I want to say nice things about Andrew Durham’s Fairyland because it gives us an overview of queer culture in San Francisco in the 70s to 90s, a pivotal time.

It’s warm, palatable and Scoot McNairy does a decent job of portraying real life writer and critic Stephen Abbott as he navigates life as a single dad to young daughter Alysia (played delightfully as a child by Nessa Dougherty, and more petulantly as a teen and adult by Emilia Jones). The film is based on Alysia’s memoir.

Stephen is a gay man who has lived an outwardly straight life until the death of his wife and his relocation with Alysia to San Francisco in the mid 70s. Poverty (he’s a writer) and homophobia mean their life is peripatetic and Alysia ‘learns independence’ early on. In other words, Stephen is a neglectful parent, something that seems to be considered an idiosyncrasy in a man rather than abusive.

For young Alysia, the shared households with a revolving door of gender diverse housemates are like a creative playground, full of colour and fun. Sadly, when we skip forward a decade, she has morphed into a rather awful 80s teen, embarrassed about her father, his sexuality, and their poverty.

And this is where the story begins to disappoint. For we are not seeing the story of Stephen (or Charlie (Adam Lambert) or Eddie (Cody Fern) or Paulette (an only just recognisable Maria Bakalova who could have had a whole film of her own), but of Alysia as she watches from the sidelines. We get all the popular beats, but at arm’s-length – Harvey Milk, Gay Pride, Proposition 6, and, of course, AIDS.

I can’t decide if Alysia Abbott is brave for depicting herself in such an unflattering light – she’s pretty awful to her father, even when he needs her the most – or if she thinks she has some valuable perception of queer history, as someone who grew up in its midst. I never got a sense of insight, as demonstrated by her memoir/this film telling us far too little about her father and his friends, boyfriends and lovers and a bit too much about how winsome she looks riding a bicycle in the French countryside.

And the last shot is super cringe.

But I did learn that the slang word ‘hella’ originated in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 70s (I googled what I thought was an anachronism). Who knew?

Director: Andrew Durham
Origin: USA (2023)
Language: English
Genre: Drama

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