Rating: NR | Runtime: 99 minutes
Release Date: December 1st, 2023 (UK) / March 22nd, 2024 (USA)
Studio: Signature Entertainment / Utopia
Director(s): Sam H. Freeman & Ng Choon Ping
Writer(s): Sam H. Freeman & Ng Choon Ping

I just feel sorry for you.

While it doesn’t excuse Preston’s (George MacKay) actions, hearing Oz (Aaron Heffernan) gloat about how he treats him like a pitbull to wreak havoc for personal gain definitely contextualizes them for Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett). The obviously closeted Preston assaulted Jules on the street, leaving him naked in the gutter—a shell of the confident and empowered drag queen he was mere hours earlier—in large part as a means to save face with Oz. So, when they run into each other at a gay sauna three months later, a currently male-coded Jules knows he won’t be recognized. He can get close, form a relationship, and get his revenge by outing Preston to the toxic heteronormative thugs he calls friends.

Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping’s Femme isn’t about forgiveness or redemption. Whether or not Jules goes through with his revenge porn plot of filming Preston, the latter will never be absolved. And that’s why the progression of the plot is so interesting. Because what would actually be worse than having his laundry aired for the world? Discovering that the scars on the forehead of the person he’s falling in love with were caused by his own hands. It’s the sort of punishment that has as much chance of making him want to hurt himself as kill Jules for daring to make him feel that crippling guilt. So, don’t assume this nuanced scenario might suddenly head toward a happy ending.

Nor should it. Victimizing your abuser doesn’t erase your victimhood. It only makes you into an abuser too. Because Preston is also a victim. To society and the people he keeps close not being willing to accept his true self, to Jules as the plan to soften him up and record their affair unfolds, and his own insecurities. So, don’t therefore look at what happens with such a binary gaze. Look at it instead as a journey of empowerment for both men regardless of whether they fully comprehend the growth taking place. Jules is the strong one at first. Egging Preston on to make him feel small only to then have the tables turned when words are met by violence. And soon, as their subsequent “relationship” blossoms, the power shifts again.

The tragedy is therefore the simple fact that any of this had to happen. In another world, Preston would be as comfortable in his skin to start an affair with Jules that actually has a future. The change in both men’s demeanors and performances is impressive as both find themselves wearing masks to achieve what it is they believe they want only to briefly exist in each other’s arms without them. That honesty hurts because we know it can’t last. This coupling is built on deception and Preston has shown us time and time again that he cannot control his violent tendencies when he feels someone has taken advantage of him. In the end, it’s just about Jules taking his life back on his terms. Not by becoming that which he hates, but by turning the mirror of Preston’s projection onto himself.

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George MacKay and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett in FEMME; courtesy of Utopia.