Portrait of the Father as a Gay Man: A New Story About Gay Aging in Mike Mills's Beginners

Hess, Linda

Abstract

This article, locating itself at the crossroads of aging studies and queer studies, analyzes the representation of queer aging in Mike Mills’ film Beginners (2010). Focusing on the film as one of the first fictional narratives to offer a complex depiction of an aging gay man, the analysis shows that the narrative counteracts the invisibility of aging LGBT persons as well as the stereotypes that generally accompany fictional representations of aging. Exploring the film’s connections to the field of life writing, and its narrative structures and techniques in particular, I argue that the narrative not only deconstructs the ubiquitous Western narrative of aging as decline, but also creates a new story of queer aging by highlighting the influence of cultural discourses on narrative identity.