Exquisitely nostalgic, the movie is as comfortable, and as complicated, as a reunion with an old friend.
The season finale of Looking culminates in a single, extended take, perhaps three minutes in all, at the end of a lovers’ quarrel.
It’s here, in “Looking for Sanctuary,” that the series finally admits to a certain cyclicality.
An episode in which each character’s evolution this season begins to upset the balance they’ve clung to through years of stasis.
Though Looking is a series rightly known for its rather frank discussions and depictions of sex, it’s also finely attuned to the rhythms of friendship.
Patrick’s self-immolation is no suicide, and the episode is no Mrs. Dalloway.
It has the feeling of a first date, but ends with a reckoning, run through with the conviction that we can never really leave the past behind us.
In what amounts to something of a departure for Looking, the episode picks up where “Looking Top to Bottom” left off.
Tops, bottoms, douches, enemas, rim jobs, “hot shower orgies,” and even a swinging dick or two.
Director Andrew Haigh and writer Michael Lannan present a suggestive exchange of stories that feels both familiar and remarkably specific.
Full disclosure: I am, to paraphrase that old Sex in the City parlor game, such a Patrick.
It may seem quotidian compared to the current requirements of the weekly series format, but its attention to detail isn’t given nearly enough credit.
With the premiere of Looking, Andrew Haigh finds himself at a new standstill.
It emerges as a dramedy exploring how gay men clumsily negotiate the appropriate distance to place between the words “friends” and “benefits.”