2024 Entry #020 01-16-23 “Lonesome” is a 2022 Australian drama film which was written and directed by Craig Boreham (“Blow”, “Seaman”, “Booth”, “Pink Sheep”, “Transient”, “Love Bite”, “Drowning”, “William Yang: The Art of Seduction”, “Ostia: The Last Night”, “Gay4Pay”, “Teenage Kicks”). The film stars Josh Lavery (“Tasty”, “Bender”, “Lured”, “Perfect Boy Next Door”) & Zarif / Daniel Gabriel (“Right Here”, “Cut”) as Casey & Tib, two young men who make a connection neither of them expects or knows how to navigate.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I watched this. I’d never seen a trailer but it had featured on my list of recent releases that I wanted to check out. I’d seen a single short film made by Craig Boreham (“Drowning”), which he later turned into a feature film (“Teenage Kicks”) which I never got around to seeing. But I thought this film was well made, with some memorable imagery and some impressive lead performances. The supporting cast felt hit or miss to me, but they tend to not be around long so they don’t distract too much from the story. And while most of the story beats have been told before, the story of queer youth struggling to survive without the support of their families is sadly still relevant.
For a minute I thought this was going to be a very sad movie with a very sad ending, but the film surprised me several times which several sequences of joy and we got what is probably the closest thing to a happy ending that this story would allow for, which feels more refreshing than unrealistic – indeed, for those who want a darker ending, one can easily imagine that the ending is a dream of some kind. YMMV.