Last Friday, I watched God’s Own Country as part of the Friday Film series. I was immediately shocked by how raw everything was, from the scenes of newborn animals suffering to the violent sex scenes. Not only was this quality impactful (at times I felt disgust, and at others I was left in awe), it meant that the movie eliminated much of the sugar-coating that most movies use. In addition, throughout the entire film, everything was said with as little words as possible; the characters often hid their thoughts (much like real people do) and characters only stated their feelings in the most important or complex scenes. I felt that this enabled the movie to avoid placing labels on anything. The scenes and actions were simply what they were — not a “romantic gesture” or a “coming out scene” and a character’s feelings belonged to the character, not to the viewer. Though each character was definitely a caricature, the situations they are put in and the actions they take are able to more or less shed the labels that society has given them and thereby become simply a blank slate to form thoughts on common modern-day issues.