Lunar Sway, a clear standout at the BFI Flare film Festival this year, evokes a range of cinematic influences in its outlook, but the off-kilter, often dreamlike bisexual chaos at its core feels entirely unique to the work of writer/director Nick Butler.
Cliff encounters plenty of loveable weirdos in his journey, from a self-styled vigilante named Bailey (Grace Glowicki) to even his therapist, Neal (Andy Yu), whose note-taking skills leave a lot to be desired. But throughout it all, even after he embarks on a road trip into the weirder realms of mid-West America, it's a past encounter with an artist named Jovi (Kaden Connors) that haunts him most.
View oEmbed on the source websiteConnors was immediately drawn to these "odd" moments, this "quirkiness" in Butler's script. "When there's a weird energy to something, I just feel like it's authentic," Connors told Radio Times. "It's not looking for approval. And I think those qualities are very admirable."
"When I got the script and the breakdown for Jovi, I was like, 'This is interesting,' because there's so many layers. It's very complex. And as an actor, you can really sink your teeth into that."
While Liza Weil came into this project established already thanks to star-making turns in Gilmore Girls and How To Get Away With Murder, Connors has enjoyed what you might describe as the complete opposite trajectory.
This "ethereal quality" bleeds into every scene throughout the film. "I really wanted to create a world that feels slightly out of touch with reality, slightly heightened," says Butler, "because it's a movie about people who are lying," points out Butler. "The main character never knows who to believe."
"Cliff keeps having these haunting memories of their time together that really taps into his pining and yearning. And it feels a bit like a nightmare, so we articulated it as like a dream-like nightmare. The highs of this romance are kind of like a dream, but it's also haunting you, and it's torture. I feel like sometimes we get so dramatic when we're in that state of mind, so the only way to represent that was this kind of over-the-top symbolism."
With this abstract symbolism also comes something more tangible, physical even, in the nudity and sex scenes that ensue.
"Aryn is just so fantastic at what they do," adds Connors. "They just made us feel so comfortable by having those preliminary conversations. Sometimes just breaking the ice and having a conversation about intimacy really helps get rid of nerves and energy that you might not have control over."
"We didn't know [Kaden] was going to become this famous, but it definitely helps. We had a bunch of Heated Rivalry fans come to the screenings at BFI specifically because Kaden was posting to Instagram." Having performers like him, Weil and rising star Noah Parker in the lead "adds a level of legitimacy to the movie in the eyes of programmers and distributors certainly. They do care about that. But for me, it really comes down to if the performances are good, the movie's better."
Just like Heated Rivalry, Lunar Sway is intrinsically queer, and not just when it comes to the emotional connection that Cliff once shared with Jovi. Everything from the film's approach to memory and relationships to tone and genre speaks to a fluidity that's queer in of itself. And that's a big part of why Connors signed up in the first place.
Beyond the specificity of queerness in Lunar Sway and all the bisexual chaos that comes with it, Butler hopes that audiences "see themselves reflected in Cliff's yearning to find connection and love in all the wrong places, and maybe his dysfunctional way of looking for it."
The world premiere of Lunar Sway took place at BFI Flare 2026. A wider release across the UK is expected later this year.
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