Actor/filmmaker Marco Calvani penned a poignant tale of love, loss, and grieving the path not taken for his feature directorial debut “High Tide.”
Calvani, who previously helmed the short film “The View From Up Here,” starring Melissa Leo and Leïla Bekhti, directs the queer drama “High Tide,” which premiered at SXSW 2024. Brazilian “Gen V” actor Marco Pigossi makes his English-language feature debut in “High Tde,” which hails from LD Entertainment, which recently released the queer rodeo drama “National Anthem.” IndieWire debuts the exclusive trailer for “High Tide” below ahead of its fall opening.
Per the official synopsis, “Lourenço (Pigossi), a Brazilian immigrant whose visa is nearing the end, finds himself heartbroken and adrift when his American boyfriend unexpectedly leaves him alone in Provincetown with fleeting promises of his return. Enveloped by the beauty and magic of the seaside community, he grows distressed by the day as his once hopeful future has dimmed into an emotional and physical state of limbo. When he meets Maurice (James Bland), a kind nurse on holiday with friends who too feels out of place, they form an unexpected connection. Together, they begin to find acceptance with each other while they struggle to reconcile their uncertain futures.”
Marisa Tomei, Bill Irwin, James Bland, and “Tangerine” alum Mya Taylor also star in “High Tide” as Provincetown residents and regulars who come in and out of Lourenço’s life over the course of his short time there.
IndieWire’s Deputy Film Editor Ryan Lattanzio deemed “High Tide” a “frank and honest” film about the “often debasing mundanities of gay life in the PrEP era; one minute you’re getting pounded by a perfect stranger, and the next you’re sitting in a clinic under sterile bright lights and explaining yourself to a blank-faced nurse.”
Lattanzio compared the latter portion of “High Tide” to Richard Linklater’s beloved “Before Sunrise” for the “achingly melancholic chemistry” between its stars.
“High Tide” features cinematography from Oscar Ignacio Jiménez (“The Killing of Two Lovers”). The film is written and directed by Calvani, who also produces along with Mickey Liddell and Pete Shilaimon. Tomei, Pigossi, Jacob Yakob, Joseph Yakob, and Beau Ward executive produce.
Following “High Tide,” writer/director Calvani, also an actor, will star in the upcoming Netflix series “The Four Seasons.” The ensemble cast of the remake of the 1981 film includes Tina Fey, Steve Carell, Colman Domingo, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Erika Henningsen, and Will Forte.
“High Tide” premieres Friday, October 18 in New York and expands to Los Angeles on Friday, October 25, followed by select cities on Friday, November 1. Check out the trailer below.
