In the end, Sequin… feels like a hopeful film that promises a better world for queer dating, online and off, as it is flooded with a new generation unburdened by the stigma or rage that drive obsession.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 10, 2024

Sequin in a Blue Room is a stimulating and well executed film that delivers by creating a believable contemporary tale about what it is to be young and finding yourself in the digital age.

| Sep 16, 2024

Samuel Van Grinsven is a talent to watch out for and Sequin in a Blue Room will sit alongside films like Head On and Holding The Man for its evolution of queer representation onscreen.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 12, 2022

Mysterious, captivating and very erotic, its one of the sexiest and most provocative films in recent memory.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 13, 2022

An arresting debut for director Van Grinsven.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 31, 2021

Sequin in a Blue Room is sexually thrilling, without any sense of judgment. Leach, a newcomer, is wonderful and there is such an energy and lightness to the film that it works really well.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 29, 2021

Whatever Van Grinsven is trying to say with this empty package, let's hope he grows out of it.

| May 21, 2021

A film that nimbly blends elements of fantasy and thriller, delivered with the heightened attitude of New Queer Cinema auteur Gregg Araki.

| May 21, 2021

It's a memorable feature debut.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 20, 2021

It moves with a confidence and style that keeps you hooked throughout, even during the scenes when you might ordinarily be cringing for any number of reasons.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 18, 2021

Van Grinsven certainly has talent to burn, but despite its potential, this intriguing coming-of-age film never quite excites.

| May 13, 2021

And just as I was tiring of another lingering close-up of Sequin in the shower, I noticed something else: the extent to which the water droplets after a while could serve as a visual equivalent for the young man's tears.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 19, 2021

Whether he is describing pleasure or pain, Van Grinsven (a first-time feature director) is a heady stylist.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 17, 2021

Filmmaker Samuel Van Grinsven takes an inventively visceral approach to storytelling, revealing the plot and characters through internalised feelings and sometimes jarringly tactile imagery.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 16, 2021

It's a dark but not exploitative gay coming-of-age film that has a good star turn by the expressive Conor Leach.

| Original Score: B | Apr 12, 2021

[It] may tackle familiar material - gay coming-of-age stories are hardly uncommon - but it does so with a lustre and style that marks Van Grinsven out as a name to watch.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 11, 2021

The novice Australian actor Conor Leach delivers an assured turn in this low-budget drama as "Sequin" (his nickname)...

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 9, 2021

Sequin's story of graphic sexuality, generational divides, power and consent, is very much of the zeitgeist as a study of desire in the digital age.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 9, 2021

Leach's performance as the casually playful and assuredly confident Sequin is exquisite

| Apr 9, 2021

With such an impressive debut, Van Grinsven is surely one to watch.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 7, 2021