Drunken Noodles

Lucio Castro returns with another sagacious time-bending queer drama, here following an art student whose NYC internship interweaves with a series of hook-ups.

Arriving in Brooklyn to intern at an art gallery and cat-sit for his uncle, Adnan quickly dives into two of the Big Apple’s indulgences: stress-free takeaway and cruising. As he starts something ‘regular casual’ with a delivery driver, the story catapults back to an earlier fling with the artist whose work is currently exhibited at the gallery, as well as to Adnan’s former monogamous relationship. As this nonlinear narrative unfolds, deeper insights about this young gay drifter emerge.

Premiering in the ACID Cannes sidebar, the third feature from Argentinian-born director Lucio Castro (End of the Century, MIFF 2019) was inspired by an encounter with artist Sal Salandra, whose homoerotic embroidery appears in the film. Drunken Noodles inherits his debut’s preoccupation with time, but swaps out the focus on love for lust, exploring how queer men maintain bonds through casual sex. Actor Laith Khalifeh deftly imbues Adnan with both hipster confidence and reticent fragility, while cinematographer Barton Cortright (The Cathedral, MIFF 2022) pairs the plot’s unconventional form with striking visuals in which sex acts in ornate tableau and erotic surrealist breaks punctuate scenes of the city in summer. Sensual, astute and atmospheric, Castro’s drama reveals how solitude can be salved by even transient interactions.

“An inventive, funny, and tender film about fleeting connections … The result is an utterly original film that ponders the ripple effects of small but meaningful encounters, with strangers and intimate partners.” – Seventh Row