The central thrust of this graphic French drama may be a radical notion to some: that a sex worker can enjoy the wild, carnal freedom that his or her job can provide, while also being vulnerable to its dangers.

| Jun 7, 2019

What's the old saw about war? That it's long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror? Tweaked a little, the line serves pretty well as a description of Sauvage. All that's required is the addition of "and/or emotion" at the end.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 31, 2019

By the end, we've experienced one of the best films about street hustling ever made.

| Original Score: 4/4 | May 2, 2019

Vidal-Naquet's film knows that every wound and balm to the flesh is also one to the spirit.

| Apr 26, 2019

French filmmaker Camille Vidal-Naquet offers a raw and riveting portrait of a gay male sex worker (the quietly devastating Félix Maritaud) and the aching tenderness he brings to his brutal profession.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 11, 2019

The movie never feels voyeuristic, and if you're looking for a seemingly credible slice of life on the streets, this will fill the bill nicely.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 10, 2019

It's tough to build a character study around an unconvincing character.

| Apr 9, 2019

The film is a tale about how those who spiral so far out of control become blind, if not immune, to the severity of their symptoms.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 6, 2019

Vidal-Naquet's direction is at its most bracing and palpable when it pits the unsentimental (even brutal) physicality of Leo's work against the tenderness that he waxes onto it.

| Original Score: B | Mar 29, 2019

What's special about the film is how it refuses to moralise about sex work, finding tender moments of intimacy, desire and longing.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 2, 2019

Sauvage is moving, powerful, upsetting, but never gratuitous.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 1, 2019

Maritaud's performance has power.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 27, 2019

This is a sexually frank and arrestingly tender perspective of a young man in freefall. It occasionally leans too far into the horrors of street prostitution, but it's mostly an open-minded view of its shiftless main character.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 27, 2019

This passionate debut from Camille Vidal-Naquet boldly challenges our perceptions of male sex workers.

| Aug 24, 2018

It's a film that scrutinizes male bodies - whether lithely tattooed or creased like crepe paper - with an attentive but uncritical eye.

| May 14, 2018

Sauvage's complex representation of love - from the ephemeral connections with sexual partners, to intense romantic passion - is less conspicuous than its frank portrayal of sex work and gay sexuality, but it is just as nuanced.

| May 13, 2018

Nevertheless, the film achieves a sort of grace, in moments of sweetness and stillness, when the fullness of Leo's being-be it ravaged and weary-is palpable and, finally, undeniable.

| May 10, 2018

Raw, uncompromising and yet strangely romantic.

| May 10, 2018