‘Mama’s Boy’ review: Dustin Lance Black doc just barely balances line between being uplifting and a stilted vanity project | NewFest

In 2009, at the age of 34, Dustin Lance Black won an Oscar for his screenplay for the Harvey Milk biopic Milk. In his acceptance speech, he made a promise to gay and lesbian youth, that “very soon… you will have equal rights, federally, across this great nation.” The next day, his mother asked him how he intended to keep that promise. To Anne (née Roseanna), a promise was a sacred thing, and though she had left the Mormon church years ago, she still held onto some of its principles. That question fueled Black’s journey for the next several years, as he became an activist working to ensure that marriage equality became the law of the land. As part of that journey, he found inspiration and success from his mother’s philosophy of sitting with people, listening and sharing with an open mind. Mama’s Boy, Laurent Bouzereau’s documentary based on Black’s memoir of the same name, is meant as a tribute to Anne. In practice, however, the film’s two strands – it is in effect both a Dustin Lance Black biopic and his tribute to his mother – end up working at cross purposes somewhat.

Roseanne Bisch was a phenomenal woman, no doubt about it. Immobile from the chest down after a childhood battle with polio, she spent her life defying the odds. Everyone said she should just use a wheelchair, but she insisted on struggling with crutches, which she used all her life. No one thought she would ever find a man to marry her, but she did, three times. Doctors said she could never have children, but she gave birth to three healthy boys via Cesarean section. Though she became a Mormon for her first husband, she embraced her gay son anyway (after an initial pseudo-rejection). Her life – and by extension, that of her sons – was one of many false starts and resets that took her from the poor city of Lake Providence, LA to Texas, California, and eventually Washington, DC. It is a story of overcoming the odds that is incredibly inspiring on its own, and should be even more so when coupled with Black’s story of growing up gay in the Mormon church with a father who abandoned the family, a stepfather who was abusive, and an extended family that was generally extremely conservative to become a happily married gay man who is also an award-winning screenwriter.

The problem is that, in the film, this is all told in the most straightforward way possible, and mostly from the mouth of Black himself. This gives Mama’s Boy the perhaps unavoidable feel of a vanity project: A Hollywood insider getting a documentary made about himself and his mother just because he has the means to do so. By the end, it does turn into more than that, but for the film’s first two-thirds it can grow a bit weary listening to Black’s earnest, too-composed voice relate his family history. The fact that Black wrote the book that the film is explicitly adapting can lead to his interview portions sounding too writerly, almost scripted, as opposed to off-the-cuff in the way that most documentary interview subjects come across. Every once in a while, though, some raw emotion peeks through during the interviews with Black and his younger brother Todd. Reliving their childhood is clearly an emotional experience for them, and the tears feel raw and real where the rest of the film can seem too careful and scripted. It is these moments that make the film an engaging watch even though it is very much a paint-by-numbers biographical documentary.

Thankfully, the film’s last half hour, when Black turns his eyes more towards activism, has the impact the film needs to be an uplifting, worthwhile piece of filmmaking. The story of how Black managed to sit down with leaders of the Mormon church and inspired other Mormons to declare their support and love for their gay children is inspiring, and even galvanizing. If Black’s insistence on the importance of listening to others, even if they think you’re going to hell, is somewhat difficult to square with a film that is mostly him talking at the audience, at least he has enough conviction that the message still gets through. And the scenes with Black and the rest of his mother’s family joyfully hugging and staring their love for each other, are genuinely heart-warming, especially in these dark times. Perhaps Black and Bouzereau’s hope is that the film will mostly be seen by the people who need this message most, and that it will be shown to them by their LGBTQ+ family members who haven’t spoken to them in years because of their lack of support. That’s a pretty big ask, and Black certainly seems to know it. But perhaps Mama’s Boy – which does what good art should do and finds a universality in its specificity – is simple, sweet, and middle-of-the-road enough to actually make that happen. It may not be a great film, but if it actually does manage to effect change, does that matter?

Grade: B-

This review is from 2022 NewFest. It begins streaming on HBO Max on October 18.