The Delta
Director: Ira Sachs
Writer: Ira Sachs
Cast: Shayne Gray, Thang Chan, Rachel Zan Huss, Colonious David, Charles J. Ingram
Seen on: 28.5.2026

Plot:
Lincoln Bloom (Shayne Gray) is a teen in Memphis. By day, he has a girlfriend (Rachel Zan Huss) and not much to write home about, by night, he is curiously exploring his sexuality with strangers. By chance he meets Minh Nguyen (Thang Chan), who introduces himself as John, who is a little older. John wants to spend some time with Lincoln, and Lincoln is intrigued. Taking John to his father’s boat, the two take an impromptu trip.

The Delta is an intriguing debut film that does very well – until the ending that I found overly dramatic and needlessly provocative. But until then, I really enjoyed the film.

The Delta contrasts two very different queer experiences: Lincoln is white, middle-class, possibly bisexual and definitely protected. John, on the other hand, has always been marginalized. He is Black and Vietnamese, an immigrant in the US and has very few resources. Which means that he is certainly more vulnerable than Lincoln, but also maybe a little freer to be himself.

In any case, given the imbalance between the two, it seems pretty obvious that things can’t really end well for them. When push comes to shove, Lincoln is sure to protect himself by first making John the target of his unease and tension, and then withdrawing into his girlfriend’s arms.

If the film had ended with this, it would have been depressing, but it would have worked for me. But then the film basically goes into an epilogue that involved John and another man, and there the film lost me in a turn of events that seemed more fitting to a different genre of film, or maybe a soap opera. This ending cast a long shadow over the rest of the film for me as well.

But the bigger part of the film was strong and thoughtful, especially for a debut feature. Sachs‘ other work has also hit my radar in recent years, without me every actually seeing more than one film, Love Is Strange. But I am curious to see the filmmaker he became in the meantime.

Summarizing: apart from the ending, really good.