JIMPA – Review by Valerie KALFRIN
John Lithgow bares all as an aging gay activist in Jimpa, a well-meaning but meandering multigenerational drama partly based on filmmaker Sophie Hyde’s life. As the title character—a family nickname for “Grandpa”—Lithgow models nude, cruises gay bars, and talks with friends about struggles to live openly. He can be blunt to the point of rudeness, calling his nonbinary grandchild “grandthing” or criticizing them for using the word queer, for instance, when he and others fought to use gay without shame. It’s a frank portrait and a tribute to Hyde’s late father, Jim Hyde, to whom the film is dedicated. The problem with Jimpa is that the focus isn’t on Jim alone.
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