Fantastic Fest 2025 Review: Body Blow

Tim Pocock and Tom Rogers dive into repression, lust, and danger in Dean Francis’s neon-soaked queer crime thriller Body Blow.

Queer crime cinema gets a new entry with Body Blow, the latest from Australian filmmaker Dean Francis, who taps into late-night sleaze, neon-soaked aesthetics, and pulpy crime tropes to deliver a film that’s as bold in its erotic charge as it is in its style.

At the center is Aiden (Tim Pocock), a young cop sent undercover, who collides with Cody ( Tom Rodgers) , a bartender and sex worker caught in the orbit of a drag queen crime boss. What starts as protection soon folds into desire, repression, and a tug-of-war between duty and lust. Body Blow doesn’t flinch from its sexuality—it’s unapologetically a queer sex romp—but it also wants to be a gritty crime story, threading car chases, crime-lord theatrics, and a sweaty sense of danger into the mix.

Francis has a keen eye for atmosphere. The film’s color palette, sound design, and sleek flourishes harken back to 90s thrillers and even Cannon-era crime flicks. The Porsche circling through shots, the club energy, the saturated light—these flourishes give Body Blow a real cinematic swagger. Still, when it comes to the writing, the gears grind. The setup between Aiden and Cody is strong, but the third-act plotting wobbles, layering in twists that never land with the weight they need.

Even so, there’s an audience hungry for exactly this kind of film: one that embraces queer bodies, queer desire, and queer danger without apology. In that respect, Body Blow earns its place. For me, it’s a film with dazzling craft and a few too many narrative missteps, but one that signals Dean Francis has the visual chops to keep pushing forward in the genre.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5