A disgraced, sex-addicted cop is thrust into Sydney’s crime-ridden gay district – and into a raunchy entanglement – in this neon-soaked queer erotic thriller.
Battling both sex addiction and sexual misconduct allegations, twentysomething undercover cop Aiden (Tim Pocock, Godless: The Eastfield Exorcism , MIFF 2023) is reassigned to an inner-city precinct among Sydney’s nightclubs, bathhouses and drag venues. While investigating, he hooks up with hot bartender and sex worker Cody (Tom Rodgers) – a chance encounter that also gets him embroiled in the machinations of drag mob boss Fat Frankie (Paul Capsis, Head On, MIFF 1998). Caught up in drug deals, shootouts a deadly heist and more, Aiden must find a way out before he loses himself in this sinister web.
Set mostly around Sydney’s Oxford Street, Dean Francis’s (Drown) intriguing tale of danger and desire transports the audience to an intricate underworld of crime, conspiracy and duplicitous allegiances. Taking visual cues from Brian De Palma and Gregg Araki, Body Blow is a stunning lovechild of classic film noir and 1990s erotic thrillers, infusing its gripping tale of (anti)heroism and redemption with a playful critique of hyper-masculinity and deprivation. Pocock delivers a formidable lead performance, embodying Aiden’s pent-up lust and dubiously masked fragility, while newcomer Rodgers is beguiling as the film’s seductive spin on the femme fatale.
Content: Melbourne International Film Festival
A dreamy, queer-as-hell neon-noir … By making the fetishistic, homoerotic subtext of the genre proudly text, Francis turns action thriller cinema into something defiantly liberating.
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