''Port Authority'' is a 2019 American-French

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

film, written and directed by Danielle Lessovitz. It stars Fionn Whitehead, Leyna Bloom,

McCaul Lombardi McCaul Lombardi (born May 20, 1991) is an American actor. Born in Baltimore City, Maryland, he is known for his roles in ''American Honey (film), American Honey'', which won the Jury Prize at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival; and ''Patti Cake$'' - w ...

and

Louisa Krause Louisa Noel Krause (born May 20, 1986) is an American actress. After studying drama in college, Krause appeared in numerous off-Broadway productions while also appearing in episodes of New York-based network television series. Her first film role ...

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of many major accolades, inclu ...

serves as an executive producer under his Sikelia Productions banner. It had its world premiere at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

in the section on May 18, 2019. It was released in France on September 25, 2019, by ARP Selection, and was released in the United States on May 28, 2021, by

Momentum Pictures Momentum Pictures is a film distributor and a subsidiary of Entertainment One, itself part of Hasbro. Prior to 2013, it was a brand of Canadian distributor Alliance Films used for its releases in the United Kingdom, and was one of the leading in ...

Plot

A 20-year-old Midwesterner arrives in New York City, and catches eyes with a young woman, leading to the two falling in love, and discovering that she is a

trans woman A trans woman or a transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may transition; this process commonly includes hormone replacement therapy and s ...

Cast

* Fionn Whitehead as Paul * Leyna Bloom as Wye *

as Lee * Devon Carpenter as Tekay * Eddie Bloom as Eddie *

as Sara * Christopher Quarles as Mother McQueen * Taliek Jeqon as Dante McQueen

Production

In October 2018, it was announced Fionn Whitehead, Leyna Bloom and

had joined the cast of the film, with Danielle Lessovitz directing from a screenplay she wrote.

will serve as an executive producer under his Sikelia Productions banner, with

MUBI Mubi (; stylized as MUBI; The Auteurs before 2010) is a global curated film streaming platform, production company and film distributor. Mubi produces and theatrically distributes films by emerging and established filmmakers, which are exclusivel ...

serving as a producer. The film's title ''Port Authority'' refers to the

Port Authority Bus Terminal The Port Authority Bus Terminal (colloquially known as the Port Authority and by its acronym PABT) is a bus terminal located in Manhattan in New York City. It is the busiest bus terminal in the world by volume of traffic, serving about 8,000 buse ...

, the arrival point of Paul in the film as he seeks a better life in New York; Bloom said that this reflected her own journey from the Midwest to the station in the city at seventeen. Lessovitz also explained that the station is often a place of congregation and work for queer women of color in New York, as well as providing a sense of the transient because of the station's primary function. As well as being a black trans actress from the Midwest, Bloom is also a real-life drag ball house mother.

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

in the

Un Certain Regard (, meaning 'a certain glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films w ...

section on May 18, 2019. It was released in France on September 25, 2019, by ARP Selection. It was released in the United States on May 28, 2021, by

Reception

''Port Authority'' holds approval rating on

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on reviews, with an average of . The site's critical consensus reads, "Although ''Port Authority'' frustrates with its inaccurate portrayal of the culture it attempts to represent, it remains an absorbing and well-acted drama." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film holds a rating of 61 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Accolades

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Port Authority 2019 films 2019 drama films 2019 LGBT-related films American drama films Ball culture Films set in New York City French drama films 2010s English-language films American LGBT-related films French LGBT-related films LGBT-related drama films Films about trans women Films produced by Martin Scorsese 2010s American films 2010s French films