‘Low Rider’ review: LGBTQ+ drama follows a young British woman on a South African roadtrip

Dir: Campbell X. UK, South Africa. 2025. 94mins.

After her mother’s death, Quinn (Emma McDonald) finds a box of keepsakes in a cupboard, including correspondence from her long-absent father. It acts as the trigger for a search that will take her from London to South Africa but which, in keeping with the familiar terrain of film road trips, will also see her embark on an emotional expedition through her own expectations and desires.

More sentimental than satisfying

Campbell X’s second feature after 2012’s Stud Life tackles issues of prejudice – along both race and gender lines – and has a potential queer romance at its heart. The latter is the drama’s most endearing element, holding a sensual and sincere attraction in the face of an uneven and often cluttered narrative. The focus on Black and queer characters should help Low Rider (the first film from UK producer Boudica Entertainment) catch the eye of LGBTQ+ festivals following its world premiere in competition at Edinburgh International Film Festival. Further along the line, it has the potential for specialist or streamer distribution.

Quinn is quickly established as the sort of femme who wouldn’t be seen dead without her lippy on – make-up designer Julene Paton and costume designer Mercedes De Bruyn put in sterling work. She is also impetuous, embarking on a drunken one-night stand within hours of landing in Cape Town that allows Campbell X to showcase a deft touch with both bar and sex scenes, shot glossily by Robert Wilson.

The liaison, however, results in Quinn losing her phone and purse, and she begs her ex back home (Nellie Modimola) to wire over some cash. One thing Quinn still has left in the handbag is a card handed to her by Harley (Thishiwe Ziqubu), a trans man she rejected the night before, who also offered to be her guide. This is just one of several all-too-handy coincidences the filmmaker and co-writer Stephen Strachan use to drive the narrative.

The more masculine-presenting Harley has an interest in Quinn that goes beyond helping her to get to Hopetown in the heart of the country, where Quinn’s father is reported to live. Flirtation is to the fore as the pair set off in Harley’s pick-up truck, until a fender bender suggests danger is never far away and that Harley’s ownership of the motor might not be entirely legit.

Racism is not unlikely in any environment, but the sheer number of unfortunate and increasingly improbable circumstances experienced by the pair begin to take their toll on the believability of the narrative. Worse still, they prove a distraction from the central relationship that, when it is given room to breathe, is sweetly realised and well articulated by McDonald and, in particular, Ziqubu, who brings a damaged soulfulness to Harley that goes beyond the limitations of the script.

Given that Low Rider carries a central message to avoid stereotyping or labelling people based on preconceptions and prejudice, it is a shame the film is so one-note in its depiction of white South Africans as belligerent and racist – including a cameo from veteran Brümilda van Rensburg as a woman from Quinn’s dad’s past. In the final act, a sharp left turn into trippy territory also proves jarring because there is little build up, while the lack of time taken to establish characters – a problem throughout – also risks exoticising Black South Africans. Generally speaking, the film’s emotions also arrive on demand rather than being developed gradually, which makes its conclusion, while no doubt heartfelt, feel more sentimental than satisfying.