cinehunch
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
01
Why this pick
Like Keep the Lights On, it observes gay intimacy with unusual emotional precision: candid conversation, tentative connection, and the ache of trying to make a brief relationship mean something lasting.
02
Why this pick
A gentle, closely observed romantic drama whose tactile everyday details and unforced performances share Ira Sachs’s faith in small gestures, vulnerability, and the gradual recognition of desire.
03
Why this pick
Its activist warmth is more buoyant, but the film similarly grounds queer lives in specific community, friendship, and political reality rather than treating identity as a mere plot device.
04
Why this pick
For the same patient attention to emotional compromise: a person builds a life through ordinary encounters, then confronts how love, self-definition, and loyalty can pull in incompatible directions.
05
Why this pick
Its raw naturalism, sparse dialogue, and physically expressive romance echo Keep the Lights On’s refusal to prettify intimacy, while allowing emotional change to emerge through behavior rather than speeches.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
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01 / THE STORY
In 1998, Erik, a Danish artist living in New York City, meets Paul, a lawyer, through a phone sex hotline. Clearly attracted to each other, they share an intimate moment and have sex. Erik later visits a man named Russ who seems more interested in showing off his muscles to Erik than having sex. Erik sees Paul again, and tells him about how he broke up with his ex-boyfriend Paolo, who was HIV-positive. Erik confides to his friend Claire on how he is happier now with Paul than he was with Paolo. Meanwhile, Paul asks Erik to keep quiet about his drug use and gets Erik high. Paul, who was closeted before meeting Erik, sees his ex-girlfriend while visiting an art gallery with Erik, who tries to persuade Paul to introduce him to her. While away from the city, Erik calls his doctor for some test results and learns that he is HIV-negative. Later, Paul throws a surprise birthday party for Erik.
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02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
Erik Rothman
Paul Lucy
Claire
Karen
Vivian
Jill
