After the festival; Brian recommends: The Latent Image
Joshua Tonks stars as Ben, a writer who retreats to a remote cabin to begin writing a horror novel. His isolation is interrupted when a mysterious wounded man (Jay Clift) arrives at his door. Sympathetic but wary, he invites him in where the two soon engage in an erotic and increasingly dangerous cat-and-mouse game. Reality blurs with imagination in this taut, at times violent thriller.
The after programming blues…
This was the first holiday season in 6 years that I didn’t have a film festival to help program. Unless you’ve been there, it might be difficult to understand the complicated feelings I had. In years past, while everyone is going home for the holidays and preparing for great change in the new year, I was trying desperately to see as many end of year Oscar-y type movies for my Top 10 Films list and also chipping away at hundreds of hours of LGBTQ submissions - features and shorts - to come up with a program that I would be proud of, but also, hopefully - finally - bring audiences in Mississippi to LGBTQ films as that category’s lead programmer at Oxford Film Festival.
At last year’s festival, while sitting in the audience of two of the best LGBTQ docs I had seen in years, “Being Bebe” and “Mama Bears” with audiences of 15 and 6 respectively, I knew it was time to go. Had I failed in the mission I had set out for myself all those years ago? No. And although there was a void come January 2023 as I didn’t have that joy of what I had built, down to the wire, I was grateful.
I still get emails about queer films vying for festivals and reviews, partly because I’m still on the mailing lists and also because I’m a member of Galeca: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics. For the first several months after resigning my post at Oxford FIlm Festival, I didn’t want to look at the emails. It was a bit too painful through the eyes of exhaustion and disappointment from the lack of an audience, for LGBTQ films at least, at the 2022 festival.
And yet, I realized a few weeks ago that watching these films could help fill that void. Just because I’m not programming for a festival anymore doesn’t mean I can’t bring eyes to films I love and recommend.
Queer horror and The Latent Image
I’ve read and heard over the years that LGBTQ films are lacking in the horror genre, and this is quite true to some extent. Instead of actual queer horror, we seem to latch on and settle for the likes of an overcooked Toni Collete performance in Hereditary in lieu of an actual LGBTQ story. Icons are great, but I want more than that.
Let me point you toward The Latent Image. The premise is this. A writer, self secluded in the middle of nowhere lets an injured stranger into his house and the lines between fiction and reality become blurred, with sexual tension and potential murder at the forefront!
The film is directed by Alexander McGregor Birrell, based on his short film and stars Joshua Tonks (who also wrote the screenplay with Birrell) as Ben, the writer, Jay Clift as the mysterious, wounded stranger and William Tippery as Ben’s partner.
I was immediately hooked into the premise, and Birrell directs the film with a perfect pace, full of tension - even if we likely see quite early where things are headed. I don’t want to give too much away, but I do want to say that the heart of the film truly belongs to Tonks. He is vulnerable, sweet, sexy and fully present as Ben. The audience is with him fully from the very start and watching him navigate the film’s ending is a delight.
The film has been picked up for distribution by Cinephobia Releasing, which is right where it belongs. Dedicated to genre and LGBTQ films - “offering both controversial, often sexually provocative dramas, edgy thrillers and uncompromising horror while also showcasing some of the best LGBTQ+ romances and dramas.”
I believe that The Latent Image is still making the festival rounds, but keep an eye on its distribution.