"Wonderkid" (weak title in my opinion) is a British live action short film from 2016, so still a relatively new movie and it is also the very first effort as writer and director by aspiring filmmaker Rhys Chapman. The subject of this one that runs for slightly over half an hour is homosexuality in professional sports. I am generally really critical when it comes to gay-themed films as they frequently depict a situation of homophobia that is just not accurate with our tolerant society. However, I will give Chapman the benefit of the doubt here as in very masculine sports like football there probably still is some kind of homophobia. But is that really surprising. After all, athletes are under the shower in the same room and they probably don't want to know who is actually attracted in this room by what they are seeing. I can somewhat understand this approach and also as a consequence I do not believe that openly gay football players would really be discriminated against so harshly as this film tries to show us. For example looking at the inclusion of Twitter messages, it is also misleading as the protagonist here would have received probably at least as many encouragements as homophobic messages, probably 5 times the amount or so. So yes, this is a very one-sided movie and I do not think it is realistic or accurate. This is especially a big problem because the subject is really one that is as important as it is delicate and I also believe that films like this one about this subject can really only make an impact for the positive if they are very smart and include a great deal of talent. Otherwise there is even the danger that they actually make things worse. I can only say that while this one is not a failure, it also does not get me curious about future projects by Chapman. Unless he steps up his game, that is. Don't watch.
Review of Wonderkid
