BLUE FILM

(director/writer: Elliot Tuttle; cinematographer: Ryan Jackson-Healy; editor: Zach Clark; music: Isaac Eiger; cast: Reed Birney (Hank Grant), Kieron Moore (Aaron Eagle); Runtime: 85; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Bijan Kazerooni, Will Youmans, Waylon Sall, Adam Kersh; Submarine entertainment/ Obscured Releasing; 2025)

“A chamber piece queer drama.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
 
The feature film debut by Elliot Tuttle is a disturbing “Blue movie,” a term formerly used to refer to a porn film.

The cocky 20something L.A. camboy Aaron Eagle (Kieron Moore) poses in the nude for his subscriber online following, as he hurls homophobic slurs at them and tells them to look at a real man. One of those viewers, the middle-aged Hank Grant (Reed Birney), offers $50,000 to spend an entire night video taping him.

They meet in a rental house, after the watcher arrives in a ski mask and surprises Aaron by calling him by his real name, Alex McConnell. It turns out that he was his English teacher at a Maine middle school. Hank tells of serving a prison sentence for assaulting one of his 12-year-old boy students, and when released after seven years the pedophile worked in a Maine grocery store.

Their night together turns into a chamber piece queer drama, as they both openly talk about their perversions, their love life, their aspirations and, in the process, despite their flaws, are humanized. Both characters give riveting performances to make this unpleasant film an insightful one. It’s well-written, tantalizing and provocative, but not for all tastes.

It played at the Edinburgh Film Festival.

REVIEWED ON 6/18/2026  GRADE: B+
dennisschwartzreviews.com