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Sequin in a Blue Room Movie Review

Sequin in a Blue Room is a 2019 Australian indie drama film directed by Samuel Van Grinsven and starring Conor Leach. It is a very frustrating movie.

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“I know you have my phone“

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A teenager tries to track down a man he met at an anonymous sex party, trawling through hook-up apps to find him. The plot is the main problem of this movie. Everything else is fine, but the storyline is so preposterous, implausible and frankly stupid that the film could not be saved even with the heightened thriller atmosphere.

Conor Leach, a newcomer, is great as Sequin. Just on the visual terms, a ginger twink wearing sequin on his chest constituted striking imagery. His acting was surprisingly terrific. However, the characterization of this teenage boy is so slight that he was borderline stereotypical in his portrayal as are all of the other characters. I also found him highly unlikable and the movie rooting for him heavily and sympathizing with him after he would make each choice more terrible than the last was frustrating to bear.

Sequin in a Blue Room is at its best when it is firmly walking in the thriller genre shoes. I loved those suspenseful tracking down sequences and the movie superbly portrayed just how dangerous an online gay dating world and these hookup rooms can be. However, that final sequence was basically a fairy tale happy ending, which simply did not fit the rest of the film and it seemed so false. A more raw and edgy ending would have sufficed.

In terms of cinematography, the film is very confidently shot. The use of the color blue is particularly striking. The film depicts truthfully the world of one-night stands, blue rooms and the whole online process of finding hookups through these terrible apps, but it doesn’t offer any insight into any of these issues.

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The directing is, yes, very strong for a first-time director, but the script was terrible. Nothing about it seemed genuine or believable, including the overly forgiving father as well. But an obnoxious protagonist was my major hurdle that prevented me from caring for him and his movie.