Layla

Watched this at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

Filmmaker Amrou Al-Kadhi has made an very fun, sweet and positive queer drama comedy with strong direction and amazing performances from all the cast members, particularly Bilal Hasna. The writing and direction helps capture the conflicts of traditional religious traditions, queer culture and the impacts of queer and drag relationships between the characters and setting. Many of the production designs, sound designs, and the dialogue is really good and the color presentation was beautiful.

Bilal Hasna and Louis Greatorex have really good chemistry between one another and many of the conversations and emotional moments were strong and visually engaging. There are some good humor but some of the humor aspects felt a little dry and could use some work. I did wish the movie did explore some of the other themes a little more but it didn't ruin the experience for me.

This movie made me learn a lot about the queer community and the drag lifestyle. And this movie was queerly wholesome to watch.