@ Tribeca: EDGE Picks Queer (and Otherwise) Films Worth Watching
The recently concluded Tribeca 2025 was chock full of plenty of outstanding features, more so than in recent memory. The Fest, which ran through June 15, featured a slate with a few potential awards contenders, and there was plenty of queer-themed fare, both obvious and subtle.
EDGE sampled quite a few of the selections, and recommends the following:
'Twinless'
As I wrote back when the pic premiered at Sundance, writer-director-co-star James Sweeney's hilarious, poignant and anxiety-inducing genre-blend, "Twinless" is one of 2025's best films.
Roman (Dylan O'Brien) first meets Dennis (Sweeney) in a bereavement support group for survivors who have lost their identical twin. The two become buddies, shopping for groceries, eating out together, etc. Roman, who is straight, isn't the brightest flair in the sky and misses his gay brother, Rocky, terribly. Dennis is gay and guilt-ridden over how he lost his twin. The film then flashes back for a rather shocking reveal, and then careens forward for the repercussions. No spoilers. Suffice to say, the film takes the viewer on a unique and emotional journey that never feels inauthentic — even when it approaches dark comedy.
O'Brien delivered a powerful turn in last year's "Ponyboi," and, with his performance in "Twinless," solidifies his place as one of the most impressive actors working in indie films today. It's a fantastic dual performance, where he manages to play two very different but super-connected twins, one a well-educated egotist and the other a self-conscious, yet sweet, ruffian. As Roman, he strikes just the right tender/gruff balance. He justly won the US Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting.
Sweeney's script perspicaciously explores loneliness, loss, trauma, and the need for connection. The film has a few graphic sex scenes, one gay, that never feel gratuitous.
'Everything's Going to Be Great'
Many a budding gay have found themselves feeling alienated from their classmates, wondering why they're so different from others. Jon S. Baird's "Everything's Going to Be Great" is an infectious, hilarious and poignant film that celebrates that uniqueness in those of us who were, indeed, not like the others.
Set in the late 1980s, the movie follows the Smarts, a family who run a regional theater in Ohio. Bryan Cranston is the glass-half-full patriarch. Allison Janney is his glass-half-empty wife. They have two teen sons: A handsome 16-year-old jock played by scrumptious Jack Champion, and his theater-adoring younger brother (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth).
When the clan are given an opportunity to run a popular NJ community theater, this highly theatrical group heads east.
All of the actors are fantastic. Champion is especially appealing in the ironic role of the family pariah because he doesn't love theater! Newcomer Ainsworth is so good as the budding theater queen who everyone simply assumes is gay — but is he? I'm not certain he even knows. But he does have frequent dialogue with dead gay icons like Ruth Gordon, Noel Coward, and Tallulah Bankhead.
Any queer person who grew up wondering why people thought they were weird, but kinda embraced their own strangeness, will appreciate this film.
'Westhampton'
Fans of Finn Wittrock can rejoice. Christian Nilsson's deeply affecting feature "Westhampton" boasts a career-best performance from the sexy thesp, who plays Tom Bell, a guilt-ridden filmmaker returning to his hometown in Long Island, to screen his semi-autobiographical film, despite the fact that most of town's population resent him and blame him for a tragic car crash when he was a teen.
His former bestie, Dickie (an excellent Jake Weary), now a cop, wants to run him out of town. But Tom stays, seeking some kind of redemption.
"Westhampton" is about damaged people learning to forgive others and themselves for mistakes made in their youth. It's one of the best films of the fest.
'Inside'
Charles Williams' "Inside" is an intense, brutal look at a gaggle of prison inmates in Australia. Heavily researched, the filmmaker opts for authenticity over melodrama. There's some strange homoeroticism at play in the flick, as well.
Guy Pearce is Warren Murfett, a long-imprisoned hit-and-run driver who becomes a mentor to the newly-incarcerated Mel Blight (yummy newcomer Vincent Miller). Mel shares a cell with notorious child rapist and murderer Mark Shepherd (a blisteringly powerful Cosmo Jarvis). When a hit is put out on the life of Shepherd, Murfett manipulates Blight into agreeing to ice Shepherd. The film then builds to an explosive conclusion.
"Inside" examines how past trauma and damaged familial environs shape people, and asks if rehabilitation is even possible for certain criminals.
All three main actors are to be commended for extraordinary work.
'A Second Life'
Laurent Slama's first feature, "A Second Life" is a refreshing look at two very different queer people who manage to connect — as friends.
Set during last year's Paris Olympics, the film focuses on Elisabeth (Agathe Rouselle), a depressed young woman with a hearing disorder who has a stress-ridden job — she shows tourists their newly rented B&Bs. She's forever mistreated until she meets an odd, too-friendly young man, Elijah (Alex Lawther). But despite fighting it, she's won over by his infectiously positive nature.
It's never clear if Elisabeth and Elijah are bisexual or gay — not that it matters. Both definitely lean in the same-sex direction, yet develop a true and loving friendship.
Rouselle is transfixing here as she was in Julia Ducournau's "Titane," and Lawther impresses as well.
'Our Hero, Balthazar'
Oscar Boyson's darkly comic and daring feature debut, "Our Hero, Balthazar," is about class and identity. It's also outrageous and destined to be divisive.
The plot follows an entitled NYC teen, Balthazar "Balthy" Malone (Jaeden Martell), who fabricates videos to try to get the attention of a girl he likes. He has absentee parents and a ridiculously money-seeking life coach (Noah Centineo).
Balthy begins receiving scary anonymous comments on his videos, and becomes convinced the dude is about to commit a mass shooting, so he journeys to the South to talk him down and grab the glory.
The troll turns out to be Solomon (Asa Butterfield), a volatile, gun-loving Texan seeking his dad's approval. Strangely, when the boys meet they form a bizarre bond with a definite homoerotic element to it. Solomon speaks of his queer phase in a throwaway line, but you can sense the crush he has on Balthy, who seems to only care about himself and his screwed up wants and needs.
Martell is perfectly privileged. But it's Butterfield, in a role so far removed from his "Sex Education" part, who is the revelation. He dives into this good ol' boy part with aplomb.
"Our Hero, Balthazar" is an incisive, satiric peek into the lives of our social media-indoctrinated youth, their selfish parents, and America's psychotic gun culture. It's disturbing and hilarious, sometimes simultaneously.
'The Degenerate: The Life and Films of Andy Milligan'
The only time I remember seeing the name Andy Milligan was reading a few accounts of his stage work as director at Caffe Cino, the breeding ground of the off-Broadway movement in the late '50s/early '60s. He infused the plays he directed with a daring (for its time) homoerotic subtext. But I had no idea he became a filmmaker and churned out dozens of dirt-cheap exploitation movies, first erotic and then horror, from the late '60s through the '80s!
Josh Johnson and Grayson Tyler Johnson's incisive doc, "The Degenerate: The Life and Films of Andy Milligan," seeks proper the due for its subject, while admitting that his often-popular, low-cost output was usually awful. The film also attempts to investigate why the openly gay Milligan's vision was so disgusting and depraved, leading right back to his childhood and chronicling his sad end in poverty. Milligan died of AIDS in 1991, and he's buried in an unmarked pauper's grave.
It's a fascinating portrait of a complex man who had something to say and was given the means to express himself. For a time.
'The Last Guest Of The Holloway Motel'
Tony Powell was a star soccer player in Britain in the 1970s, married with two young daughters. Then, one day, he vanished. Four decades later, he's managing the now-rundown Holloway Motel in West Hollywood, and getting ready to move out because it's being repurposed for the unhoused.
But what happened to Tony, and why did he abandon his family as well as his parents and siblings? Doc filmmakers Ramiel Petros and Nicholas Freeman do a wonderful job revealing small bits as their film "The Last Guest Of The Holloway Motel" progresses so we are riveted from beginning to end (literally to the end because, at the credits, a final big bombshell is dropped).
Without giving too much away, it turns out Tony was gay and needed to figure out his own life away from what he saw as harsh judgment. While his decisions may have hurt many people, they were necessary for his own sanity, the fear of rejection having been so strong.
Tony himself is the main subject of the film. He's initially guarded and refuses to disclose much about his past and his decisions, but he slowly becomes a bit more self-examining as well as self-reflexive. There are many revelations, and a few reunions.
"The Last Guest Of The Holloway Motel" is an important entry in the queer canon. It's an empathetic portrait of a beloved closeted sports figure who survived the only way he knew how at a time when it was career- (and often life-) destroying to be labeled gay.
'Boy George & Culture Club'
"Karma Chameleon" was a beloved song in the mid '80s, but what did those lyrics mean? Turns out most of the members of Culture Club had no idea. But the songs the band created spoke to an entire generation of queer kids.
Alison Ellwood's riveting doc "Boy George & Culture Club" explores the immense popularity of Boy George and the band in the mid-to-late-'80s, and unearths the jealousies and struggles within the band via chats with all four members, including Jon Moss, Roy Hay, and Mikey Craig.
Many of the problems were due to the media's intent on focusing all attention on George. This did not go over well with his bandmates, and he didn't seem to care.
A fascinating reveal is that Boy George and Jon Moss were, for a time, devoted lovers who fell for each other, pretty much, at first sight. Had this not happened, there may not have been a Culture Club.
'State of Firsts'
Chase Joynt's enlightening doc "State of Firsts" follows Sarah McBride on the campaign trail, where she's hoping to become the first transgender person ever to be elected to Congress. (Spoiler — not — she wins!) The film delves into McBride's necessity to strike a balance between repping her constituents and representing as the first trans person. She muses that people misunderstand the difference between activists and elected officials, and their respective roles.
This film could not be timelier or more relevant, with trans people suffering the most severe attacks from the MAGA right in the last few months. All of that parallels McBride's being the target of horrible anti-trans rhetoric, even from her own fellow House members, with Republicans like Nancy Mace and Marjorie Taylor Greene misgendering her and banning her from using the Congressional ladies' room.
McBride's grace, steadfastness, and perseverance are the stuff of true heroism. Joynt captures this essential moment of LGBTQ+ history with dignity and respect.
'It's Dorothy'
Jeffrey McHale's engaging doc "It's Dorothy" is a bit of a mishmash that often feels like a graduate thesis on the iconic character Dorothy Gale and the enduring legacy of "The Wizard of Oz" in all its many incarnations. Some are vital (Judy Garland, obviously; Stephanie Mills on Broadway; Diana Ross in Sidney Lumet's 1978 film "The Wiz"). Others, not so much.
What's great about the doc is the amazing footage of Garland from various films and concerts, as well as amazing artists performing "Over the Rainbow," like Streisand, Gaga, Beyoncé, Celine, and Sarah Vaughn. Alas, McHale doesn't allow us to enjoy these moments for longer than a few seconds (perhaps this was a rights issue?), which is super disappointing.
The film also explores Garland and Dorothy's place in gay history, and why the artist and character are so important to gay discourse. We get to hear from the awesome Rufus Wainwright and the legend himself, John Waters.
'Just Kids'
Gianna Taboni's doc "Just Kids" follows three transgender teens and their families as they navigate the continuous erosion of freedoms for transgender people thanks to Trumpism, with misinformation being weaponized and gender-affirming care banned in many states. Taboni takes us through the challenges — financial, medical, legal, and otherwise — that these families face in a fight for their children's rights.
The film sheds light on the political machinations at work and the politicos who don't seem to care one bit about medical consensus, quoting inaccurate stats willy nilly.
The doc discusses how the attacks on the transgender community are just the latest attempt to demonize a marginalized group to score political points and deflect from real issues.
The film's political coverage is most compelling.