The Delta

Call me by your name meets Moonlight ... but with no final resolution.

Thinks it's clever, but it's not. Long, dull teenage scenes from parties made me sleep for a brief minute or two. Lincoln's struggles with his sexuality as a gay or straight man are well handled, but Minh (African-American and Vietnamese) is so clearly alienated from society that his empathy is sickening. The end of the film is fun to talk about, but this film is pretentious.

This movie wasted tooo much time on other subjects. It should of made the storyline with the two guys a lot more intense and interesting. Instead - yawwwwwwn city. Who cared about the slacker boys and girls getting high in what looked like a garage. Or the relationship between that girl and Shayne.

This movie could have been a whole lot better.

"THE DELTA is wanting in focus, maundering in a scattershot fashion that becomes a norm in 1990s indie sphere and later the "mumblecore" in the noughties (often in default of a scintillating script and/or munificent funds). For instance, the passages depicting Lincoln's social life with his entitled friends feel wretchedly slack, totally disengaged from the film's theme. It is also not helping by the fact that Gray is a pretty but empty vase, a polite smile of condescension is his only expression regardless of what happens. However, Sachs shows more promise in his attempt to probe John's intersectionality (black, Asian, gay and immigrant constitute a gold mine, which is a rare sight). John's dialogue hews closely to the subculture vernacular and Chan pours out enough raw emotion into John's dysphoria-turned-cynicism-and-resentment, which poignantly projects a sharp political angle to elevate the film slightly above its ilks."

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This movie provides a sleepy, dreamlike experience. The director shows you many places, relationships, and conflicts. He sets moods, but doesn't judge his characters. Refreshing enough. It's up to you as the viewer to determine how you feel about the people and their conflicts. And it's up to the viewer to decide how things end up because everything is not explained. There was a lot of heart in this film. Some of these reviews seem to miss that. Watch this on an overcast Sunday afternoon and fall in love with Shayne Gray and The Delta.

If you have time, watch it again with the Director's commentary. The director, Ira Sachs, shares a lot about himself and his experience making this film. He is very honest about what he was trying to achieve, the scenes with which he was pleased, and those with which he wasn't. I would like to see more of Ira Sachs's work.