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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Catherine Bray

Touch Me review – tentacle sex abounds in psychosexual horror that’s like live-action hentai

a woman and a man lie near each other, bathed in purple light.
Difficult dynamic … Joey (Olivia Taylor Dudley) and Craig (Jordan Gavaris) in Touch Me. Photograph: Publicity image

Addison Heimann’s second feature wears its heart – and other appendages – on its sleeve; it is the queer, disaffected millennial live-action hentai psychosexual horror-drama-comedy that a fairly specific slice of the viewing public has been waiting for. It’s mostly about the friendship between Joey (Olivia Taylor Dudley) and Craig (Jordan Gavaris), which from the start is clearly affectionate and a little bit problematic. He pays the rent, she doesn’t; meaning he gets away with shenanigans like asking Joey to stay in her room with the lights out when his Grindr date comes over, because he’s told the guy he lives alone.

Into this dynamic struts Joey’s former lover, Brian (Lou Taylor Pucci), who is more than a little bit problematic himself. He has plenty of charm, choreographed dance routines for days, and is an (almost literal) demon in the sack. In fact, he’s a sometimes-tentacled alien – and he’s also a narcissist. As a character, Brian feels a little modelled on Frank-N-Furter from Rocky Horror, with a hedonistic outlook, pansexual orientation and ear for a toe-tapping tune – though his aesthetic is less fishnets, more Jesus in a hip-hop tracksuit.

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