#Latter Days

[girlactionfigure]

Prophetic Times

As predicted ?

[haveyouseenthisromcom]

[bibleversegarden]

Let It Rain!

"Ask the LORD for rain in the time of the latter rain. The LORD will make flashing clouds; He will give them showers of rain, grass in the field for everyone." (Zechariah 10:1)

"And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath: blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved." (Acts 2:17-21)

- A Walk In The Garden Devotions

[angelthefirst1]

Norman just posted this photo from Paris, which includes a dinosaur 🦕 wearing a beanie and it has love ❤️ heart nostrils.

His post is pointing to Emily's song about a dinosaur 🦕 in the museum of her broken 💔 hearted past.

Read about Emily's broken-hearted dinosaur 🦕 💔 museum here.

Norman's photo also shows symbolism of a bird 🐦 (Emily is marked as the hummingbird or song bird) "nesting" on a diamond 💎

Diamonds are pyramid (Louvre) symbols

You can read more on that here and here.

While the nest symbols are related to where Daryl will find her X.

My personal thoughts are that Daryl will get a clue to her survival at the Louvre and will then have to track her down.

We saw a mini template of this in Consumed (The book of Carol 1.0) when Daryl and Carol entered this office building filled with artwork (representation of the Louvre)

We also see "wing-back" chairs 💺 in this room, significant to Daryl getting his "Angel" or wings back.

Here, Daryl finds a picture 📸 picks it up and looks at it...I personally think this is a shadow of him finding a clue to Beth's survival at the Louvre.

In the next scene, he and Carol look out the window, Carol says, "How did we get here?" A clue to the future and to being in France.

In real time, they do get a clue to where Beth is...the + ambulance 🚑 on the bridge... The bridge symbolism is Jacob's (Israel's) ladder. 🪜

As @bethgreeneprevails has mentioned, the echelon briefing means ladder 🪜

@galadrieljones has done some amazing posts on Jacob and Jacob's ladder. She first clued me into the Leah/Rachel, Jacob (Daryl/Israel) connection.

I talk about how Daryl is Jacob/Israel here and will talk more on it in future posts.

But inside this room, we see a Meridian globe, giving us a hint and pointing to a different time and location.

The Meridian wheels are a representation of the Ferris wheels 🎡 symbolism we see in the show, and Norman recently posted about that too...

Ultimately, these are all symbols of Ezekiel's "wheel within a wheel" vision, which represents a birds eye view (God's view) of everything happening past, present, and future at once - being outside of time.

Interesting Ezekiel 10.10 is where we find this vision.

This Meridian symbolism doesn't just point to France, it points to shifting locations depending on what story they are telling. Which is the biblical end times.

Ezekiel’s Wheel Within a Wheel: What Does It Mean?

Ezekiel, one of the Jews exiled from Israel to Babylon after the fall of Jerusalem, receives this vision as a sign that God has not abandoned him (or the people). The wheels are a sign of God's omnipresence, for he can move anywhere; the height of his throne illustrates that he is always watching from high above us. Another decoration of the wheel chariot was numerous eyes, for God sees everything.

The wheels within wheels allowed the spirits to immediately go in any of four directions where they were told to go (Ezekiel 10:16 - 17).

There is a Ferris wheel in Barcelona, Spain, on the way to the Windsor bridge. It will be interesting to see if they film in a Ferris wheel location at any point when Beth comes back.

I've talked many times before how the "Nest" in France represents Israel, protected by the Archangel Michael, who have a leading role in biblical end time events.

Well, in this room that Daryl and Carol find a Beth clue in, we also get a depiction of Carol's Balaam's donkey symbolism used for DD2 advertising.

Daryl tells Carol that the painting looks like a dog sat in paint and wiped it's ASS 🫏 all over the place...

Dog backwards is god with a little g. This can represent an angel (it can be either holy or fallen depending)

It dipped it's ASS (donkey 🫏) in paint...

Angel donkey painting...numbers 22-Balaam's donkey. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you, a promise made to Abraham's line. X

It wasn't an accident they gave Carol the Balaam's donkey symbolism for DD2. It's so important, and as I've mentioned, it's all related to the biblical end times.

The alcohol symbolism we see around Beth is related to the "spirits." Which I will go into more another time.

Before Daryl spots the ambulance 🚑 on the bridge, we see Daryl and Carol look out the window and see this sign...

This muse sign is pyramid symbolism - as above, so below.

If you read it from top to middle and bottom to middle, you get the word MUSE. Something Emily has written about in her song Jonathan from the album "OH" Jonathan album. Something I have talked about here and here.

Oh Jonathon is about Daryl and Beth.

MUSE is related to art, obviously, so it's just another hint to the Louvre.

One aspect of the dinosaur 🦕 key and the Seahorse key symbolism that I never went into in my previous post on Emily's dinosaur beanie.

Is that it all relates to the rise of the beast as described in Revelation 13.3

🦖🐉🦕🐲

The First Beast

And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. 2 And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it, the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. 3 One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marvelled as they followed the beast. 4 And they worshipped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”

Beth's two "clue" cars, have both dinosaur 🦕 and a Seahorse symbolism.

Dinosaur can also mean dragon 🐉 and so can sea dragon, which is a Seahorse. Notice the yellow and blue on the Seahorse key... It's to tell us specifically that it's a sea dragon.

And again, Beth's mortal head wound and her survival, combined with the dragon/beast and sea dragon symbolism, points to her story being linked to the rise of the beast and the biblical end times that revolve around Daryl (Jacob/Israel)

[wen-kexing-apologist]

Bengiyo Queer Cinema Syllabus

For those who are not aware, I have decided to run the gauntlet of @bengiyo’s Queer Cinema Syllabus and have officially started Unit 3: Faith and Religion. The films in Unit 3 are: But I’m a Cheerleader (2000), Prayers for Bobby (2009), Latter Days (2003), Blackbird (2014), The Wise Kids (2011), Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party (2015)

Today I will be writing about

Latter Days (2003) dir. C. Jay Cox

[Run Time: 1:48 , Available: tubi, youtube premium, amazon but you have to get a free trial to something else…I tried watching it…somewhere else but they were updating the movie so I caved and went to tubi, Lang: English] 

Summary: Latter Days is a 2003 American romantic comedy-drama film about a gay relationship between a closeted Mormon missionary and his openly gay neighbor. (from wiki)

Cast: * Wes Ramsey as Christian Markelli * Steve Sandvoss as Elder Aaron Davis 

___

Content Warnings because I don't really write about those parts of the movie here: this film gets to a dark place, it includes self harm/a suicide attempt, homophobia, medical torture, and a story about being left to die by a parent. Alright, so after sufficiently crying my eyes out binging Eternal Yesterday, I decided there was enough time in the evening to knock out another film from the syllabus. Today’s film was (partially) about Mormons and Mormonism. My own personal understanding of Mormonism does not extend too far beyond The Book of Mormon: The Musical. Which gave me some impression that homosexuality is a sin, but only if acted upon. 

Which, is gonna suck for our poor dear Elder Davis, when he and three other Elders roll in to Los Angeles and in to a house across from our beloved booty shorts wearing waiter. The movie seems pretty low budget, and it’s from 2003 so there are some, what I would call cheesy camera effects happening at the beginning, but I still enjoyed the way the world seemed sped up and disorienting when Mr. Mormon lands in Los Angeles from his home in Idaho. 

I love our introduction to Christian as an unapologetically queer, slutty man and not only that, but Christian has his sex life together. He remembers who he has slept with, and when, and takes fucking notes and everything. Like, he’s truly impressive. 

gif from @bl-bam-beyond

Aaron and Christian make eye contact as every love at first sight story is wont to do, and then realize later they are neighbors. At which point a lot of decently subtle things start to happen. Aaron starts sitting outside to study his scripture in hopes of running in to Christian, Aaron and Christian talk about his mission trip, we get to see the four Elders interact, etc. and these subtler moments were aspects of this film that I deeply appreciated. 

Do not get me wrong, this film is absolutely critical of the Mormon church, (there is a scene near the end of the film where Elder Davis is getting excommunicated from the church for being a homosexual), but there are a lot of quite parts they do not say out loud around the intentional isolation that The Church of Latter Day Saints creates by sending their boys on missions trips in the first place. 

This film does not, in my opinion, explicitly discuss or state that mission trips really seem to be less to recruit new members and more to make sure their younger members don’t go running off to join the rest of society. The Elders are not allowed to see their family for two years, their families are not allowed to see them, they are not allowed to listen to music, to watch television, all the Elders in that location live together in one house, they share a room so there is no privacy, they go knocking door to door to try to spread the word only to have the doors slammed repeatedly in their face. These tactics exist to make these boys homesick, to make the outer world seem hostile, to bring the Mormon roommates closer together when the outsiders push them away. But the implication is there. 

I have to share the quote that comes with this gif: "You're gonna come in to my house and tell me God hates homosexuals?" || "And the French!"

And actually, the thing I appreciate the most about this commentary is the fact that the Elders are aware of this, and that they are allowed to be young men. I loved that one Elder was talking to Aaron about how mission trips were designed to be difficult, and that you can tell he is generally disinterested in spreading The Word. This Elder views his mission trip as the last major hoop he has to jump through before he can marry his girlfriend and “finally nail her”. Horniness fuels his motivation to get through this mission. 

These “Elders” (and I put quotes here not to strip them of their titles but to point out the irony) are nineteen or twenty years old. They are fucking gross. Their apartment is decorated like boys live there, with bean bag chairs and all, and they fart on each other, and wrestle, and bite their bedframes to try to stop themselves from jerking off. Hell, when they first move in, Christian mistakes them for a frat house. They are homophobic, and throw slurs around, but they look incredulous at the mere thought of consuming alcohol. 

The first time Aaron is faced with the potential to give in to his gay thoughts, he tells Christian he hasn’t done anything. When Christian says it doesn’t have to mean anything and Aaron says “yes it does”, he asks “my first time can just be a little fun for you?” like Aaron was fully planning on having sex with Christian. I like that Aaron, as a young man is going 0 to 100 with the physical intimacy. 

I often have difficulty with romance stories in movie formats because I have to push past how quickly two characters fall in love. Which is the case here that Christian is confessing his love for Aaron after they have interacted like…five times total. But, I appreciate the ways they show us that Christian and Aarong would be good for each other. We see them being absolute nerds, saying movie quotes to each other. I love that we know Aaron is going to break the rules and eventually give in to Christian, just based on the fact that he gives Christian his first name. Which he is not supposed to use when he’s on his mission trip.

gif from @bl-bam-beyond

I am not a religious person, so I don’t usually pay attention to whether or not a film that critics religion is going to take a hard atheistic turn or not. But I actually thought it was compassionate, kind, and in keeping with the nature of like, religion as spirituality, versus religion as control and fear tactic. I like that all these little coincidences happened, that Christian saw Aaron through his taxi cab window, that Aaron talked to and comforted Lila (Christians’ boss) when she was having a bad day and she gave him her card and told him to come to her restaurant for a free meal, that when Christian is looking for Aaron his random doodles end up being the phone number he needs to call, that Julie in stealing entries from Christian’s diary for her song allowed Aaron to hear it in the facility his parents put him in and return to LA, and that Aaron and Christian were reunited because Aaron cashed in on that free meal from Lila. 

And so too with the man Christian meets who is dying of AIDS, how he touches him and only sees snow. How he chalks that up to Christian being a blank person, shallow. The same way that Aaron has described Christian “there is nothing, nothing about you, Christian that isn’t skin deep”. And how we see Christian recoil from the touch, from the words ‘snow’ (and we will come to find out later, why that is the case).

Like these can all be coincidences, or they could be chalked up to fate, or a higher power, or whatever you want. Latter Days does not reject the idea of religion, it leaves room for a religious, higher power explanation to exist. Aaron and Aaron’s faith, the way he views the world, the importance that his values hold to him do still impact Christian. I don’t know how much he believes in God, but when Aaron calls him shallow, he takes that to heart, he really thinks about it, he realizes that what has been drawing him to Aaron is the depth, the conversations, they aren’t just gonna fuck. 

Not that I think monogamy needs to happen, or that Christian needs to have calmed down the sluttiness. Just, that in a film about religion and its intersections with sexuality, when you are going to be critical of a Church that has done very very real harm. That there is a mutual exchange here. Christian gets more depth as a result of meeting Aaron and Aaron (eventually) gets freedom as a result of meeting Christian. 

BL Side Note

I also need to say, since this syllabus is technically supposed to act as a lead up to BLs, that Latter Days has the sponge bath trope! Aaron wipes down Christian’s body with a washcloth after he faints from seeing blood. The sexual tension rises between Aaron and Christian, until they are about a fraction of a second away from kissing, and Aaron bails. 

For/By/About 

Gay Trifecta.

The director of Latter Days, C. Jay Cox is a gay man and a (former) fifth generation Mormon. 

This film did not hit me in the emotional place where I would normally say the films I rate as For The Queers go. But, this is a deeply personal film for the screen writer and Director who is gay and therefore it feels like it should be for gays. And, in addition I feel like they were enough casual references to things that don’t get full explanations that would read and be understood by a queer audience but maybe not by a straight audience. I think there are dimensional portrayals of the queer characters and they don’t succumb to stereotypes, and for those reasons I would categorize it as being for us. 

Favorite Moment 

The post-sex conversation that Aaron and Christian have, where Aaron asks if Christian has ever had the experience of being cut off from everything, and we finally get some more of Christian’s backstory. Now, like I said above, there are some understated aspects of this film that I do think are really smart. Aaron calls Christian shallow at one point, and my first thought was “oh honey, you are wrong” because of how Christian spoke to Aaron earlier on in the movie about being desperate to get away from home. Sure, Christian is generally now, emotionally reserved and has some growing to do. But, Aaron vastly underestimates the weight behind a gay man saying that he left home and never looked back. Because Aaron had a good relationship to his family (before he came out). 

If the monologue wasn’t multiple paragraphs I would probably put the whole speech as my favorite quote.  But, fundamentally what makes this scene for me is that Christian is telling Aaron this, while they are both naked in bed. Aaron has just had sex for the first time, and there is just this level of casual inclusion of nudity. I am generally an advocate for increasing the inclusion of non-sexual nudity on screen. I feel like people tend to spend a lot more causal time naked than they do sexual time naked, and I think Latter Days did a really phenomenal job of shifting between sexual nudity and casual nudity in the same setting, with the same characters, at the same time. 

When Aaron and Christian first enter the airport hotel, they are shedding their clothing with the intention of having sex. The scene is charged with sexual tension, shirts and pants are coming off as fast as they can, every movement brings them closer to the bed. But after they are done, Aaron, still naked, slides across Christian’s naked body to grab a watch off the floor, and Christian holds his leg so he won’t slide off the bed. It’s just comfortable. When Christian is talking to Aaron about his experience of being left in a snowstorm by his father, they are nude because they are being laid bare. I don’t know if I can describe it properly, but I just love that this really important conversation, where Aaron is learning that Christian understands far far better than Aaron ever could have thought about what you risk losing when you are queer, happens with literally everything out in the open. 

Favorite Quote 

“It’s early November, the same as now, and there's this storm rolling in. My dad was so determined that sissy boy was going to kill something. Snow came at us from all sides. The air, the sky, the ground they all became the same and horrible screaming white and I thought ‘we’re gonna be OK, right?” And then I saw my father’s eyes and they were that same white…and that’s when he did it.” “He did what?”  “Ran.” 

This quote comes from part of the monologue I mentioned in my Favorite Scene.

Score

8/10

Latter Days is an 8/10 for me for a few reasons, the acting was not always the best, it was clear they did not have either the time or the budget for perfection. There were stutters that read far more like actors forgetting their lines than they did like natural pauses. I also was not thrilled with the death fake out. Like, I am very much glad we did not see Aaron self-harm, and that some of the other torture he went through gets dampened a bit by dream sequence shenanigans. I figured that they were not actually going to kill Aaron off, but they do spend quite a lot of time letting the audience think he is dead, and I am not super appreciative of that.

[very-feral-lesbian]

this is not something id usually post but why not!

ive been on a queer movie kick lately, and wanted to give a few reviews and recommendations of some lesser known ones so i can spread the word because some of these are complete hidden gems!

Beautiful Thing | 1996

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

i rated this movie four stars. not because it is outrageously deep or new or profound. but of how it’s so particularly captured such a subculture of life, and can make even the worst things seem joyful. the relationships, even outside of the main romance, were also nuanced and detailed, and it felt like you knew all of the characters from people in your own life. ithink the best way that I can describe it is that it was endearing in a really normal way. and the last shot is perfect.

Shelter | 2007

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

i have rewatch this movie twice since I originally have seen it. once again, this movie really captures a particular person’s life and it’s so much more about life than it is just the romance. It felt like a natural connection, the characters had chemistry, and i was just giggling a lot of the time. im a sucker for a found family movie and this really hit the spot. i did cry the first time. 

Latter Days | 2003

⭐️⭐️⭐️

this movie was interesting. I really enjoyed the main characters connection with his best friend and I found most of the scenes totally normal early 2000s stuff. the romance was good, the chemistry was there most of the time, and I was rooting for them after one of the big events later in the movie. I watched this after the first two and my expectations from those put me at too high a bar, and just this one fell in comparison. 

Birdcage | 1996

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

this movie was a pleasure. i absolutely love Robin Williams, and I think his performance in this was great. I love queer movies that involve drag, as that is such a big portion of queer culture. I thought the premise was interesting enough to keep me connected, I felt like it had a logical chain of events that culminates in an interesting watch. there were some points where I felt like it was dragging on too long, or the joke was repeating itself too much however, I think some parts of it absolutely captured queer culture in a way that makes me have to appreciate it. I definitely recommend.

Shiva Baby | 2020

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

this whole movie was centered in one house, 99% of it was just scenes in this home from a funeral which on paper, sounds like it could make it boring but I really enjoyed watching this movie. rachel is so talented and her performance in this movie was great and I think this role was perfect for her. I’m a big fan of slice of life and this was definitely that. but also extremely dramatic and messy and complicated in the best way. 

Theater Camp | 2023

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

as someone who did not grow up in theater, but had friends that did, this movie was absolutely incredible. the characters were great, and knew when and how to make fun of itself, while still taking itself seriously in someways. their performances throughout the whole thing are great. this movie is really stuck with me for one reason or another, i think it’s gonna be a new go to comfort movie.

The Four-Faced Liar | 2010

⭐️⭐️⭐️

if I’m being honest, this movie wasn’t great. but when you’re trying to find sapphic films that aren’t historical or depressing, it’s really hard to be picky. It’s a dramdy at its finest. interconnected and messy relationships, slightly insufferable characters then sprinkle in some cringe you get this movie. but sometimes the drama is what you need. and there’s also movies that you need to make fun of while also paying half attention to, if you’re looking for that this is your pick.

[quort]

i think it is really splendid how incapable i am of drawing fan art of any regular popular media. only the bad gay romcom from 2003 that is available to watch on. like maybe 3 websites

[superdogbiter]

Please say why in the tags you picked your choice whether you lived it or whether you ran into one of these cult members

[skippiefritz]

this book/movie is sooo underrated 

[pierppasolini]

Latter Days (2003) // dir. C. Jay Cox

[aspirationalbrand]

latter days (2003)

[plasticearring]

Latter Days (2003)

[nestito702]

[bl-bam-beyond]

My Favorites (Gay Themed Movies)

BL/GAY ATW (BOYS' LOVE/GAY AROUND THE WORLD)

Movie: LATTER DAYS (2004, USA)

This movie will forever be one of my all time favorites. It was a low budget film written and directed by C. JAY COX. And it dealt with some serious subjects such as suicide attempt, conversion therapy, unaccepting parents and finding yourself.

The film boasted big name for such a low budget project such as Jacqueline Bissett, Mary Kay Place, Amber Benson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rob McElhenney and Erik Palladino

But as good as they were I think the movie went to the newbie leads of Steve Sandvoss as Elder Aaron Davis and Wes Ramsey as Partyboy Waiter Christian Markelli.

The story was about a Mormon missionary leaving Pocatello, Idaho to go on his 2 year mission. Living with 3 other boys/men that were out to tell LA about Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Elder Davis (Aaron) meets and is enamored with neighbor partyboy and sexually promiscuous Christian Markelli. Christian makes a bet with his friends he can bed one of the Mormons but when he gets close to Aaron almost winning the bet. Aaron calls him out. This affects Christian as he falls for the Mormon missionary. But after Aaron and Christian are caught kissing

Aaron is sent home to Idaho for excommunication in more ways than just religion as his mother and father basic Shun him leading him to slit his wrist. He survives (but you don't know that right away) only to be placed in a facility to fix his affliction of homosexuality. Believe it or not it ends somewhat happy. Aaron and Christian are reunited but no closure on rather or not Aaron's family accepted him. I'm guessing not. But it was still a damn good movie.

Something I didn't know at first. The screen play was adapted into a book by T. Fabris and published by Alyson Publications and France did a version called La Tentation d'Aaron (The Tempation of Aaron)

But sadly Steve Sandvoss has quit acting roughly after 2010 and became a farmer. Noble profession but given the chance with his talent in LATTER DAYS he could have been a household name. But that's just my opinion.

[scripture-pictures]

[airasilver]

I need to rewatch Latter Days now. Then find more shows/movies both Wes and Drew were in and watch them.