Review of Riot

I think Riot, particularly in the way it's structured, is quite a brave film. It doesn't try to glorify the story of the first Mardi Gras or recast the gaining of gay rights as some kind of dramatic collective social awakening. It's just about the thankless grind of activism and the way activism interacts, enriches and detracts from the lives of activists. In that way, it's not an ambitious film. It certainly doesn't tell you how to feel with grand turning points and emotional crescendos. For me, however, the magic was in the characters - thoughtfully fleshed out and lovingly brought to life, they made me care about a story whose ending I already knew. Yes, there are occasional moments where characters shoutily dump exposition onto people who knew all of it anyway, but I've never seen a historical movie about activism that didn't have that. Those moments were few and far between, though. Mostly this movie is a moving portrayal of the heroes who made the world a better place for people like me and the punches they took and the sacrifices they made along the way.