The Reel Review
A closeted, newly-divorced gay man with an inoperable brain tumor finally learns to embrace his sexuality after he meets a well-meaning, sex positive massage therapist with a plan to draw him out of his shell – only that plan goes horribly wrong, in this screwball LGBTQ+ comedy starring Zachary Quinto and Lukas Gage (White Lotus), who also co-wrote the screenplay.
From a disastrous online hookup, a nosy but vulnerable Christian neighbor (Judith Light, doing her best with absolutely nothing to work with), a venture into the dark web with a necrophiliac (Red Rocket‘s Simon Rex, again with nothing to work with), and a drug-inspired musical montage, Down Low clearly is a movie without any real point – just a bunch of half-baked ideas that must have sounded much more shocking and hilarious on paper than what ended up in this wretchedly awful mess of a movie.
From one-dimensional characters, scenarios more stupid than shocking or funny, and nonexistent chemistry between the two leads, director Rightor Doyle (Bonding) never really strikes a tonal balance between comedy and drama. Gage and co-writer Phoebe Fisher may have intended Down Low to be a hilarious and edgy go-for-broke comedy – the gay antidote to sweet, sentimental movies like Love, Simon, but wow, what a terrible, insulting film, capped off with a truly cringey and tasteless ending. The only good thing about this stinker is the catchy tune (Vincint’s “Higher”) that plays during the druggie dance montage.
REEL FACTS
• Lukas Gage (How to Blow Up a Pipeline, The White Lotus, Euphoria) married hairstylist Chris Appleton in April 2023. (Update: Appleton filed for divorce in November 2023.)
• Zachary Quinto’s next film will be the 2024 sci-fi/thriller Distant, about an asteroid miner stuck on an alien planet who must contend with his AI survival suit. Quinto is the voice of the suit.
• Former porn actor and MTV VJ Simon Rex says he lives off the grid in Joshua Tree, California’s Mojave Desert.
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