– Director: Todd Haynes
– IMDb user rating: 7.2
– Metascore: 94
– Runtime: 118 minutes
Starring Cate Blanchett as the glamorous and mysterious Carol, and Rooney Mara as aspiring photographer and shopgirl Therese, “Carol” is based on Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 novel, “The Price of Salt.” It took decades for the film to get made, as financing for a mainstream lesbian drama was difficult to procure. Many critics lamented that it was not nominated for Best Picture at the 2016 Oscars, with one arguing that it was its lack of a conventional tragic ending for its queer characters that led to its being snubbed: “Ultimately, ‘Carol’s most transgressive quality is its refusal to engage in such shenanigans; this is a film about full-blooded gay lives, not tragic gay deaths.”
