GUM (Growing up man)
2017 · 2m · Francia
Directed by Noémie Blondel
Genres: coming-of-age, LGBTQ+
Tones: contemplative, tender, theatrical
In a dressing room before a mirror, lipstick and glossy varnish intertwine as a protagonist gets ready. Determination holds firm against every discouraging word: tonight brings beauty front and centre.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Lipstick and nail polish as rebellion—cute, but GUM plays it too straight, too earnest. The film knows exactly what it's saying about gender and self-determination, which is precisely why it doesn't say anything unexpected.
Blondel's dressing-room staging recalls a lineage of intimate beauty rituals in cinema, from Varda to Sciamma, and the deliberate interweaving of cosmetics as metaphor—transformation as defiance—holds the formal rigor that tradition demands.
The decision to sync lipstick application and nail varnish in parallel—two acts of care happening simultaneously in the frame—is what makes this work: it's not about the moment before, it's about the doubled commitment, the refusal to choose between versions of yourself.