"I Can't Think Straight" Tuesday

I am the worst at titling blog posts, so please bear with me. For today, I want to celebrate the film that is I Can't Think Straight.

In this gem of a movie, which is a semi-autobiographical account of director Shamim Sarif's life, Christian Palestinian Tala falls in love with another woman, Leyla, who is a (100% adorable) British Indian Muslim woman. Tala is in the midst of planning her wedding (to a man). Leyla's family, meanwhile, is on her case about not being married or attending religious services often enough. So, the two have some cultural and familial stuff serving as barriers to a relationship (that are also, consequently, working in favor of building the tension).

 (Spoiler Alert) Now, I will say that this film is easily one of my top ten favorites featuring lesbian/bisexual women, and not just because it has a happy ending and nobody dies.  I put it in my top ten because, and I mean this in the best possible way, it has one of my favorite of favorite fanfic tropes: "accidental" but fortuitous bed sharing between two characters who have high sexual tension with one another.

Take, for instance, their first kiss.

In the scene below, Tala and Leyla are away on a trip together (because um?) and, on this trip, they are sharing exactly one room with exactly one bed (because um?).  Nevermind that Tala's family is super-rich and they could probably spring for a double. And nevermind that same-sex hetero adult pal bed-sharing has literally not happened in a movie since Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (disclaimer: unfounded claim).

What matters is that at one point, Tala is listening to music in a little robe and begins dancing.  Leyla, meanwhile, is "reading a book." Scare quotes entirely necessary, as you will see. Tala then beckons the shy Leyla to join her in the dancing. In their one room that has one bed that they are to later share. All of which is 100% heterosexual? (I don't know, is it? Help me out hetero ladies).

ANYWAY, Leyla rejects Tala's advance for a hot second with a half-hearted, "Oh, I have absolutely no sense of rhythm."  But then a millisecond later,  she is all of us: getting her ass in gear and dancing with Tala. Because listen ladies, brother sestras, and those who identify outside the binary, when Tala beckons you to dance, you fucking dance (but only if that's your thing, and in affirming, mutually consensual ways, of course).

See for yourselves (clip contains plot spoilers and is NSFW, probs):


LOL @ "But some of my best friends are Lebanese!"

Samesies.