‘Red, White & Royal Blue’

Great line: "You better act like the sunshine's out of his ass and you have a Vitamin D deficiency." BTW, "critics" including the author of this piece = bitchy queens.

Everyone Has Big Gay Opinions About the ‘Red, White & Royal Blue’ Trailer

Kevin Fallon

Fri, 7 July 2023

 

Sometimes I read a cute little book, see that it’s being made into a cute-looking movie, and briefly forget that there is no such thing anymore as merely being “cute.” It is the year of Twitter Bluesky Threads 2023. Nothing exists without the accompaniment of the most unpleasant word of our time: discourse. Especially when the cute thing in question is a gay thing.

 

I was reminded of this annoying reality this week, with the release of the trailer for the upcoming romantic comedy Red, White & Royal Blue, based on the best-selling 2019 novel by Casey McQuiston.

 

 

The book follows Alex, the son of the first female president of the United States, and Prince Henry, who is third in line for the British throne. The pair begin as nemeses, their egos clashing when Alex is sent as the family representative to the Royal Wedding of Henry’s older brother. They get into an argument, which leads to a scuffle, which leads to an international incident: They knock over the cake.

 

It’s over the course of doing diplomatic damage control that Alex and Henry’s fiery antagonism becomes fiery flirtation. In a moment of passion, they hook up. They question and come to terms with their respective sexualities. Then they hook up some more, come out to—or, in some cases, are found out by—members of their families, who then grapple with whether to allow the First Son and the Royal Prince to be public as a couple.

 

I read the book in, like, two days while on vacation. I thought it was innocuous and sweet, and I was surprised that there was actual fucking in it. The movie is rated R, indicating there may be fucking in that too. When it comes to queer-themed rom-coms directed at a mainstream audience, we call that progress.

 

Then again, there are all the elements of Red, White & Royal Blue that do not represent progress, hence that word again: discourse.

 

While the book’s author, McQuiston, identifies as queer and non-binary, there are critics who dismiss Red, White & Royal Blue as yet another best-selling book about queer or gay men not written by a queer or gay man. (Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life may be the most egregious example.)

 

As they did with other recent queer romances like Love, Simon, Happiest Season, and Heartstopper, some members of the LGBTQ community have criticized McQuiston’s book as yet another mainstream story that still—and almost solely—focuses on the trauma of coming out of the closet. And, as exemplified by the leads’ collective dozen or so abs on display in the RW&RB trailer, this is another example of a story centering the experiences of privileged, extremely hot men. Alex is biracial, so at least it’s not solely a privileged, extremely hot, white male experience this time around.

 

Plus, will there be enough fucking? The jury’s out!

 

https://youtu.be/pt56IC8gDZ4

Nicholas Galitzine & Taylor Zakhar Perez