The unspoken rule of contemporary filmmaking is that if you want your story told, you have to take the leap by telling it yourself, which has become the hallmark of many great films that tackle the issue of representation, especially in an era where we are giving voices to those who need it the most, rather than tasking those outside a particular community with telling these stories. Few know this better than Brian Jordan Alvarez, whose entire career has been spent mainly creating his own stories on different platforms, with the occasional sojourn into the mainstream. Having seemingly mastered the art of cross-medium storytelling, Alvarez has been a mainstay within the community of queer filmmakers, producing strong work on both sides of the camera, and even occasionally venturing onto stage, proving himself to be an artist with a diverse set of skills and the willingness to experiment in different forms to tell the stories he believes are necessary. His feature directorial debut is Everything Is Free, which is one of the more unexpectedly charming queer stories of the past few years, a fascinating character study in which Alvarez (who not only wrote and directed the film, but composed the score and played the central role) explores the life of a young artist who moves from the United States to Colombia to pursue his craft, only to have his delicate and simple life shaken by the arrival of his college friend and his brother, with whom he forms an immediate connection, despite the very clear boundaries set by both of his visitors that they are straight. Over the course of the film, we see the interactions between these three characters, as well as a small handful of others, who are all questioning their identity, wondering if there is any truth to the idea that someone can ever be truly assured in their sexuality, and whether this is just a myth perpetuated by a heteronormative society. These conversations are just the start of a very strong film that serves to be an unexpectedly promising start to a directorial career that has much more potential than we may have initially imagined.

Queer desire has come a long way in the history of cinema – what started as a subject that was seen as wildly controversial to even allude to in earlier films has flourished into a wonderfully complex and meaningful industry in itself – and we have finally reached a point where queers artists themselves are standing at the helm of these stories, rather than having them told by those from outside the community, which was all too often an occurrence that has mercifully decreased as further calls for diversity not only in the stories being told, but the voices that stand behind the camera. Alvarez has had an interesting career in this regard – his stories are almost always centre on queer issues in some way, but they are rarely as confrontational about exploring their desires quite as effectively as they are here. It is also important to note that most of his previous work veers more towards the comedy, whereas Everything Is Free sees him creating a far more dramatic work, a film that does have moments of humour, but is otherwise quite serious, which is exactly what it needed to be, especially since it is tackling a subject that is almost intimidating in scope, but which is executed with such delicate precision, condensed into a single poetic and beautifully evocative narrative, from which Alvarez is able to draw so many fascinating ideas and bring out meaningful conversations in the process. There’s a nuance to Everything Is Free that makes it very gentle, but also resilient in how it explores that feeling of longing that comes with encountering someone who you initially believe could be your soulmate, when in reality they are just another person on their own journey of self-discovery, the two paths crossing very briefly, but still leaving a profound impression, which Alvarez constantly draws our attention to throughout this film, which is a far more interesting work because of its more sobering tone, since it would be inappropriate to address these issues in a more lighthearted way, since he is essentially touching on the psychological aspects of the queer experience.

The tonal content of Everything Is Free is quite remarkable – it is a deeply meditative drama with only a few selected moments of tender-hearted humour that supplements the tone rather than changing it, and coming from someone who made his career in comedy, it is surprising that he was capable of making something so thoughtful and serious. It isn’t uncommon for comedians to be the most adept when it comes to more dramatic subject matter, but there is something so profoundly different about how Alvarez approaches this material that makes us rethink even his most outrageously funny works in the past, since many of them still had an undercurrent of sadness and melancholy that makes them a lot more pensive than we may expect. Ultimately, they serve the purpose of showing that Alvarez is essentially someone who is assured enough in his own identity to make these stories about being unimpeachably proud of your identity, but that even when someone is living their life openly, they can still run into moments of deep insecurity and despair – just because someone is capable of living their authentic lives doesn’t mean that they are guaranteed happiness, and that sometimes being open about your sexuality can cause even more self-doubt, especially when it comes to feeling desire for those who either don’t have the same urges, or suppress them in fear of being seen as deviant. We still live in a world driven by heteronormativity, as well as a society where everyone is placed into neat compartments, from which any deviation is a problem – once you proclaim yourself as one identity, it is difficult to cross over into others, which is especially challenging when these are self-imposed standards. The film may seem simple on the surface, but there is a complexity to how Everything Is Free navigates these conversations on desire that makes it quite profound and unexpectedly moving, which is perhaps not something we may have expected from such a small, intimate story.

If there is one aspect of Everything Is Free that we were assured would be consistently strong, it would be the acting. Alvarez has assembled quite an established group of actors over the course of his career, many drawn from his own social circles, taking the journey to becoming his creative collaborators, and the source of many strong moments. Alvarez himself is incredible in the central role – for someone who has made a career out of eccentric, comedic characters, he is a remarkably capable dramatic actor. His skills are not perfect, and there are a few moments in which it is clear that he is suppressing the urge to play the character as more humorous, but it is a mostly very solid dramatic performance that proves that he could put aside the more quirky persona and instead embrace his dramatic side. His two visitors are played by Peter Vack and Morgan Krantz, who are very strong in playing these young men who are clearly insecure about their own identity, which results in them descending into truly erratic behaviour that drives a stake into the heart of what was previously a beautiful, complex friendship between the trio, which falls apart as a result of misplaced desires. One of the more impactful performances among the supporting cast actually comes from Jason Greene, who is a relatively late entry into the film, but in playing the part of Eli, an almost mystical individual that stumbles into the lives of these characters and essentially immerses them in his world of off-kilter spirituality, creating a very odd but captivating character that was not entirely necessary, but serves a purpose as both the film’s comedic relief (not that it needed one) and as the catalyst for some of the more profound moments. There are some very strong performances in Everything Is Free, and much like the film as a whole, they are not nearly as simple as they appear on the surface, which gives it a rich and evocative sense of genuine surprise, something that works to the entire film’s benefit, and gives these actors a very solid project on which they could demonstrate their more dramatic skills.

Everything Is Free is an undeniably simple film that is entirely direct about the conversations that exist at the heart of the story, and announces Alvarez as one of the more interesting storytellers of his generation, which is not something we may have predicted as being a genuine possibility, since his approach has always been closer to the more absurd side of comedy, rather than a hard-hitting, profoundly complex character-driven drama that is steeped heavily in existential philosophy and questions around identity. Perhaps this is slightly hyperbolic, since this is relatively conventional in the kind of subject matter and the overall approach, but it does feel like a breath of fresh air – there is nothing technically very different about this film and how it approaches certain issues around identity and sexuality, but ultimately any queer story made by artists within that community is going to be worth our time, since it contributes to the conversation and allows for a deeper and more evocative understanding of issues that face those in the LGBTQIA+ community. It may not reflect universal issues, and it can sometimes feel slightly more niche in how it perceives the journey of self-discovery on which the main character finds himself, but there is enough nuance and complexity in Everything Is Free to make up for these small shortcomings, especially when it is overall such an impressive feature-length debut for someone who proved that some of the most exciting voices in contemporary storytelling come from unexpected sources, and that when given the opportunity, queer art can make a profound difference in numerous ways.