Jomari Angeles as Uno, Gold Aceron as Miguelito and Miguel Odron as Zion in a scene from "Some Nights I Feel Like Walking." (Photo courtesy of Dayulong Studios/Parallax Films)
The night beckons, full of promise, but also bearing a hint of danger and, even more daunting, the opportunity to do some soul searching. So it goes for two international movies premiering at the tail end of OUTshine Film Festival's Spring 2025 edition.
Closing weekend for this portion of the twice yearly event kicked off Thursday night in Dania Beach and goes until Sunday with screenings in Fort Lauderdale. It follows days of screenings and parties in Miami Beach.
I say “screenings” and not premieres because this spring's fest in particular has an unusually high number of titles that had their South Florida bows at the Miami Film Festival earlier this month, as well as several others that screened locally for the first time at the Miami Jewish Film Festival back in January. How whiplash-inducing is the programming overlap? “On Swift Horses,” Daniel Minahan's screen adaptation of Shannon Pufahl's 1950s-set novel, was the Miami film fest's closing night selection, only to open OUTshine days later.
That's not the end of it. The Irish dramedy “Four Mothers,” OUTshine's closing night title, screened twice during the Miami Film Festival, and Israel's lesbian-themed “Come Closer,” screening this weekend as part of OUTshine, won its director, Tom Nesher, the Miami Jewish Film Festival's Emerging Filmmaker Award. While it would be preferable for OUTshine to pick actual premieres for their gala slots, the cross-pollination underscores just how popular LGBTQ+ films continue to be for events geared at a more general moviegoing audience.
The deja vu effect would be far less pronounced if the OUTshine and Miami fests weren't unspooling back-to-back for a second year in a row. Some breathing room in between the events would feel most welcome, so maybe it's time to seriously consider a date change, to at least make the gap long enough to give movie buffs who patronize both events a chance to catch their breath.
This critic would have certainly found more time to view more OUTshine selections if that were the case. The two films I did see share more than a few things in common. Besides their thematic common ground, both are introspective dramas that unfold over the course of one very eventful night, leaving their protagonists irrevocably changed. Are they worth making the drive north of the county line for Magic City cinephiles? Let's find out.
“Some Nights I Feel Like Walking”: Neon lights, street food vendors and frisky rent boys. The sights and sounds of Manila are more than enough to make this engrossing tale of life on the streets worth seeing. But once writer-director Petersen Vargas establishes the building blocks of his familiar narrative, he goes further, beyond the city limits of the Philippines' capital and into the psyches of characters who don't always align with the archetypes they appear to represent.
The extended shot of Uno (Jomari Angeles) that opens the film conveys the character's central dichotomy: confidence coupled with aimlessness. The camera glides behind the young hustler as he takes a stroll down a vibrant street, frequently looking over his shoulder. The handsome lad is one of four friends who make their living in the skin trade. He doesn't do kissing or intimacy.
Miguel Odron as Zion and Jomari Angeles as Uno in a scene from "Some Nights I Feel Like Walking." (Photo courtesy of Dayulong Studios/Parallax Films)
On this night, they go to a porn house to turn tricks. An older client pairs Uno with Zion (Miguel Odron) for a three-way of sorts. Uno takes one look at the pipsqueak next to him, and there's no doubt Zion is green, wet behind the ears and more than a little terrified. So once they finish their gig, Uno, who's clearly taken a shine to the baby-faced rookie, takes Zion under his wing. They even go shopping for clothes together.
But what follows is a little darker and stranger than your basic escort-meets-escort romance. One of Uno's roomies finds himself in big trouble, and the night takes a troubling turn involving illicit substances, deceit and mistrust. Also, a dead body. Think “Weekend at Bernie's,” rejiggered as a life-on-the-margins melodrama.
Zion, Uno and Uno's roomies/fellow travelers find themselves taking an unexpected bus ride. As urban spaces give way to the countryside, we learn that underneath his tough exterior, there is a touching vulnerability to Uno. As for Zion, he ends up being much more resourceful than he initially lets on, a far cry from the shy wallflower we first meet. He's drawn to Uno, not just by physical attraction, but by a shared desire for escape. Their yin/yang contradictions make these young men an arresting pair.
Jomari Angeles as Uno, Miguel Odron as Zion, Tommy Alejandrino as Rush and Argel Saycon as Bayani in a scene from "Some Nights I Feel Like Walking." (Photo courtesy of Dayulong Studios/Parallax Films)
Like last year's Mumbai-set gem “All We Imagine as Light,” “Some Nights I Feel Like Walking” is a city symphony that morphs into a road movie, or at least the kind of road movie that takes place over one night. The further away from Manila the film gets, the more eerie and surreal the imagery becomes. Dream logic spills out into the waking world, but Vargas retains a firm grip in the material. He never loses sight that this is a film about coming to terms with mortality, as well as the fissures that prevent us from moving forward.
The film ends with an uninterrupted 23-minute shot that follows the characters as they make their way across different spaces in a remote village. Some spaces are welcoming, while others are more hostile. It's the kind of stunt that can swallow a film whole if allowed to take over, but Vargas knows what he's doing, and his actors make this high-wire act feel as seamless and unobtrusive as possible. They've made a vivid, richly textured portrait of grief and healing.
“A Night Like This”: Christmastime ought to be a joyous time, but for some, it's one of the most painful stretches of their calendar year. Yuletide doesn't play a major role in this British two-hander, but the signposts are there, hovering at the edges of the screen and in the back of your mind.
Alexander Lincoln as Oliver and Jack Brett Anderson as Lukas in a scene from "A Night Like This." (Photo courtesy of Monteverde Pictures/Randan)
Brash and cocky, Oliver (Alexander Lincoln) saunters into a nearly empty London pub and says he left his wallet at home, could someone please buy him a pint? Sitting at the bar nursing his beer is Lukas (Jack Brett Anderson), who wants none of the entitled fratboy energy this loser is giving off.
What Oliver doesn't know is that before he ended up drinking alone on Christmas, Lukas came dreadfully close to jumping off a bridge. As it happens in the bundle of convenient coincidences that comprise writer-producer Diego Scerrati's screenplay, the two men run into each other on the bus a short time later.
Alexander Lincoln as Oliver and Jack Brett Anderson as Lukas in a scene from "A Night Like This." (Photo courtesy of Monteverde Pictures/Randan)
That no-wallet crybaby routine Oliver pulled turns out to be a rich brat's prank. But as the handsome blabbermouth yaps away, a wary Lukas detects something about him. Call it a spiritual affinity. So when Oliver proposes to hang out for longer, Lukas warily agrees. Before taking another step, however, Lukas clarifies that he prefers the company of men, intuiting that his newfound acquaintance is straight. The moment turns the stale “no homo” trope on its head, making the guarded gay man the audience surrogate, the opposite of what a buddy movie from past generations would have done.
Director Liam Calvert invites the viewer to make the same assumption about Oliver, but he and Scerrati keep mum about where the gregarious looker's predilections lie. Thankfully, “A Night Like This” goes beyond the is-he-or-isn't-he guessing game to examine the two men's diverging worldviews. In a nutshell: Oliver puts more stock in his fellow man than Lukas. Oliver opens up about a recent death in the family and his dream of performing country music, not likely, to be realized. Lukas reveals the challenges he's faced as a struggling actor since he moved to London from Germany.
And had the filmmakers put more faith in letting the men's chatter, alternately pointed and idle, guide this movie's trajectory, they might have ended up with a nice getting-to-know-you talkfest in the mold of “Before Sunrise” or Andrew Haigh's “Weekend.” Alas, Calvert and Scerrati saddle the characters with the kinds of obstacles that make this night out feel wholly manufactured. A film like this needs to feel like it's unfolding organically in order to work, but as “A Night Like This” takes us from one unlikely situation to the next, one can't help but feel the contrivances pile up, even when one of the stops is at a country bar owned by a gruff geezer played by David Bradley, aka Filch from the “Harry Potter” films.
Alexander Lincoln as Oliver and David Bradley as John in a scene from "A Night Like This." (Photo courtesy of Monteverde Pictures/Randan)
That's too bad, because Lincoln and Anderson have an easygoing rapport. Theirs is the kind of chemistry that suggests newfound friends who come across as people who have known each other for years. Looking like a cross between Jon Bernthal, Tom Hardy and Noah Wyle, Lincoln capably conveys Oliver's arrogance and the insecurities it masks. Shorter, slighter and more intense, Anderson comes across as a down-on-his-luck artist whose bleak perspective on humankind conceals a beguiling depth of feeling. He looks like a 19th-century poet who comes up with the most devastating verses. His character's pessimism, coupled with his accent, occasionally bring to mind Werner Herzog.
Regardless of whether Oliver and Lukas' bond is strictly platonic or whether it could ignite sexual heat, these two feel good together. But just when it looks like Lincoln and Anderson will prevail over “A Night Like This'” shortcomings, Calvert amps up the telenovela story turns. Resentments are aired very loudly, tidy reconciliations rear their unwelcome head, and this fitfully engaging holiday yarn heads south, leaving viewers pining away, not for the strapping stranger who just wasn't that into you, but for the movie that could have been if its makers had understood that less in this case could have been so much more.
- “Some Nights I Feel Like Walking” plays Friday at 4:45 p.m. at Paradigm Cinemas: Gateway Theatre, 1820 E Sunrise Blvd., Fort Lauderdale
- “A Night Like This” plays Friday at 9:45 p.m., also at Paradigm Cinemas: Gateway Theatre.
Can't make it Friday?
You are in luck. Both films will be showing virtually from Monday, April 28 to Sunday, May 4.
For more information about in-person and virtual tickets, go to outshinefilm.com.
