The Delta

Ira Sachs is undeniably a filmmaker who knows precisely what he wants to say and how he wants to say it. He's a masterful storyteller, and I'm kicking myself for not discovering this film sooner, especially considering I fancy myself a dedicated Sundance Film Festival follower.

Shot on 16mm in 1996, the film's visual texture is not a mere affectation; Sachs chose this format because it perfectly complements the narrative's raw and intimate nature. The grainy, dreamlike quality of the 16mm footage evokes a sense of nostalgia and longing, mirroring the emotional landscape of the characters.

Thanks to Mubi, this remarkable queer narrative can be enjoyed in a high-quality transfer. It's a film that shouldn't be missed, especially while it's readily available on the platform.

"The Delta" is a coming-of-age story set in the languid heat of Memphis, Tennessee. It follows the journey of Lincoln, a young man grappling with his sexual identity and the complexities of desire. Sachs's direction is both sensitive and unflinching, capturing the raw emotions and unspoken yearnings of his characters with a delicate touch.

The film's performances are uniformly excellent, with Shayne Gray delivering a breakout performance as Lincoln. His portrayal of a young man caught between societal expectations and his own desires is both heartbreaking and hopeful. Thang Chan, as Minh, the Vietnamese-American man who becomes the object of Lincoln's affection, is equally compelling, his quiet intensity and vulnerability drawing the viewer into his world.

The film's languid pacing and atmospheric cinematography create a sense of timelessness, allowing the viewer to fully immerse themselves in the characters' lives. The soundtrack, a mix of blues, gospel, and ambient sounds, further enhances the film's emotional resonance.

"The Delta" is a film that speaks to the universal human experience of longing, love, and the search for self-acceptance. It's a testament to the power of cinema to explore the complexities of the human heart with honesty, compassion, and a touch of poetic grace.

"THE DELTA is wanting in focus, maundering in a scattershot fashion that becomes a norm in 1990s indie sphere and later the "mumblecore" in the noughties (often in default of a scintillating script and/or munificent funds). For instance, the passages depicting Lincoln's social life with his entitled friends feel wretchedly slack, totally disengaged from the film's theme. It is also not helping by the fact that Gray is a pretty but empty vase, a polite smile of condescension is his only expression regardless of what happens. However, Sachs shows more promise in his attempt to probe John's intersectionality (black, Asian, gay and immigrant constitute a gold mine, which is a rare sight). John's dialogue hews closely to the subculture vernacular and Chan pours out enough raw emotion into John's dysphoria-turned-cynicism-and-resentment, which poignantly projects a sharp political angle to elevate the film slightly above its ilks."

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I was into the movie as I watched it, all the while wondering where it was going. When it ended, I thought I had skipped about 30 minutes ahead, because it just seemed unfinished.

I thought the lead actor, Shayne Gray, was excellent in the part. I thought he was so natural and acted without any bit of effort. His responses, his actions, his emotions, all were very natural. I was sorry to see that this was the only film he's been in. I would very much liked to have seen him in other films.

This film was interesting, but after seeing it through to the end, there was no point to it, I'm sorry to say. I wanted to know more about where each character was going to go, but since the film is 11 years old now, there's no way that's going to happen. Worth seeing, but just be prepared that it's going to end just as it gets interesting.

The handsome "Lincoln" (Shayne Gray) has a decent life, plenty of money and a girlfriend "Monica" (Rachel Zan Huss) but he also has a secret. When she declines to put out one evening, he heads to a cruising area of Memphis where he initially encounters a daddy figure before meeting "Minh". He's a Vietnamese man who is almost the antithesis of "Lincoln". His mother quite recently arrived in the USA, his father was an American soldier - they split up and he's now living with some fellow Vietnamese. They two men chat but "Minh" isn't so keen to go straight for the sex; he wants to get to know his new friend a little. To that end, they take his father's boat and a different kind of cruise on the delta; have a beer and set off some fireworks. It's that latter activity that annoys the police and sends "Minh" feeing into the forest. Has he something to hide? Well the tail end of the film enlightens us a little to the true nature of this man. I did like the concept here, but I'm afraid the acting is pretty nondescript and for a film that relies heavily on conversation, the audio mix makes much of the dialogue inaudible and that proves quite irritating after a while. I think it might have made for a better short feature. Condensing it's more potent aspects into an hour or so might have given it more punch, but as it is - it's too slow and thinly strung out.

The temptation is to write about obvious good intentions. Shayne Gray is just cute and this seems be the basic virtue offered to his character .

Thang Chan performance is the basic good point of film, presenting, sure, with a good fist of ciches, the reaistic image of allianation.

The probem, maybe the first part, we intentioned , ooking for suggest the struggle of Lincoln with his sexuality but, unfortunately, too ong and pretty boring.

In short, just a familiar indie recipe, not different by another, proposing faces of loneliness and reminding social traumas in fair manner.

The end is so predictable than just works as nice confirmation of what you suppose.

So, a nice film . Sure, for a precise target.