Directed by: Lloyd Eyre-Morgan and Neil Ely
Written by: Lloyd Eyre-Morgan
Run Time: 1 hour 22 minutes

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Harry Lighton’s impressive feature debut, Pillion (2025), put BDSM on the silver screen in big, bold, biker-boot fashion, exploring the queer side of the kinky subculture and highlighting a lesser-seen dynamic between gay men. Well, you know the saying: you wait ages for one sub/dom rom-com, and then two come along at once. Now, Manchester directing duo Lloyd Eyre-Morgan and Neil Ely have arrived with their own take on power and control, Departures.

While embarking on a solo trip to Amsterdam, Benji (Lloyd Eyre-Morgan) encounters Jake (David Tag) at a bar in the airport departures lounge. After sitting beside each other on the flight, they end up spending the entire trip together and eventually develop a sexual relationship. Later they come to an arrangement to continue meeting in Amsterdam, with Jake covering the costs, so that they can keep seeing each other but without making things official. Inevitably though, Benji falls for Jake, and things start to complicate.

Beginning at the end, Departures quickly announces itself as a break-up movie rather than a straightforward romance. By way of Benji’s narration the audience are informed that Jake is a bit of a prick, and that this is the story of how Benji falls in and out of love with him. Its back-to-front storytelling is the first of many more quirky aspects to the film, as complete with scrapbook-style scribbles annotating numerous scenes and several imagination verses reality sequences, this is a film that’s trying its hardest to stand out — but perhaps a little too hard.

This style of filmmaking can be charming, however in this instance it feels at odds with the more serious story being told. Here, it’s used in an attempt to inject comedy, and in places its quick cuts do add to the intended humour. Although, the over-reliance on this type of editing makes it quite the effort to become invested in Benji’s story, serving more as a grating distraction rather than a welcome accompaniment. Paired with the harsh truths of experiencing depression in the gay community — often very accurately depicted — it offers little to really entertain or intrigue its audience, despite its clear efforts.

A more earnest approach might have been preferable, as its at-times sneering exploration of the sub/dom dynamic feels too one-sided, painting Jake as the villain regardless of his clearly stated boundaries. Lloyd Eyre-Morgan’s screenplay attempts to contextualise both men’s attraction to these kinds of sexual roles, featuring several flashback sequences of both characters in their youth. Olly Rhodes plays a young Benji and Jacob Partali an adolescent Jake. In these moments, when showy editing and more forced comedy is stripped away, the directors and their film demonstrate their vast potential. Both Rhodes and Partali make their characters far more compelling than their present-day counterparts, and it’s here that Departures starts to finally find some depth.

It’s a shame then that so little time is spent with them, even with the film acknowledging the importance of going back to move forward. As the older Benji and Jake, Lloyd Eyre-Morgan and David Tag aren’t just as convincing and with neither character proving particularly likeable, the drama lacks the necessary magnetism to draw in audiences — not to mention the fact that viewers already know how the relationship ends. With the journey to this known destination being a little mean-spirited at times too, and its tonal clashes adding extra baggage, Departures can’t quite get this personal story off the ground.

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Star Rating: ★ ★

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