Drunken Noodles, a standout at this year’s Cannes ACID sidebar, is a witty and intimate portrait by Argentine director Lucio Castro that explores how modern queer men connect and encounter each other. The film blends playful eroticism with keen observation, offering a refreshing take on fleeting sexual encounters imbued with tenderness and human warmth.
The story follows Adnan, a young gay graduate student spending a solo summer in Brooklyn. Through a dating app, he quickly meets Ariel, a charming food delivery cyclist. Their brief encounter—a rapid sexual exchange in a dim park corner followed by sharing leftover Thai noodles on a nearby bench without exchanging names—may confirm critics who see casual hookups as chaotic disruptions. Yet, Castro’s film treats this moment as a genuine, lighthearted intimacy, capturing the potent connections forged even in brief, unanchored encounters.
Building on the dreamy sensibility of his earlier work End of the Century (2019) and his recent genre experiment After This Death, Castro’s third feature is lighter and more mischievous. It eschews heavy existential themes for a warmer, more playful exploration of youth and desire. In an era when sexuality remains underrepresented even in queer and art cinema, Drunken Noodles stands out as a vital and invigorating addition. North American distribution has been secured by Strand Releasing, where it may soon gain cult status among queer audiences.
Laith Khalifeh’s relaxed, naturalistic performance as Adnan anchors the film. Playing an arts student caring for a wealthy uncle’s cat over the summer in New York, Adnan is both detached and curious. His stylish mustache and casual wardrobe mark him as an urbane hipster, while an undercurrent of youthful anxiety adds depth to his character. The film’s narrative unfolds in three non-linear chapters, each highlighting Adnan’s encounters with men of different ages and temperaments.
The first chapter focuses on Adnan’s tentative, physical relationship with Ariel (Joel Isaac), set partly in an art gallery showcasing a provocative exhibition of folk erotica. The vivid tapestries, rich with embroidered scenes of wild male revelry and BDSM roleplay, reflect and amplify the themes of sexual exploration and communal pleasure that thread through the film. Castro uses playful static montages of muscular riders and bare flesh to inject humor and texture into these moments.
A flashback takes viewers to the previous summer, when Adnan meets Sal (Israela Cornell), a brooding, sixty-something neurosurgeon and tapestry artist, in the forests of upstate New York. Their casual liaison quickly deepens into a series of surreal encounters, culminating in a sequence of magical realism that hints at deeper emotional currents beneath the surface playfulness.
While celebrating the freedoms and occasional loneliness of single life, Drunken Noodles also subtly captures the bittersweet rewards and constraints of queer relationships. One cleverly written scene features Adnan sharing a strangely distorted memory of early sexual experiences with a partner, illustrating the secretive, fragmented nature of his romantic and sexual life—even as he seeks love and openness.
The film’s final dreamlike coda poignantly acknowledges the profound solitude that often shadows transient pleasures.
Stylistically, the film’s breezy, economical editing and Barton Cortright’s naturalistic lighting and warm, sweaty color palette create an effortlessly immersive atmosphere. The tight, multi-role crew—including Liu Yigang’s contributions to the film’s offbeat score and costume design—support Castro’s artistic vision of celebrating everyday ecstasies and fantasies. This is a film that revels in both the physical and the spiritual, from perfect posteriors to greasy takeout containers, with the ease of a casual stroll through the woods.
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