Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
Marlon Riggs, with assistance from other gay Black men, especially poet Essex Hemphill, celebrates Black men loving Black men as a revolutionary act. The film intercuts footage of Hemphill reciting his poetry, Riggs telling the story of his growing up, scenes of men in social intercourse and dance, and various comic riffs, including a visit to the "Institute of Snap!thology," where men take lessons in how to snap their fingers: the sling snap, the point snap, the diva snap.
Tongues Untied is a landmark of Black queer cinema — formally audacious, blending poetry, personal testimony, dance, humor, and direct address in a way that was genuinely unprecedented. Riggs's cinematography and visual grammar are striking and inventive, refusing conventional documentary modes. Novelty is very high: the film is utterly singular in voice and conception, a one-of-a-kind fusion of autobiography, political manifesto, and performance art. Acting/performance is earnest and raw rather than polished, which suits the work but keeps it from a top score. The plot — loosely structured around Riggs's own coming-of-age and the broader assertion of Black gay identity — is thematically rich but episodic, landing above average rather than exceptionally constructed. The ending is moving but somewhat expected in its affirmative declaration, consistent with the film's rhetorical arc without being formally surprising.