Sure, every year a new thriller comes along that gets compared to a classic from the Master of Suspense Alfred Hitchcock, but how many are filmed entirely on a nude beach? Stranger by the Lake, the highly-anticipated suspense drama from acclaimed filmmaker Alain Guiraudie, shows that there’s trouble in gay paradise. More specifically there’s a love triangle between three men that develops at a popular cruising area and quickly goes awry.
The film marks the first from Guiraudie, who took home the best director prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, to receive a release in the U.S. Village Voice describes the film as the director’s “most sexually explicit and narratively taut work,” while Entertainment Weekly compares the film to Hitchcock’s brilliant Rear Window.
Stranger by the Lake opens Friday at select theaters in New York. Buy tickets here.
jimbryant
This is the movie that was segregated at the Cannes Film Festival into the “queer” section. Don’t fall for this trick. Such segregation merely serves the purpose of keeping us away from the mainstream. It’s designed to marginalize us.
While it may be a good movie, I just can’t abide by the segregation tactics of the homophobic liberals at Cannes.
CleJoke
This is the garbage Queerty is pushing down our throats when there are real news stories out there. People do have to be careful of who they meet online by web or app.
Kent, OH. A 22 year old young man from Alliance, OH named Justin Tyler Earley went missing 12/31/2013. His dead body was found on 01/18/2014 in Kent OH. He was found in the apartment of John Fox, 34 of Kent, OH. Fox has been arrested in the alleged murder. It looks like they met through Craigslist or possibly Backpage. There is a lot of shade going on online and people need to be aware of that. Not some dumb ass film and bullshit fluff pieces about Nick Gruber or Tom Daley.
alanj
@jimbryant:
You’re one sad piece of work, I guess if your whole world revolves around posting on Queerty this is the result.
This movie was called The Lake and had general release in cinemas for about 6 weeks, a mixed audience at the session I saw and the mainstream reviews I read were positive.
Brandon1722
@jimbryant: Actually you are incorrect. The film was NOT “segregated” into the “queer” section at Cannes. There is no such thing. The film was in the Un Certain Regard section, which features some of the most daring and original films in the festival. STRANGER BY THE LAKE won the Queer Palm award which is awarded each year to the best LGBT themed film in the entire Cannes Film Festival.
KDub
Great, so we have love triangles (which we all know is code for group sex in gay speak) and cruising nude beaches. Way to break stereotypes! My question is, why are we still promoting the same stereotypical images of gay men from 30 years ago? I read back when Al Pacino’s Cruising came out, the gay community protested the movie for marginalizing gay life. Now we’re embracing being marginalized. If we consistently present ourselves as oversexed savages, why should the rest of society think any differently?
mzvky
Did any of those commenting here actually see the film? I saw it at Reeling (the Chicago LGBT Film Festival) and thought it was an exceptionally provocative and highly erotic thriller. Does it depict a stereotypical slice of gay life (cruising at nude beaches, frolicking in the bushes)? Yes. Almost every film made about any subject treads in stereotype to one degree or another. But the visceral honesty and superb film-making technique lifted “Stranger by the Lake” far up and away beyond being a prurient cliche. Make no mistake – it is filled with real, actual, gay sex – with real cum, worthy of any vintage porno. But it somehow manages to grip the audience with a mounting dread that builds in the back of your mind. By using our own lusts to draw us into the action, the film forces us to confront the hypnotic effect desire can have and the dangerous decisions each of us has made during our sexual pursuits – if we’re truly honest with ourselves, that is. The mind-blowing climax of the film is worthy of some of the finest cinematic comparisons imaginable. The last five minutes transcend the genre and leaves the viewer speechless. I saw this film three months ago and my friends and I are still talking about how stunned we were… and not just because of the sex and nudity. It was one of the finest thrillers I have ever seen precisely because its deceptively simple erotic premise was just a set-up to draw you into the tautly executed denouement. I thought it was brilliant and certainly worthy of every award it has received… but it is not a film for prudes.
alanj
@mzvky:
Agree with your summary.
A couple of friends & I saw it after reading and watching reviews, we’re still talking about it months later as well. We all agreed it made our best list for 2013.