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The second film from Teenage Kicks director Craig Boreham is unapologetically erotic, with a lot to admire – if you can look past the rough edges

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When casting for his second feature, Lonesome, the Sydney writer-director Craig Boreham turned to Grindr. He wanted actors who knew the film’s world, not just of gay hookups and casual sex but the desires that can fuel these encounters: boredom, horniness, intense isolation.

Casey (Josh Lavery) is propelled by all of the above: a country boy leaving his small town to get his “big-smoke slut on”, as his first Sydney hookup Tib (Daniel Gabriel) says. With his wide eyes, ripped torso and cowboy hat, Casey resembles a man hoping to be mistaken for a myth – but glance underneath his hat’s rim and you’ll see a hurt soul, having long internalised that his only value is his looks.

The struggle to find oneself — and one’s chosen family — hits hard in the trailer for “Lonesome,” the latest film from Australian writer-director Craig Boreham, which hits theaters in the U.S. Feb. 17 followed by on-demand and digital release on March 7.

Watch the trailer above, exclusively via TheWrap.

Starring Josh Lavery, Daniel Gabriel, Anni Finsterer, and Ian Roberts, “Lonesome” is a LGBTQ drama telling the story of Casey, a kid from a small town who moves to Sydney to escape a personal scandal. There, he meets Tib, another young gay man dealing with his own scars. Together, per the official description, “both men find something they have been missing but neither of them knows quite how to negotiate it.”

You get glimpses of that in the trailer, from tentative first meetings to awkward — but refreshingly nonjudgmental — encounters with modern sexual and romantic conventions, and a variety of people nursing their...

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The vivid contrasts between the parched countryside of inland Australia and the throbbing lights and seductive beaches of Sydney echo the conflict playing out inside the head of the damaged protagonist in Lonesome. Writer-director Craig Boreham’s sexually explicit queer cowboy odyssey refuses to judge its corn-fed principal character, even as he blurs the line between desire and transaction, at his lowest point convincing himself that he deserves degradation, not love. At its most compelling, the film is an intimate study of emotionally scarred strangers who find communion through the flesh that opens a tentative window to their hearts.

If some of the acting is a bit stiff and the plotting becomes wayward — indulging in self-punishment clichés in a jarring late interlude by lurching into Bdsm territory with a disappointingly heavy hand — Lonesome is kept on track by the feeling invested in its troubled central love story.

Craig Boreham’s film premiered in Seattle and will play at the Sydney International Film Festival next month.

The UK’s Peccadillo Pictures and France’s Optimale have acquired distribution rights to Craig Boreham’s Australian drama Lonesome from Berlin-based sales outfit M-Appeal.

Additionally, Cinemien has taken rights for Germany, Benelux and Israel, while Tongariro Releasing has bought Polish rights.

Lonesome sees Josh Lavery stars as a young man running from a small-town scandal to Sydney where he meets a man struggling with his own problems, played by Daniel Gabriel.

The film has just had its world premiere at the...

Producers Ben Ferris and Ulysses Oliver will explore the capabilities of filming on a micro-budget in the next few months as they aim to finish production on five features before the end of the year.

The pair came together to form Breathless Films last year and have since outlined a purposely prolific schedule for 2021.

They are in the midst of working on Craig Boreham’s Lonesome, a story about closeted country lad Casey, who finds himself down and out in the big smoke when he meets Tib, a young gay man with whom he is able to connect, albeit with some challenges.

The film, which is being shot in Sydney, stars newcomers Josh Lavery in the role of Casey and Daniel Gabriel as Tib with Anni Finsterer (Sweet Country) and Ian Roberts (Superman Returns) in supporting roles.

It is the second feature film for Breathless, following Amin Palangi’s psychological drama Tennessine,...