TL;DR – A film about wanting to grow up but when you are not mature as you think you are to navigate your way through it.    

Score – 3 out of 5 stars

Warning – There is extensive use of Strobe Lighting.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Review –

Today we review a very interesting film from a first time future director, which you would not know was his first feature unless you were told because it is at a much higher standard than you would expect. It explores coming of age in a realm of digital technologies that can bring people into certain worlds well before they are ready. It is a film that hits many emotions from joy to dark foreboding as it goes on.

So to set the scene, Sequin (Conor Leach) is a 16-year-old that spends his days in school and at night he uses an anonymous hook-up-app to meet up with men. While his dad (Jeremy Lindsay Taylor) is supportive he does not know the full extent of what is going on. All of this lead to potential disaster when one of his hookups B (Ed Wightman) leads him into a world he is not ready for and then it all spirals out from there.

There is a lot that Sequin in a Blue Room does that is really interesting. They use a lot of jump cuts to transition between scenes that keeps the pace going at a gangbuster speed. There is also a really good composition of light and colour, darkness and bright. There is always a sense in which the film has a good understanding of space and location of people within it and it even hides actors or dialogue off-screen to heighten tension. Finally as this is a film about sex, drugs, and electronica, the integration of technology into the filmmaking is achieved visually in a very engaging way. Indeed I think this will be used as a good case study as to how to represent information on a phone screen in a film.

While there is a lot the film gets right, not all of it came together as I think they hoped it would. The film is focused on the story of Sequin as how he walks through this world and I should say that Conor Leach is really good in the title role. However from a story perspective there is this point where he goes back to the clearly abusive person that does not make complete sense in the form of the narrative. But also from that point in the film the outcome is set and it is just waiting for it to all play out. As well as this, there is a framing device the film uses as like a count down from Apartment 10 to 1. I’m not sure this really helped in any way.

In the end, do we recommend Sequin in a Blue Room? Well that is a difficult one to say. This is a very erotic and explicit film, and so if you are someone who does not like frank depictions of sexuality then this is not the film for you. However, this is mostly a well-constructed film and it is exploring an issue that we as a society don’t know how to deal with yet.           

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you watched Sequin in a Blue Room?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Sequin in a Blue Room
Directed by – Samuel Van Grinsven
Written by –Jory Anast & Samuel Van Grinsven
Music by – Brent Williams
Cinematography by – Jay Grant
Edited by – Tim Guthrie
Production/Distribution Companies – AFTRS
Starring – Conor Leach, Simon Croker, Jeremy Lindsay Taylor, Anthony Brandon Wong, Joshua Shediak, Ed Wightman, Patrick Cullen, Damian de Montemas, Samuel Barrie, Tsu Shan Chambers, Nancy Denis, Darren Kumar,          
Rating – Australia: R18+;