LFF: Four

Joe (Wendell Pierce) is a middle-aged family man, an opinionated college professor with heartfelt passions, who is gay and in the closet. June (Emory Cohen) is a teenager who Joe has connected with online, an insecure young man who is trying to find his own identity. While Joe and June meet for an illicit tryst, Joe’s teenage daughter Abigayle (Aja Naomi King) tells her dad that all is fine, but wants to escape the pressures of the family home. She is drawn to cocky Latino basketball player Dexter (EJ Bonilla), a high-school drop-out whose arrogant posing masks his own deep insecurities. Adapted from a stage play by Christopher Shinn, and with Neil LaBute credited as executive producer, the debut feature from Joshua Sanchez is a provocative rumination on race and sexuality set on a sweltering 4th of July evening. The quartet of actors are courageously committed here, and were collectively awarded the Best Performance in the Narrative Competition after the film’s premiere at the LA Film Festival this year.