Tom of Finland

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Tom of Finland

2017

1h 56m

Biography

History

Drama

LGBTQ+

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Popcornmeter

83%

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69 Reviews

70%

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500+ Ratings

Finnish artist Touko Laaksonen becomes famous for his homoerotic works.

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Critics Consensus

Tom of Finland honors its subject with an empathetic, even-handed, and above all entertaining look at the pioneering art he produced from private turmoil.

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Ben Sachs

Chicago Reader

Director Dome Karukoski brings an oddly tasteful approach... But once Laaksonen achieves success and finds domestic happiness with a ballet dancer, the filmmakers don't have much to say about their subject.

Apr 10, 2020

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Ty Burr

Boston Globe

In a subtle but wily performance, Strang never loses sight of his character's innate sense of resistance.

Rated: 2.5/4

Dec 14, 2017

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Kristen Page-Kirby

Washington Post

In the end, the overarching theme of "Tom of Finland" is the power of art, even - or maybe especially - so-called deviant art.

Rated: 3/4

Dec 7, 2017

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Sarah Vincent

Cambridge Day

The ghost of war and trauma became muses cheering on his satirical fetish art, which transformed threatening tormentors into a beckoning aesthetic ideal with plenty of biker beefcakes and overly uniformed men of authority.

Aug 16, 2023

Full Review

Ben Turner

The Pink Lens

The film is unable to find its stride by playing it safe for 90% of its time on screen, with the remaining 10% going off on a wild tangent that looks like an advert for Piz Buin.

Rated: 3/5

Sep 2, 2021

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Richard Propes

TheIndependentCritic.com

It's a good film, occasionally a very good film, but it never really soars like this story should soar.

Rated: 3.0/4.0

Sep 26, 2020

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Daniel O

Based on real events. But need to focus better on his life no in the drawnings

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

11/22/23

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Roger S

An immersive movie, very understated but never felt slow. Tom of Finland has a compusive story, and is an excellent reference point to gain insight into both pre- and post- WW2 gay society. The (mostly) restrained acting feels true to it's bio-pic ethos and given the huge scope of the film from his early life in the army during WW2 right through to his mainstream acceptance as an artist in the States, it never seems to get bogged down. I've watched it twice with friends and it's really worth trying.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

06/14/23

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Audience Member

Albeit it's a sketchy portrayal of the notorious titular protagonist's psyche, this Finnish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards is nevertheless a stirring autobiography of Touko Laaksonen whose sketches of leather-clad homoerotic masculinization nurtured the 20th century gay culture.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

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Audience Member

this one played like a PBS biography special with disconnected moments (what happened in America) + too many disjointed themes and characters that never really pulled it off....

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/02/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The fascinating and unforeseeable trajectory of this true story and its central figure was unbeknown to me and consistently drew interest to the film as a result, despite the alternating and confusing shifts in timeline throughout. Tom of Finland is an important film, especially for the gay community.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/21/23

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Audience Member

The movies focuses too much on the "finland" part and not the "tom" part. I'm not mad, just disappointed

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/28/23

Full Review

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Dome Karukoski

Director

Pekka Strang

Touko Laaksonen aka Tom of Finland

Lauri Tilkanen

Veli

Jessica Grabowsky

Kaija

Werner Daehn

Müller

Seumas F. Sargent

Doug

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Tom of Finland: Trailer 1

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Tom of Finland: Teaser Trailer 1

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Synopsis

Finnish artist Touko Laaksonen becomes famous for his homoerotic works.

Director: Dome Karukoski
Producer: Aleksi Bardy, Miia Haavisto, Annika Sucksdorff
Screenwriter: Aleksi Bardy
Distributor: Kino Lorber
Production Co: Fridthjof Film, Anagram, Helsinki Filmi Oy, Film Väst
Genre: Biography, History, Drama, LGBTQ+
Original Language: Finnish
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 13, 2017, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 9, 2018
Box Office (Gross USA): $293.9K
Runtime: 1h 56m
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

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