*SOLD OUT* Cruising (1980) - 30/10 - Film Night

Initially a controversial flop, Cruising has become more favourable in its afterlife, but remains largely under-celebrated within the work of Friedkin, its star Al Pacino, and the New-York-by-night films of the era. Pacino puts in a magnetic, homoquestioning leading turn as Steve Burns, the rookie undercover cop assigned the case of a serial killer haunting the Meatpacking District's leather bars. To perform his detective work, Burns must first perform convincingly as a leather daddy, learning the rules and codes of the scene to assimilate. On the surface, Cruising succeeds as a tense slasher and unique time capsule of NYC underground gay nightlife just before the HIV/AIDS crisis, whilst also offering a strange and ambiguous study of an identity in doubt.