A single gay dad raises his daughter in 1970s San Fran in the gorgeous time capsule ‘Fairlyand’.
We’ve heard plenty of stories of gays who moved to San Francisco back when the city was the epicenter of American queer culture, and honestly they never get old.
But what was it like to actually grow up there as a kid?
The coming-of-age drama Fairyland lets us experience this pivotal time and place through the eyes of a child, first in the early ’70s when the historic Castro District became a hub and haven for the gays, and later in the ’80s as the city was ravaged by AIDS and still reeling from the loss of Harvey Milk.
Based on Alysia Abbott’s Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father, the film from first-time feature director Andrew Durham lovingly looks back on what was not just a formative time for the young writer, but also for San Francisco and the broader LGBTQ+ community.
The story begins in 1973 when a young Alysia (newcomer Nessa Dougherty) learns that her mother has tragically passed in a car accident, inspiring her father Steve (Argo‘s Scoot McNairy) to move them to San Francisco where they can start fresh—much to the chagrin of Alysia’s grandmother (the legendary Geena Davis).
Once in the Castro, the father and daughter take up residence in a welcoming yet chaotic apartment building, where an eccentric group of folks is constantly coming and going.
Here, Steve is gradually able to embrace his sexuality and live openly as a gay man for the first time. Alysia, meanwhile, takes a liking to her found family, though as her father immerses himself in a new and liberated bohemian lifestyle, she’s increasingly left to her own devices.
Eventually, Fairyland jumps ahead to the ’80s to find Alysia now a young woman (played by Coda‘s Emilia Jones), having grown resentful of just how much freedom her dad gave her growing up. But with the AIDS crisis taking hold in America, Steve’s priorities have changed, and he’s now pivoted to a life of activism—until he gets sick, too.
Durham’s film carefully recreates the look and feel of San Francisco of these different era, inviting audiences to step back into time, guided by McNairy, Jones, and Dougherty’s affecting performances.
