A Single Man. It seems like half of Tucci’s roles simmer somewhere on the LGBTQ spectrum, or perhaps that’s just wishful thinking on our part. Most notably, Tucci warned us to “gird our loins” as Meryl Streep’s long-suffering collaborator in The Devil Wears Prada.

But Supernova strips away the pretense and frivolity of modern life. The audience is along for the ride as our two heroes meander down a path toward their ultimate fate. The lights dim, the road narrows, and we are left asking the most important question imaginable: who will be there to care for you in the end?

To quote the trailer for Supernova, “It’s not about fair. It’s about love.”