![\"Jim](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1477977_jimqueen_855111.jpeg\")
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Dirs: Marco Nguyen and Nicolas Athane. France\/Belgium. 2025. 85mins<\/p>\n
A gay influencer\u2019s perfect life is threatened by a virus that is turning the whole world straight in Jim Queen, an irreverent celebration of LGBTQ+ culture. Boasting fetching tunes and appealing animation, Marco Nguyen and Nicolas Athane\u2019s feature directorial debut may be a little thin narratively but is otherwise an amusing time, poking fun at everything from gay men\u2019s fixation on their physique to straight men\u2019s obsession with sports.<\/p>\n
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Takes aim at myriad gay and straight cliches<\/p>\n
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Jim Queen screens as part of Cannes\u2019 midnight section before opening in France on June 17. The film should find further festival play and could enjoy cult success similar to another charming, low-budget queer-themed animation, 2025\u2019s Lesbian Space Princess.<\/p>\n
Parisian influencer Jim Perfect (voiced by Alex Ramires) has millions of followers on social media, where he is worshipped as a sex symbol for his dashing good looks, shapely butt and exquisite chest hair. But he becomes alarmed when one of his abs disappears, and then another. Jim learns that he has contracted Heterosis, a highly contagious virus that leaves its victims feeling terminally heterosexual. Scared to lose his identity as a gay man \u2014 and panicking that he\u2019s shedding followers, who no longer consider him a queer icon \u2014 he teams up with Lucien (Jeremy Gillet), an ineffectual, closeted early-twentysomething who has a massive crush on him, to track down the mysterious Dr. Ragoo, who may have a cure for this disease.<\/p>\n
From the opening shots, in which a collection of buff gay men feverishly work out at the gym, the camera playfully lingering over their bodies,\u00a0Jim Queen announces its impish spirit. Jim is massively self-absorbed, but Ramires imbues him with a touch of insecurity so he\u2019s always likeable no matter how conceited he behaves. No wonder it\u2019s so delicious when Jim is stricken with Heterosis, which inflicts him with the typical straight male\u2019s lack of concern for staying in shape. Developing a gut is as disturbing to Jim as being told he\u2019ll never enjoy another anal orgasm.<\/p>\n
Jim Queen takes aim at myriad gay and straight cliches, also making room for some primo puns. (Beware of the \u2019Gaystapo\u2019, who have severe methods for converting Heterosis-affected gay men back into pure homosexuals.) Snark and sweetness coexist, such as when the yearning Lucien is introduced in a musical number that nimbly parodies Ariel\u2019s \u2018Part Of Your World\u2019 ballad from The Little Mermaid,\u00a0except with many more references to sex toys. And while the film pointedly critiques the scourge of homophobia and conservative politicians\u2019 desire to erase queerness from modern life, the rise of Heterosis is treated with tongue-in-cheek lightheartedness.<\/p>\n
Nguyen and Athane, who are also two of the film\u2019s four credited writers, resist the urge to incessantly try to outdo themselves in terms of their script\u2019s outrageous sexual humour.\u00a0Instead, the jokes cover a wide range of topics, with several choice bits involving Jim charting his level of heterosexuality by his alarming rise in knowledge about the rules of soccer. The plot risks turning episodic, but the filmmakers do a good job fleshing out their imaginative world of drag queens, sneaker fetishists and moral watchdogs (including Lucien\u2019s bigoted mother, and France\u2019s minister of health, voiced by Elisabeth Wiener). Paris\u2019 LGTBQ+ bear community is depicted as literal bears and, for a change, it\u2019s the hetero-positive who are mocked and shamed for their \u201cunnatural\u201d lifestyle.<\/p>\n
Amidst Jim Queen\u2019s pulsating dance tracks and out-and-proud characters, the picture also slips in a little sincerity. The gorgeous Jim must contend with Lucien\u2019s romantic feelings, although he considers himself far too cool for this awkward younger man. Meanwhile, as Jim becomes more and more straight, he begins to be attracted to his platonic best friend Nina (Shirley Souagnon), which complicates their relationship since she\u2019s actually always been in love with him. Without getting too sappy or strident, Jim Queen explores how sexual fluidity can open up exciting possibilities but also break people\u2019s hearts. In the case of this cheeky picture, it can be pretty funny, too.<\/p>\n
Production company: Bobbypills<\/p>\n