Leviticus

Leviticus taps into a number of anxieties about what it means to be young and gay in a community that doesn’t accept you. It’s an experience I do not have any experience in, so I can only speak to the emotions here from my view as a cisgender heterosexual woman. Beautifully and heartbreakingly portrayed by Joe Bird and Stacy Clausen, Naim and Ryan are high-schoolers who have discovered feelings for each other. Their families bring them to a “Deliverance Healer” who forces upon them demons that take the form of the other - as Ryan states, “They want us afraid of each other.” With tastes of It Follows, Leviticus is primarily a drama about love condemned by those outside of it and the deep pain that brings to those who feel it. Emotion is central to the film, whereas the supernatural edges are peripheral. The performances by Bird and Clausen are the driving force in Leviticus. Sure, there are demons, but Leviticus is about how other people use their own to throw stones (literally and figuratively) and destroy others. There are strong themes centered on bullying, homophobia, and being and feeling alone.