Femme (2023)

[flotemysost]

Saw this yesterday and couldn't see a thread for it - it's a UK revenge drama/thriller about a drag artist (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) who's subjected to a brutal homophobic attack from a stranger (George MacKay), only to realise that his attacker is in fact closeted himself, sparking a taut cat-and-mouse power struggle between the two.

Not sure how I felt about this tbh. It's an interesting concept, and the idea of taking the themes of masculinity, physical violence and male loyalty that are central to countless "gritty thriller" type films and kinda upending them seemed pretty novel; I'm just not sure it fully does justice to any of the areas it touches on.

The violence is pretty uncompromising; I guess having had a few mates who've suffered similar attacks IRL, I found it pretty hard to watch, but it's not like unbearably gory or anything. The knife-edge tension as the two leads walk a tightrope between intimacy and brutality is undoubtedly very effective, but something about the relationship just didn't ring true for me.

MacKay's hair-trigger temper (and painstakingly applied neck tattoo, lol) is convincingly sinister, and Stewart-Jarrett is enigmatic as the traumatised but scheming victim, but ultimately it felt like the focus was more on the "revenge thriller" aspect than going into the fairly complex themes raised. Which is fine obviously; the ending just felt a bit flat to me.

Also pretty "by numbers" depictions of queer friendships; it did feel a bit like the flatmate characters just existed to remind us that Jules is traumatised and hasn't been out for months (and also as always with these things, I couldn't help but wonder

Spoiler alert

how they can afford to live in such a massive flat)

[close]

[Clownbaby]

Where on Earth did you see it? Is it available on any streaming platforms? I've been waiting for this to come out. I know it's at cinemas but not in Carlisle. I bet it'll come out on something obscure that I don't have, like BFI Player.

I'll always automatically watch anything with George Mackay because I love him. He's great at these kinds of intense roles. Really good at portraying tense and wired characters in a strangely beautiful way. The whole vibe of this seems right up my alley, even if, judging by a lot of the reviews I've seen, it's sort of too focused on one aspect of the story- the revenge. Can't wait to check it out.

[kitsofan34]

It's been on for about two weeks in my local odeon, Clownbaby.

[Mister Six]

This sounds great, I reckon I'll wait for a US theatrical release if it's out in UK cinemas now.

[emmett85]

I saw this at my local Light a couple of weeks back and really enjoyed it. The violence was absolutely jarring and also agree on how good MacKay was. Definitely worth a watch.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I enjoyed this and thought they're were great elements but thought there were elements of cliché as well.

Just what you've got to expect from a mid/low gritty thing with the BBC Films emblem, Pretty Red Dress was similar in that 'it's a good film but we have to suspend some belief for it to work as a realist drama' I reckon.

[Bentpitch]

This had a ring of the Russell T Davies version of queerness to me, where queer people are all fabulous and unrealistic. The fact the other more troubling characters were much better drawn and complicated in what's ostensibly a queer film just pissed me off, to be honest. And yes, I was asking the same question in your spoiler, flotemysost. Also, it really pissed away everything in the last 10 mins. Really disappointing.

[Mister Six]

Haven't watched Queer as Folk for a long time, but there was only one fabulous gay in It's a Sin.

[checkoutgirl]

I thought this was that film Paul Verhoven did that was so mad he could only get a French actress to do it so had to do a French film.

[Mister Six]

That's Benedetta.

[checkoutgirl]

No it's not.