Lonesome

Lonesome" is a raw, unflinching exploration of gay intimacy and isolation, following Casey (Josh Lavery), a country boy navigating Sydney's queer landscape. Director Craig Boreham crafts a provocative character study that's both sexually explicit and emotionally vulnerable, tracking Casey's journey from self-punishment to potential redemption. With frank depictions of sex and connection, the film offers a nuanced portrait of loneliness, desire, and the search for belonging in modern queer life. It's one of the best Australian movies in the Queer genre i have seen so far. Not for everyone, but most good movies have a focussed audience.

Well, I'm always excited to see queer stories to be told on the big screen. But sadly, this one just missed the mark.

Videography was on point, both landscapes and people were shot to match the vibe of the scene. Sex scenes were also well choreographed and pleasant to watch. However, rather than helping it grow, the stunning visuals overshadowed the story.

Firstly, the acting was off. I don't know if it's from the director's instructions, but the long pauses between each line made the whole film off-paced. The most convincing acting was probably the actors' orgasm faces.

Secondly, the story just wasn't working. It wasn't developed organically, but instead, I got the feeling the plot points were inserted way before the story was even written, which made the story feel forced.

Thirdly, what's with the Stranger Things music constantly playing whenever there's a cutaway?

In all, with the problems in acting and the story, although it came with stunning visuals, Lonesome is only good, if you think of it as an art house porn.

A young rural Australian man escapes a small-town scandal to Sydney, meeting another guy through Grindr.

The plot feels less important than the intimacy between the lead actor and the filmmaker. The impressive performance of lead Josh Lavery is unusual and takes time to reach its full impact. At first I felt his character was too underplayed, but at least he was aware of his limitations. Slowly throughout the film I felt the impact of his hopelessness and the tangible reality of his survival-mode. Similarly, there is a lot of nudity and no aspect of his experience is excluded, the cumulative effect of which is a deep empathy and familiarity, like intimately getting to know a new lover. Subsequently, the extent of my identification with the protagonist by the end of the film was quite shocking. His relationship with the Grindr hook-up that doesn't end is also depicted in a matter-of-fact way that somehow creates a cumulative impact, where the casualness of their commitment to each other obscures the evident fact that they have something very real and significant to offer each other. I hope this film gets a chance to reach the world and that Josh Lavery gets opportunities to surprise us further as a performer.

There's an interplay between the stark sudden and the slow burn throughout this movie. We begin with an immediate Immersion into the drift of Casey's life and his sexuality which has driven his path this far. He's taken off away from his birthplace after a rejection of him by his married lover, an unexpected tragedy, and his family and community virulence afterwards. And, he works his way along the edges of people in activities out in the public towards the ocean where he tries to finish his part in it and life. He is unsuccessful. Rejected by the sea, Casey then drifts back into Sydney where he quickly finds and joins a small orgy in an unofficial residence. The afterglow of he and its prime mover, Tib, leads to the next in the movie's series of latent simmerings - a number of gig economy small jobs and handyman tasks while also falling for this roommate. The two of them eke out an existence together until Tib faces a deeply personal rejection and responds as he seems he is wont to do. Tib's reaction, in turn, thus feels to Casey as yet another rejection and his self-defense destructive impulses sets him off adrift once again until he finally wakes up that this is not the life he wants for himself or Tib.

You may not appreciate this sort of sloshing meter. You may likewise either be repulsed by Lonesome's edginess which, it seems to me, is part of the current Australian motion picture (and especially its LGBTQ+) storyline landscape. The lonesomeness of this movie, however, is manifested through both, not only of Tib and Casey, but also of those they come in contact with and interact with throughout its storyline.

...about halfway through the film, and the journey of the lead character, the situation that motivated him was revealed in an effective scene. Had that revelation been used to offer deeper insights into his character, as well as those he had interacted with by that point, it could have served as a powerful character study. Instead the audience is blessed with violence, apathy, and shallow sex presented for shock value. Had the script spent more time exploring the emotional ramifications of its protagonist's loneliness, the film might have had an opportunity to be remembered for more significant reasons...