Writer-director Marco Calvani’s sweet-hearted emotional drama High Tide succeeds largely thanks to the excellent and honest lead performance by Marco Pigossi as Lourenço, a gay Brazilian in Provincetown left adrift by a series of life events.
Stranded in P’town, Lourenço is making a living doing under the table work as a cleaner and handyman. He ha been abandoned by his partner, Joe, and his tourist visa is about to expire. Renting a small cottage from Steve (Bill Irwin), an older gay resident of the seaside town, Lourenço drifts, searching for a way to maintain his newfound freedom and avoid returning to his closeted life at home. When he meets a handsome man on the beach, Maurice (James Bland), he tentatively begins to flirt, unsure if he’s ready to truly move on.
In a cast of familiar faces—like Marisa Tomei, Mya Taylor, and Bryan Batt—the camera falls in love with Pigossi’s expressive face. His eyes convey a constant sense of melancholy and pain, adding subtext to each scene. There is a gentle nature to Lourenço that invites the audience to care for his plight, making it understandable that a series of strangers would want to take him in and help.
The plot, which brushes over various issues without deeply exploring them, almost becomes secondary to the story of Lourenço’s healing. During his time in Provincetown, he faces a gruff, manipulative boss, a sexually predatory and racist older gay man, more racism within the gay community, and is introduced to the world of party drugs and PrEP—all of which he initially seems unprepared to confront, but ultimately rises to meet.
The equally soulful Maurice, a nurse from New York City, and his posse of friends almost seem to come from a different gay movie. Their vibrant excess sweeps Lourenço along in a tidal wave of bare asses, in-jokes, and frippery. They offer the distraction he needs, but they’re from a different world. Are they good for him or not? That’s a question the film leaves unanswered.
Making his feature filmmaking debut, Calvani doesn’t quite manage to bring all the elements together into a cohesive whole. While the pacing of the relationship between Lourenço and Maurice has a nice, organic rhythm, the script occasionally stumbles into melodrama and cliché. Some characters clearly exist only to fall into Lourenço’s orbit. That said, good casting helps smooth over these rough patches. As does Oscar Ignacio Jiménez’s gorgeous cinematography which has a sexy, sun-bleached tone that drifts into a dreamy haze that is reminiscent of moments from Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun. While some moments feel awkwardly staged, that is offset by the intimacy of the camerawork and the actors’ performances.
While the narrative occasionally ventures into familiar territory, High Tide consistently regains its footing by returning to the compelling characters at its core and the fraught internal emotions that drive the film.Ultimately, the film shines because of its fine performances and the unassuming charm of Pigossi who won Best Actor at last year’s FilmOut San Diego, where Bland won Best Supporting Actor and the film won Best First Narrative Feature. High Tide is also nominated for a 2025 GLAAD Media Award in the Outstanding Film – Limited Theatrical Release category.
By Chad Armstrong.
High Tide receives its Sydney premiere at Queer Screen’s 32nd Mardi Gras Film Festival on Friday February 14th. Head to queerscreen.org.au for tickets and more information.
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