by Mattie Lucas
Cinema from a Decidedly Queer Perspective
Flight Risk | 2025
As a child of the 90s, I have a certain soft spot for 90s-style action thrillers. These things were a dime-a-dozen back then, and while many haven't aged well, something about them often feels more tangible than the flat-looking high-gloss sludge we so often get today. They were heightened, sometimes silly, and less concerned with what passes for realism in a way that makes them feel more authentic. Mel Gibson's latest film, Flight Risk, feels like a throwback to a certain kind of 90s thriller - unfortunately, it's not the good kind.
A trans woman gets out of bed and pads across the room to the bathroom. She is naked. She goes to the bathroom. She brushes her teeth. It is a ritual I've performed so many times without a second thought, and now I'm watching it in a movie. I am struck by how commonplace this feels, how incredibly normal. I notice that her body isn't that different from mine. This is not a hyper-sexualized porn star; this is a regular transgender woman living a regular life. Our bodies are so often fetishized that it feels wholly transgressive to see a nude trans woman on screen simply existing - not being used as a sex object or an object of pity, just another woman going through motions that feel so mundane yet so familiar.