Femme has arrived on and the gritty horror is captivating audiences.
Directed by Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping, the film follows Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) also known as celebrated drag artist Aphrodite Banks.
One night after a show, he is brutally attacked by a man () while stepping out of a show to buy cigarettes. Though he recovers from the brutal beating, Jules becomes more and more reclusive as he comes to terms with his trauma.
After identifying his attacker, Preston, Jules begins a relationship with the closeted man with a plan to take his revenge.
Since its premiere at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival, the horror film has been praised by many and dubbed as ‘the best Queer film’ to come out of the UK in recent times.
X user @jdizzlestewart raved: ‘Femme is the BEST Queer Film to have come out of the UK in the last five years and now you can watch it on Netflix. It’s everything.’
Others dubbed it ‘2023’s most underrated film’ while some praised Mackay on his ‘truly terrifying’ performance.
@Obammodu added: ‘You wanna talk about Oscar snubs. #Femme is on Netflix. My FAVOURITE film of last year. Everyone go watch it please 😭😭😭.’
@Mikaltempo posted: ‘Femme on Netflix is a powerful film. Very morally ambiguous… I’m not sure how I feel about the main characters is how I’m supposed to? Definitely recommend it.
Andrew Creak dubbed it a ‘beautiful Queer film’, adding: ‘Just found out Femme is now on Netflix – if you’ve not seen it, you need to. Beautiful queer film, many hard to watch scenes, it’s a deep, gritty and aggressive film, and is the best film I watched in 2023.’
Femme boasts a of 97%, with the reading: ‘Sexually charged and riddled with tension, Femme redresses the noir genre and may leave audiences biting their nails to the nub.’
Speaking about his role as Jules, star Stewart-Jarrett told how the film tackles masculinity and the rise of toxic masculinity.
‘Yeah, and we’re obsessed with masculinity as a culture,’ he said. ‘When an actor who was thin suddenly has huge rippling superhero muscles, it’s like “Oh my God, now we’re gonna pay attention to that person.”
‘We’re obsessed with that transformation, with that journey to masculinity, and it’s awful. On dating apps like Grindr, people are like: “No fems”. In Femme, Preston is encased within toxic masculinity, and Jules is using and getting in touch with his masculinity to enact revenge.’
In an interview with , Mackay went into detail about the challenging morality in Femme’s narrative and how they tackled it.
He said: ‘What I found fascinating was the complexity with these layers. You kind of think, “Oh, I get this. This is what it’s saying. Oh, wow. Now we’re exploring this,” or “Now we’re exploring this.”
‘The pattern got deeper and deeper and deeper, and that I just thought was so fascinating and thrilling as a read. And also, as actors, the opportunity of going, “Wow. I get to play a couple of characters in one character, given the journey that they go on.” Yet simultaneously, they really dig into some challenging areas.’
Femme is streaming now on Netflix.
