When one sets out to become an artist (regardless of medium), they are confronted with a choice – they can either pursue the mainstream or march to the beat of their drum. Each brings with it a range of advantages and challenges, and it is difficult to fault anyone who chooses to pursue one over the other since essentially everyone just wants to get their work seen and appreciated, regardless of the form it takes. There are a few examples of individuals who take very popular works, and reconfigure them under their original vision, even if it means creating projects that are intentionally divisive and difficult to embrace as much as others. One of the most exciting contemporary filmmakers is Amanda Kramer, who is not particularly well-known just yet (having only made three films to date), but she seems like someone we will appreciate as one of the more fascinating auteurs of her generation, in terms of both her stylish approach to directing and her storytelling prowess, which is deeply original and incredibly captivating, much more than many of her contemporaries. A profoundly independent filmmaker in every sense of the word, her talents were captured brilliantly in Please Baby Please, which follows the changing relationship between a mild-mannered married couple as they find themselves questioning everything they thought to be true after getting confronted with the darker side of their urban life, which involves encounters with a group of sexually-ambigious gangsters, known as “The Young Gents”, who call into question their entire existence through disrupting their lives and showing a radically different side of life that is available to them. Stylish and deceptive, Please Baby Please is one of the most fascinating films of recent years, a creative odyssey that sees Kramer establishing herself as a vital voice in contemporary cinema, and someone with a strong sense of direction that developed from a range of different sources, each one adding onto this already compelling dark comedy that proves to be one of the year’s most original films.

Undeniably, you can’t talk about Please Baby Please without acknowledging how heavily this film is steeped in queer culture. Within the first few minutes, there are broad allusions to the likes of Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Kenneth Anger (the latter in particular actively being cited as an inspiration by name in the film’s promotional material), and Kramer exhibits a deep and meaningful appreciation for queer culture in every moment of the film, almost to the point where the film is inadvertently touching on aspects that don’t factor into the narrative, but rather come about as a result of looking at other issues. It also helps that this is a film that is as much about provoking conversations on sexuality as it is about unabashedly celebrating queerness – the fact that the two protagonists are questioning their identity, both in terms of sexual orientation and gender, is never viewed as a struggle that is difficult to overcome, but rather a beautiful and captivating process in which these two characters emerge from their sexuality-infused chrysalis as entirely different people, more assured and confident in their identity, but still not possessing all the answers, as the film shows the process of transitioning into a new state of being is a perpetual journey. Please Baby Please is a film that explores gender and sexuality with a pointed stylish edge – it offers us some fascinating insights into the human mind, which is something that is so perfectly captured by Kramer’s approach to this material. It never purports to be entirely objective or definitive in any way – if anything, the film focuses on a very specific kind of sexual awakening and should be viewed as such, rather than as a thorough examination of identity. However, it is compelling enough in showing this journey that it can resonate with a much wider audience, who will likely be far more engaged with the approach taken by this story than they may have been with a less earnest depiction of some of these ideas.

Kramer is not a filmmaker who believes the story itself is enough to maintain an audience’s attention. She is one of the rare directors whose work embodies both style and substance – and in terms of the latter, the story she conceives alongside co-writer Noel David Taylor is sublime and compelling, but is only half of what makes Please Baby Please so exciting. One could even argue that the construction is what keeps the film so captivating – and while I am not one to wax poetic about visuals on their own, this film is gorgeous, enough for us to even set aside the very strong story and instead focus on the aesthetic impact made by the film. The dreamlike imagery persists throughout the story, which takes place in a neon-soaked version of a big city, the alleyways and squalid apartments that tower over these dimly-lit streets on which violence and passion are in abundance. This is a film that was conceived as a 1950s pastiche, but it is certainly not limited to this quality since Kramer and cinematographer Patrick Meade Jones (who is equally responsible for the astonishing beauty that underpins this film) create a world outside of any discernable time and place, which adds an element of ambiguity to every aspect of the story. Credit must be given to the creative teams – the gorgeous visuals would mean nothing had those responsible for the set construction and production design, as well as makeup and costuming teams, who work together in synchronicity to ensure that every detail in this film is evident, captured by the camera that transforms them into some of the most unforgettable imagery of the past year. Not enough can be said for the pure spectacle that is this film – it may sometimes feel like it is relying too much on the visuals (especially in the moments when it abandons logic and begins to fixate on the aesthetic details), but considering the director was influenced so heavily by a large group of artists who were similarly attentive to creating vibrant visual worlds in their productions, it’s easy enough to note that she was simply following the self-prescribed procedure, but not to the point where she doesn’t place her indelible mark on the film as a whole, which makes Please Baby Please such a remarkable and fascinating production, both visually and narratively, and a work of pure postmodern artistry.

Binding the entire film together are the performances from the cast, which is kept relatively small, but still somehow feels just as sprawling as the surrounding film. Harry Melling and Andrea Riseborough may not be the first actors we imagine when hearing about the roles of an ordinary married couple trying to lead a suburban life (especially since they are both known for playing more eccentric characters), but it doesn’t take long for us to be sold on the decision to cast them, which was done based on who the characters would become at the end of the film, rather than who we are introduced to at the start – it is far easier to convince viewers that eccentric characters start as normal, rather than the other way around. In this regard, it’s difficult to imagine more appropriate actors playing these roles – Melling is an unconventionally charming actor who moves through many of his performances playing vaguely disturbed, sinister young men who are not always evil but have a hint of darkness within them, a quality that Kramer uses her as a way of hinting at his repressed queerness, which manifests as the film progresses, until the final scene in which he simply fully surrenders to his homosexual desires. Riseborough’s character has a similar journey, although hers requires a shift in her gender identity. This is where her ability to quite literally transform into any character becomes her greatest asset since her chameleonic tendencies allow her to convincingly move from this dowdy, overly feminine housewife into a rugged, masculine character that could quite easily fit into the macho gang that terrorizes them in the opening scenes. This is by far amongst the best work done by both actors, and smaller but no less impactful work by Karl Glusman and Demi Moore (in an unforgettable cameo) gives Please Baby Please the required dose of human complexity it requires to be completely convincing.

Please Baby Please feels like a film that we will be looking at in the coming decades as a major moment in contemporary cinema, so the fact that this came and went with seemingly very little fanfare seems inappropriate, especially since this is a film that does everything it promises, which includes being incredibly original and artistically resonant, telling a fascinating story and being superbly well-constructed. It will certainly be a divisive film, especially since absolutely everything about the project seems designed to stir some kind of polarizing reaction, whether it be the visual bombardment or the story that navigates around queer issues in a way that is quite confrontational and not at all subtle. However, beneath all of this, there is a magnificent, funny and insightful film that addresses its issues with wit and nuance, even when it is quite challenging. There is something quite profound about how this film navigates some of its subject matter, and while it does take some time to fully comprehend exactly what it is saying, the effort is worth every moment, since there is something so compelling about a film that is willing to go to these lengths to discuss very specific subjects, which is precisely what makes Please Baby Please such admirable work. Compelling and very intriguing, it draws us in with a fascinating premise and delivers on every one of its promises, which is quite an achievement all on its own, and one of the many reasons to celebrate both this film and the remarkably gifted filmmakers that are responsible for its creation, since they both represent the very exciting future of the medium.