UNICORNS - Mark Reviews Movies

Unicorns, Cohen Media Group

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Review by Mark Dujsik | July 17, 2025

There's a refreshingly simple sweetness to most of Unicorns. It's not a quality one might expect from this story, in which a man, who is certain that he's straight, finds himself attracted to and falling for the drag persona of a gay man. This would appear to set up a series of questions about gender and sexuality, but writer/co-director James Krishna Floyd has little interest in that line of thinking. First and foremost, he and co-director Sally El Hosaini have set forth to tell a love story. Anything that might complicate that fundamental goal isn't, it seems, much of a concern.

Of course, that also means we have to accept many apparent shortcuts in terms of the movie's characters and story as almost a matter of faith in love. For example, Luke (Ben Hardy), the quiet and lovelorn mechanic at one focal point of the story, gives the impression that he has never even considered the idea of kissing a man when he locks lips with the drag performer for the first time. When he realizes that Aysha (Jason Patel) is the stage persona of a man named Ashiq, Luke immediately starts wiping his lips and spitting on the ground. A guy with those sorts of reflexes probably isn't going to take what he perceives as a deception well, let alone start spending time with Aysha without a lot of inner struggle.

In some way, it is kind of nice that the filmmakers bypass most of that, if only because it presumes a level of decency within even the people we might not expect. A different and, likely, more believable version of Luke might be much angrier with Aysha than he is here, if only for the sake of appearances, and if he does have questions about his sexuality after the kiss, it might be easier to accept that those would keep him from seeing Aysha again.

Such assumptions, however, could be entirely incorrect, since we have no idea who Luke is before the events of this story. Sure, one could criticize the movie for smoothing much of what we expect from this character in that moment and the rest of the story, but then again, El Hosaini and Floyd would have made an entirely different movie if they had met those expectations. It would be unfair, then, to demand that this story do what we anticipate it to do, because that would be to miss the entire point.

After a while, we stop thinking about Luke's initial reaction to the kiss and wondering about some alternative version of the character, because the guy here isn't defined by his first reflex or some hypothetical variation of his psychology. No, he's simply a man who's attracted to this woman, realizes she is a persona, and, because he is good-hearted and wants love, starts to see through Aysha to understand the kind of person Ashiq is, as well.

Much of the story becomes about the two hanging out a lot, as Aysha finds Luke at the auto garage he runs with his father Gary (Grant Davis). The father's presence in this story, with his enthusiasm for Aysha's looks and a later scene in which he shares some mildly homophobic comments, adds yet another potential complication, so obviously, the screenplay bypasses all of that entirely.

Instead, Aysha offers Luke a gig: to drive her to her own gigs around his home in Essex and in London proper. Since Luke has promised his 5-year-old son Jamie (Taylor Sullivan) an expensive trip to a theme park in the United States, he could use the cash. Besides, it's not as if he really disliked the little time and kiss he has already shared with Aysha.

This setup is a fine excuse for what most of the movie entails: scenes of Luke and Aysha, as well as occasionally Ashiq when he comes through the persona, talking about themselves, their experiences, their pains, and what they want from life. Luke's mother died recently, so he can somewhat understand the loss Ashiq feels about keeping distance from his own family, who are devout Muslims and, according to his brother Hammad (Michael Karim), probably wouldn't accept him if the rumors going around the neighborhood about him are true. The relationship here develops naturally and at its own pace, as the two drive around, talk, spend time alone together and with Jamie, and quietly figure out how they truly feel about each other.

It's a legitimate-looking romance, in other words, which comes as a surprise after the awkwardness of the pair's first meeting and the psychological baggage that the filmmakers dismiss almost entirely. Some of that second element is raised again, which only reminds us that the movie is overlooking a potentially key component of one of its central characters, but the rest of the love story is pleasant enough to ignore that for the most part.

The third act, though, appears to exist solely to let as many obstacles and complications as possible emerge or resurface. For a movie as foundationally optimistic as Unicorns presents itself, those final turns simply don't fit the tone and aim of this story. Yes, there's some honesty here, especially when it comes to Ashiq and his family, but to bring it up so late and so plainly is, perhaps, to make much of what comes before it look more naïve than hopeful.

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