Tom of Finland [Sub: Eng]
Award-winning filmmaker Dome Karukoski brings to screen the life and work of artist Touko Valio Laaksonen (aka Tom of Finland), one of the most influential and celebrated figures of twentieth century gay culture.
13 September 1964, Savonlinna, Finland
December 17, 2017
Touko Laaksonen sketched out an enduring legacy with his homoerotic images of hyper-masculine men. So, why then is Dome Karukoski's depiction of Laaksonen's rise from closeted pornographer to celebrated artist so flaccid?December 07, 2017
Karukoski turns a promising story into a flat, clammy bore.October 17, 2017
Why does Tom of Finland play like an over-cited term paper? The film is jammed with incident and detail but there's little flow to the storytelling ...December 17, 2017
the filmmakers give an honest and informative view of a man whose life-long work helped many find themselves in their LGBT universe.January 02, 2018
Karukoski's scenes often have a smoky, sweaty reek that would have amused the late Rainer Werner Fassbinder, a titan of tang himself... The tensile central performance by Pekka Strang is adroit at capturing the complicated man.December 14, 2017
In a subtle but wily performance, Strang never loses sight of his character's innate sense of resistance.December 06, 2017
In the end, the overarching theme of "Tom of Finland" is the power of art, even - or maybe especially - so-called deviant art.December 27, 2017
Artistic expression as means of self-determination and liberation from oppression is explored to poignant effect in Tom of FinlandDecember 07, 2017
More delicately, the film brings to life the desire that lit the artist's genius, until he'd filled the entire world with leather gods and muscle studs.October 18, 2017
Tom of Finland is a good, strong movie, but never threatens to be great. One salivates at the adventurous directions the film could have explored.December 14, 2017
Karukoski does his subject proud, his own artistry with visuals and sound complementing the artist and the art he depicts.October 19, 2017
"Tom of Finland" entertainingly recounts an intriguing and vital chapter of 20th-century gay history with style and deference.