‘Blue Film’ review: UK rising star Kieron Moore impresses in provocative, uneven US debut

Dir/scr. Elliot Tuttle. US. 2025. 85mins.

Los Angeles-based queer camboy Aaron Eagle (UK actor Kieron Moore) makes a dwelling by teasing, goading and humiliating his followers till they fill his digital tip jar within the hope of seeing the whole lot. However when one mysterious fan presents him $50,000 for a single evening collectively, Aaron can’t resist the lure of straightforward cash. There’s a catch nonetheless. The punter (Reed Birney) is revealed to be a determine from Aaron’s distant previous, and each discover themselves revisiting uncomfortable territory. Elliot Tuttle’s debut function Blue Movie is a confrontational however uneven double-hander that offers with energy performs and perversions. It loses its manner more and more within the second half, however delivers handsomely as a showcase for Moore’s magnetic display presence.

Lacks the arrogance and readability to say something significantly vital or new

Moore (Vampire Academy, Code Of Silence) serves up snotty, swaggering star high quality in spades. He has the look, at occasions, of a younger Marlon Brando, with the identical brawling sensuality and bruised vulnerability. His charisma kind of carries an image that will get slightly slowed down in its in-your-face transgressiveness. That is an undeniably fearless debut from Tuttle, whose earlier work contains the East Berlin-set podcast collection Lina’s Tune, venturing into the thorny thematic realms of paedophilia, excessive S&M and spiritual religion. However Blue Movie lacks the arrogance and readability to say something significantly vital or new. It might generate curiosity at LGBTQ+ themed occasions, following a world premiere in competitors at Edinburgh Worldwide Movie Pageant.

The movie unfolds predominantly within the aggressively impartial rented residence that Birney’s character, Hank, has employed for a single evening. It’s a banal backdrop, lit slightly flatly, however the lack of environment within the sparsely furnished rooms serves to focus consideration on the tensions between Aaron and the person who has employed him. Once we, and Aaron – who has the phrase ‘Diablo’ tattooed about his proper eyebrow and myriad others throughout his torso – first meet Hank, the older man has hid his face behind a knitted balaclava. Hank factors his camcorder and begins to probe beneath Aaron’s assured posture with a collection of more and more private questions.

Aaron enjoys being checked out and has no drawback being filmed (the image’s secondary location is discovered within the tight frames of the quite a few units which have skilled their lenses on Aaron over time). However he additionally likes to be in charge of his personal narrative, and it quickly turns into clear Hank is aware of that he’s mendacity a few childhood in Miami. Hank additionally is aware of Aaron’s actual title is Alex.

Birney’s function is the trickier of the 2. His neediness makes him unattractive even earlier than the movie reveals his true nature. A former center college trainer, he knew Aaron as a baby and, he says, worshipped him from afar, earlier than being dismissed from his job, disgraced and sentenced to a stint in jail for an tried assault on one other boy. The dialog between Aaron and Hank is combative, with each pushing the opposite to disclose their secrets and techniques and, within the case of Hank, to reconcile his tendencies with a newfound non secular religion.

Their mutual candour takes in private particulars that will show disquieting for some viewers; likewise their eventual, deeply uncomfortable sexual encounter. However the principle drawback is that, for all its boundary-smashing shock worth, a lot of Blue Movie is overly talky and fairly uninteresting.