“Femme” (2023) is as close to “The Night Porter” as any film may get in the twenty-first century, and it only brushes the hem of its garment. As an East London performing drag queen Aphrodite, Queen of the South, Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) is an outspoken, bon-vivant, commanding person. After a performance, he decides to go to the corner store, encounters a group of young men and verbally parries with them. Preston (George MacKay) strips and beats up Jules while Preston’s friends record the attack. After the attack, Jules stays home, stops dressing up and is distant from his roommates, Molly (Antonia Clarke), who is patient and supportive, and Toby (John McCrea), who may have started to express romantic interest in Jules prior to the attack and is in turmoil over Jules’ isolation. When Jules finally returns to social life, he is startled to encounter the still hostile and obviously closeted Preston in a gay sauna, a formerly safe space. Jules makes it his goal to record himself having sex with Preston then post the recording online as revenge. What could go wrong…..or right?

I watch horror movies to relax, and movies like this get me scared. The entire movie, I’m basically going, “Ohnoohnoohnoohno.”  The unrecognizable Stewart-Jarrett may seem familiar. He played Curtis in “Misfits” and had one of the most memorable episodes at a club trying to use his powers to make things right while Skepta’s “Rolex Sweep” plays. If you know, you know. “Femme” takes Jules on a rough, messy journey of self-discovery with no clean lines and feels like the anti-“Moonlight” (2016). Writers and directors Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping, who made a short film in 2021 with the same title (unavailable to view onlin, and if it is, let me know), use similar lighting of blues and purples as Jules descends into a mixed-up world of sexual danger trying to reverse the effects of that fateful night, but the protagonist fails to emerge from the stultifying world of internalized homophobia.

Becoming Aphrodite is a communal act of joy and exuberance. The glimpses of the beginning of Aphrodite’s performances are electrifying as if she is a queen holding court with her dutiful subjects, and even though it was not the point, you may leave feeling cheated that Freeman and Ng never depict the entire show, only a taste. Aphrodite reveals a magnificent, dark-skinned torso clad in a diamond top reminiscent of Beyonce’s outfit in the album cover for “Dangerously in Love.” Outside the club and home, the world is full of inherent threat, drab, poorly illuminated, filled with shadows. The camera drinks this vibe in during Jules first decision to go alone to the store then shows Jules bracing himself before plunging into the darkness. “Femme” is a movie with few women, but the most appear in the convenience store, two blonde women are ahead of Jules on line, which heightens the tension because even though traditionally women are the ones who are in peril at night, these women show no concerns and function as obstacles to Jules making a quick purchase so he does not have to encounter any hostility. They have no sense of urgency, are entitled to take up as much space and time as they want with one of the women talking on her cell phone while making the purchase then leaving Jules alone in the store when the ruffians come, and Jules has no one to rely on except himself.

“Femme” appears to be making statements about space and how there are few to no third spaces for heterosexuals and homosexuals to coexist without automatically being classified according to the dominant sexual orientation of that space. It is de facto segregation. When Jules first sees Preston, he is on the edges, across the street from the club, staring at Aphrodite. Freeman and Ng tease this idea of the theft of a love story that could have been without violence because there is an undeniable, mutual attraction that becomes impossible to enjoy because of this segregation and the way that Preston chooses to navigate internalized homophobia, which culminates in violence. The revenge plan would force Preston to live in a space that he views as life-threatening (flight, fight, freeze or fawn). In contrast, there was never a point that Jules did not seem to be in actual physical danger as he chooses to be submissive, have sex and start to have a relationship with Preston. Though the plan is a popular genre on gay porn sites, the contrasting reality is inherently disturbing and feels akin to “Game of Thrones” Khalessi making the most of being a child bride to Khal Drogo. The avenger derives only pleasure from this situation on screen, which Jules never achieves that in the real world. This point may be deliberate, but also explains why some viewers have a problem with getting on board with the premise and going for the ride. Everyone loves a revenge tale unless the revenge hurts the vigilante.

Jules is compelled to recreate that first night even as he flinches whenever Preston does anything remotely aggressive. Jules chooses to subject himself to some demeaning scenarios in pursuit of his revenge, which, if achieved, would be a pyrrhic victory, and it is telling that he keeps his plans secret from those who love him the most. Toby correctly says, “We don’t date people who hate themselves.” It is interesting that race is never an explicit issue, but it is visually a factor. When Jules briefly has a beard, the beard is a black woman otherwise he exists in predominantly white spaces with black men appearing as his attendants on stage. Jules appears to prefer fair-haired white men. Preston’s friends range from white to brown-skinned men. It is unsurprising that Jules is not eligible for public protection for many reasons: his blackness, his physical dominance (he is the tallest person in any scene), his maleness, his rejection of gender norms, his sexuality, yet these characteristics make him more subject to harassment.

Jules is on a journey to become worthy of becoming Aphrodite again because the attack made him feel as if he failed her. Without Aphrodite, Jules wears muted colors, no make-up, or adornments. In his mind, he does not deserve to dress like a woman, but he permits himself the small joy of having a video game avatar as a woman while playing Mortal Kombat. On his first day out, he wears a single dangle pearl earring and a black top with a silver chain on the front collar like a suggestion of a necklace. When he rides in the bus, he occupies the back right corner seat. He rejects any touch which is loving or comes from a consensual equal place as if it is violent. After his first encounter with Preston, he moves up a row. While being masc, he begins to wear more colors. Later he permits himself to wear and display feminine underwear but as a disembodied figure without a face. He can return to reciprocating physical affection to his roommates. Once Jules is in full command in the bedroom, he is ready to reclaim Aphrodite and repurpose the souvenirs of that night into a triumph, but it is all ephemeral. He can never fully return to the peace of his earlier self, and the violence of that night gets carried into his future. He is not some sexually confident seductress, but is timid, gradually becoming more in control, but is still vulnerable to physical intimidation.

There is a point in “Femme” when it shifts to Preston’s perspective as he begins to let his guard down and imagine a world where it is possible for Jules to be in his heterosexual world , without detection, playing as Chun-Li in Street Fighter, a video game, and dancing in a nightclub, and for Preston to be a normal, civilized person in Jules’ world. There is no world where their friends can meet each other. Then the tension lies in whether this revenge will ruin their budding love story, and how Preston will reconcile his new self with what he did to Aphrodite. While it is genius to never give in to the trope of a cartoonish villain and make the film into a star-crossed tragedy of sorts, it is also problematic that to sympathize with Preston, it comes at the price of Jules’ physical and mental well-being. Then the title’s meaning may remind some of a femme fatale, but they betray men for money. (Side note: femme was originally a term that lesbians used as the antonym to butch, and some lesbians sees the use of this term as appropriation and lesbian erasure when used outside of this context, but those accusations have not been leveled at this movie.)

On one hand, Jules is not a femme fatale. He gets very little out of this arrangement, especially since the revenge seems largely unsuccessful. On the other hand, it is rape by deception or rape by fraud, especially since there was malicious intent, when someone hides their true identity from a sexual partner, which is what Jules does to Preston. This rape does not excuse Preston’s conduct, and most viewers will not recognize it as rape because Preston is the penetrating partner, but penetration and force are not exclusive factors in rape.

In a vacuum, “Femme” is about two characters who have a problem embracing who they are therefore they are condemned to being alone and at war with themselves and others. Preston does not mind the thug reputation, but it is not who he is when he is alone. Jules feels as if he has something to prove and cannot just exist. “I’m a nice guy, but if you disrespect me, I’ll fuck you up.” Toxic masculinity comes in every flavor.