OUTwatch Film Festival is presenting a film series starting with Jump, Darling! (Phil Connell, 2020) this Thursday at 7 p.m. at Rialto Cinemas®. The festival will continue through July, with screenings on the third Thursday of each month. In Jump, Darling! a rookie drag queen, reeling from a break-up, escapes to the country, where he finds his grandmother in steep decline yet desperate to avoid the local nursing home.
Half-prepped before a dressing room mirror, Russell, an actor turned drag queen, struggling to find his voice, is given a wrenching ultimatum. Overcome by indecision, he escapes to his grandmother’s house in the country where he finds sardonic Margaret in steep decline. He moves in to protect her from her greatest fear—the local nursing home.
In no time, Russell is lighting up the local college bar with his alter ego Fishy Falters. Antagonized by his overprotective mother, a sexy-though-mysterious college boy, a cockney city gay bar owner, and the specter of his failed-artist grandfather, Russell struggles to realize a bold new identity.
Starring Thomas Duplessie as Russell and the brilliant Cloris Leachman as Margaret in her final role before her death in 2021, Jump, Darling! pairs love of drag with an aging iconic diva to ask the questions about what inspires us to carry on.
