Movie Review: Sequin in a Blue Room
The tale of a young gay teen s obsession with sex takes a dark turn in Samuel Van Grinsven s debut feature
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As
Sequin in a Blue Room‘s opening credits fill the screen, director Samuel Van Grinsven decides to make one thing very, very clear: the movie you’re about to watch is not just any film, but “a homosexual film.” Set in an unspecified Australian metropolis, the movie, which won the Audience Award for Best Feature at the Sydney Film Festival, is
abundantly homosexual as it tells the story of a young gay high schooler addicted to anonymous gay sex.
Sequin is the screen name for the questing 16-year-old at the slowly awakening heart of
Sequin in a Blue Room, a 2019 Australian film only now reaching the UK.
Sequin is the screen name for the questing 16-year-old at the slowly awakening heart of
Sequin in a Blue Room, a 2019 Australian film only now reaching the UK. The graduation project of its New Zealand-born director and co-writer Samuel Van Grinsven, the 80-minute movie charts a mostly compelling path from multiply meaningless gay hook-ups through to something at least resembling a connection, if the image of shared popcorn at the end offers any indication of happier times ahead.
Four new films to stream this weekend Palm Springs, Sequin in a Blue Room, A Common Crime, Those That, at a Distance, Resemble Another
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PALM SPRINGS ★★★★☆
Directed by Max Barbakow. Starring Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti, Peter Gallagher, JK Simmons. Amazon Prime, 90 min Samberg and Mlioti play attendees at a wedding in the eponymous Californian city who find themselves trapped in an apparently unbreakable time loop. Each morning they wake up hours before the nuptials. Yes, Barbakow’s inventive comedy – which achieved a record-breaking sale at Sundance – is very much in the mode of Groundhog Day, but it finds its own rhythms and its own humorous tones. This is a cooler film that works a little harder at philosophising the dilemma. Samberg is reliably dry with his quips. Milioti breaks through with an assertive comic turn.
Last modified on Wed 7 Apr 2021 12.02 EDT
Boldly declaring itself a âhomosexual filmâ, Sequin in a Blue Room is neither coy nor moralistic about online gay hookup culture. The apps have a toxic side, yes, but the film also acutely understands the heady, tactile pleasure of casual sex. Despite the thriller aesthetics, Sequin in a Blue Room is at its heart a coming-of-age tale in a digital world filled with instant sexual gratifications and perilous risks.
The film is, in one word, hot; rippling with an electrifying sexual energy. The anonymity is key. Even the 16-year-old protagonist, played by Conor Leach, has no name. He is known only as Sequin, a display name on a hookup app where he procures no-strings sex from much older men. With cut-glass cheekbones, Sequin is striking and arrogantly cocksure of the power attached to such assets. The silvery, sequin-encrusted crop-top reserved for his trysts only enhances the detached precocity.
The Skinny
Sequin in a Blue Room
A gay 16-year-old lad with a passion for anonymous one night stands gets in hot water when one conquest doesn t take kindly to being pushed aside
★★★ Film title: Sequin in a Blue Room Director: Samuel Van Grinsven Release date: 9 Apr Certificate: 18
The thriller potential of location-based gay dating apps like Grindr is sharply explored in this stylish first feature from Australian filmmaker Samuel Van Grinsven. The app’s GPS positioning is designed for convenience, alerting horny users to their nearest potential sexual partner, but in
Sequin in a Blue Room, the number indicating the proximity in metres between you and the nearest user takes on a sinister dimension. It’s the 21st century equivalent of the calls are coming from inside the house trope or the blinking motion tracker in