NIGHT STAGE is a visually stylish and heavily Brian de Palma influenced queer erotic thriller about two men who sabotage their professional achievements with increasingly exhibitionist sex. Gabriel Faryas plays Matias, a twenty something actor who is flamboyantly out but so ambitious that he's willing to shaft his own friend, colleague and room-mate to land the role in a major TV series. Casting directors and colleagues give him coded warnings about his public persona and he seems to buy into that but for his affair with Rafael (Cirillo Luna). Rafael is a closeted politician on the cusp of becoming city mayor. He has a bland "change" message but is in fact bankrolled by old school real estate developers and has a goon who serves as bodyguard and fixer.
The film is written and directed by Felipe Matzembacher and Marcio Reolon (SEASHORE) and they clearly have an assured visual eye. The actors all do a good job and the final message of the joy and relief of being out is a nuanced and tragic one. But the film is about 20 minutes too long and it's never sinister enough in its thrills. The BFI Flare audience laughed uproariously at the appearance of a masked man. To be fair, a lot of 80s and 90s thrillers of this type flirt with camp absurdity but I felt this went a bit too far. Also, I think it was pretty easy to guess the plot.
NIGHT STAGE has a running time of 117 minutes. It played Berlin and closed BFI Flare 2025.
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