Blue Film

Only Fans camboy Aaron Eagle agrees to meet an admirer in person for a promised $50 000. When he shows up at the guy’s house, he’s wearing a balaclava and sits Aaron down in front of a camcorder. He doesn’t want sex (at least, not yet), he wants Aaron to tell him about his past. But he already seems to know more than he should: that Aaron is not his real name, for example…

Elliot Tuttle’s two hander is a disturbing film which wades into very murky waters. It’s not graphic or explicit, but it does ask us to suspend our moral judgment towards a character we would doubtless condemn outside the frame of this story. Tuttle’s script doesn’t set out to sensationalize, but to explore the psychological and philosophical implications of compulsive behaviour for two damaged individuals: a high school teacher who abused a child, and the former pupil whom he says he still loves.

The fine line Blue Film walks will most likely be too touchy a subject for many viewers to bear. For others, the psychodrama offers a frank conversation about mental illness, identity, and desire.

Robert Daniels, rogerebert.com

In our current era of mainstream LGBTQ+ filmmaking — where queerness can often feel diluted or diminished — it’s rare to come across a truly transgressive film. Tuttle’s two-hander chamber story of a camboy spending the night with a pedophile who also happens to be his former elementary school teacher is exactly that. As bold as it is deeply unsettling, Blue Film begs a brave audience, but rewards those willing to sit with the discomfort.

8/10 Jericho Tadeo, Exclaim!

Some of what feels good about Tuttle’s movie is that, for all of the places it’s bold enough to go, I couldn’t describe it as fearless. It’s full of fears, and it’s daring us to face them.

Wesley Morris, New York Times