The Night Stage was selected for the closing gala of the 2025bFlare festival in London. Understandably so, as it's quite a production, gets your attention from the very first scene and keeps you engaged with a complex plot, great camera work and suggestive sound.
However, the main plot - fetish discovered by 2 "random" lovers, unfortunately did not convince me. Interestingly, from the storytelling perspective I think that the screenplay had it all - we see how 2 lovers discover thrills of the risky encounters, we see how it grows in stages to the very extreme. However, instead of following the characters in their journey it is harder to believe them every time they meet again, to the point of the last scene which becomes a grotesque.
Thinking of similar movies it's hard for me not to compare it to the Babygirl which explored similar ideas and in my opinion did it right: we could see how gradually temptation wins over scruples as well as common sense. Night Stage on the other hand crosses subsequent boundaries with no scruples nor any reflection. Apart from the very first one, sex scenes happen out of the blue and the lovers engage in pushing the limits for no visible reason - which leaves us struggling to believe why they are willing to 'risk it all' just to have another quickie.
Overall, if you're after some action but you don't necessarily care about any deeper meaning - this could be a good watch. If you are willing to graciously turn a blind eye on the shortcomings so that you could see a bold attempt to explore a very interesting fetish phenomenon - you could give it a try too. However, if you want to appreciate something both deep and convincing, it will just irritate you with the amount of wasted potential.
