There have been many depictions of the lonesome cowboy – from John Wayne to Toy Story – but Craig Boreham’s queer version puts a modern Australian hustler twist on the theme.
At different times, a romance, a beefcake movie and a fetish piece, it’s an easy to watch drama. And I’d like to coin a new genre title for it: Gromance. I would define it as a gay love story that grows over time. Casey (Josh Lavery) is a shaven-haired cowboy from Western Australia. His unsmiling face, broad-brimmed hat and well-defined physique give brief suggestions of a troubled mind with a disturbing past.
Boreham intercuts the linear action with short, dreamlike sequences of Casey, sometimes naked, sometimes clothed, in the middle of a wild pasture. It turned out to be the location of his past trauma. Having hitch-hiked his way to Sydney, his greatest desire is to see the ocean, and so he does, but not before his first queer encounter in the big city.
He hooks up in a threesome via the usual app but it turns out ok when he finds himself staying on at a rather fancy apartment. He and Tib (Zarif)) both have an unrelenting sense of loneliness and a need to connect. There’s genuine chemistry between them, both revealing their stories of estranged parents.
Tib’s mother – an illegal immigrant – has been deported; Casey’s story is savagely sad. He’s had a small town affair with a married man with kids, which when it gets out of hand leads to a tragic suicide, and Casey’s forced departure.
If you think this is a lot of exposition, you ain’t seen the half of it. There’s platonic flirting with middle-aged Carole, who kind of adopts Casey to replace the son she’s lost. And as Tib becomes more and more promiscuous, a terrible fight results in Casey being dumped on the streets, soon succumbing to a wild, depraved (some might say) sex party for which he is handsomely paid.
The writing subtly suggests that this humiliation and punishment is Casey’s way of atoning for his past sins. Anyway, does the Gromance rekindle? That would be telling. Josh Lavery gives us an implacable but strangely attractive guy with his buff body confidence. Zarif as Tib is a lighter character; attractive but unreliable and volatile. The sex scenes are the most explicit I’ve seen in a non-porn movie. But there are moments of genuine intimacy and a beautiful sequence at night in a swimming pool.
Lonesome is well worth a watch, on all the usual platforms, and on Peccadillo On Demand.