Friday, June 28, 2024

Haze

Haze, dir. Matthew Fifer, 2024 USA, 76 min. ❓
Friday, June 28, 2024, 8:30 PM Roxie
theater screening preceded by the short RAT! (also in the “Cruel Summer” streaming program)
Haze is not available in the Digital Screening Room streaming encore
⚠️Content advisory: contains themes of abuse and homophobic violence

a young man in the shadows peers out between tree branches
Haze
Frameline description: “This new feature from director Matthew Fifer (co-director of Cicada, Frameline44) immerses the viewer with a lush, atmospheric, and darkly sexy portrait of a man’s quest for answers to his troubled past. Cole Doman (Mutt, Frameline47, also seen at Frameline48 in the short film Bust) stars as Joe, a gay, investigative journalist who returns to his hometown after recently becoming sober. Struggling to find steady work, Joe becomes laser focused on the next big story to relaunch his career: the mysterious death of eight gay men that occurred at the town’s psychiatric hospital. Now abandoned and intentionally forgotten by the town's people, the looming structure haunts Joe in his quest for the truth.

“When some of these locals begin dropping dead of seemingly-natural causes, we follow Joe and the new, sweltering townie man in his life, Luke (Sense8’s Brian J. Smith, who also directed A House Is Not a Disco in the Frameline48 program), through a complex web of unanswered questions that all seem to share a common explanation — but what? Is this somehow related to his sister’s tragic death when they were children?”

My thoughts: I don’t really have much to say about this film, because I walked out pretty early on. To be fair, that was mostly because I wasn’t feeling great and just wanted to go home to bed, but I will say that it did not seem to be heading towards a satisfying viewing experience to my tastes. The words “darkly sexy thriller” mostly make my eyes roll back in my head, so my bottom line is “not for me.”

IMDb • Official website • Filmmaker • Instagram: @MattLangeFifer • preview • other •

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