My quick rating – 3.4/10. Pose is the kind of movie that arrives at a fancy English manor with a suitcase full of artistic ambition, only to realize, far too late, it forgot to pack an actual story. The story starts and stays simple with Peter (Lucas Bravo) and Patricia (Aisling Franciosi), a pair of artists with a meticulously curated vibe, who retreat to a mansion formerly graced by royalty. The plan? Peter shoots Patricia’s chic pop-album visuals while basking in boutique-candle energy and vintage-sofa aesthetics. Unfortunately, the weekend quickly derails when more guests show up, including Thomas (James McAvoy) and Jemima (Almudena Amor), whose presence kickstarts what the film insists is a psychological game. In reality, it’s more like an awkward dinner party stretched into 90 minutes.
That’s how things start: the original renters and Thomas’ intruding duo stumble through a cringingly stilted conversation, with the actors ad-libbing without knowing each other’s lines. Dolly (Leila Farzad) clearly knows more than she’s letting on, but every bit of subtext gets treated like nuclear launch codes in this movie. You could practically hear the script, like a throat-clearing librarian, “Pay attention… something profound is happening, here,” as absolutely nothing profound happens.
The film also makes a recurring stylistic choice where characters sit silently while their voice can be heard. I’m sure someone in a production meeting calls this “artsy,” but the editor cuts the film in a way that leaves huge chunks missing. Whenever a particularly dramatic line comes from a completely unrelated shot, you start wondering whether your streaming service accidentally desynced.
I found the real issue is that nothing in Pose ever sparks any emotional investment. These characters could have been played by McAvoy, ten clones of McAvoy, or an ensemble cast made entirely of Oscar winners, and it still wouldn’t have infused the script with meaning. It’s dull, pretentious, and so self-serious it almost dares you to yawn. The movie has a thematic point – a delicate one, even – but it withholds it until the final thirty seconds, as if the reveal will retroactively upgrade everything before it. Spoiler: it doesn’t. I was only slightly wrong about where things were heading, but only because the film tosses a last-minute curveball for the sake of appearing clever. Or more likely, to wake the audience up.
As a thriller, it contains exactly zero thrills. The tension levels rarely rise above mild social discomfort. The pacing drags, the chemistry fails to spark, and the dialogue hits hard without adding any real weight. Even as an experimental piece, Pose just doesn’t have the momentum or edge to justify its own artistic choices. McAvoy does what he can, and he’s always fun to watch, but even he can’t revive a film that flatlines this early and never checks its own pulse.
