1 minute read
DOCUMENTARY CENTERPIECE
Down Low
DIR. RIGHTOR DOYLE | USA | 90 MIN.
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SATURDAY | JULY 15 | 9:45PM | DGA 1
With a pitch black sense of humor and rapid-fire dialogue, Rightor Doyle’s feature directorial debut is a gay comedy unafraid to push the envelope. The film boasts a talented cast that includes Zachary Quinto as Gary, a generally sad divorcé recently out of the closet, and Lukas Gage as Cameron, the boundary-free masseur he hires for a happy ending. When Cameron learns just how inexperienced Gary is at gay life, his enthusiastic agenda of Grindr hookups and more quickly causes the day to take several dark, out-of-control turns.
Supported by an extremely game cast that includes Simon Rex, Audra McDonald, and even Judith Light, wringing every laugh out of a small, kooky role, the wild narrative is perfectly led at every beat by Gage (who also co-wrote the script) in a performance bursting with manic comic energy. Doyle gives us twist after R-rated twist, barely allowing the audience to take a breath before the next troubling revelation. But what really makes Down Low special is its casual relationship with queerness and sexuality, never over explaining any one term or sex act, firmly positioning the film as a story by and for queer audiences. Its refusal to anticipate a straight audience makes Down Low feel fresh and daring. We need more films like it.
Passages
DIR. IRA SACHS | FRANCE | 91 MIN.
THURSDAY | JULY 20 | 7:15PM | DGA 1
If love is strange in the latest feature film from Ira Sachs (Keep the Lights On, Outfest Los Angeles ’12 Grand Jury Prize)—further cementing his status as one of contemporary queer cinema’s foremost chroniclers of emotional entanglement—then it is also a battlefield.
Set against the sumptuous yet suffocating world of Parisian nightlife, erratic filmmaker Tomas (Franz Rogowski, Great Freedom) throws caution and his fifteen-year marriage to Martin (Ben Whishaw, Women Talking) to the wind when he embarks upon a surprising affair with grade school teacher Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos, Blue Is the Warmest Color) after meeting her on the dance floor at the wrap party for his most recent project. Matching self-absorption with selfdestruction, Tomas hurtles both partners into a maelstrom of lust, power, and control made and sustained by his own fragile ego. As Martin and Agathe struggle to secure the shifting foundations of their unique attachments to Tomas, Sachs bottles the messy passion among the love triangle and shakes it to the breaking point of erotic annihilation.
