The Delta

Released Aug 15, 1996

1h 25m

Drama

List

63%

8 Reviews

Tomatometer

37%

250+ Ratings

Audience Score

A genteel Jew (Shayne Gray) and an immigrant Vietnamese (Thang Chan) living in a Southern town try to cope with their homosexuality.

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Richard Brody

New Yorker

Sachs, in his début feature, reveals a startling connection between his aesthetics and his experience: with a chilly drift toward artifice, he uncovers the bitter and infuriating truth of growing up in hiding.

Aug 5, 2023

Full Review

Emanuel Levy

Variety

This intimate gay drama, about the complex relationship between a white adolescent and a Vietnamese immigrant, displays a fresh voice but suffers from structural flaws and ultra-modest production values.

Rated: 2/4

Apr 12, 2006

Full Review

Russell Smith

Austin Chronicle

Rated: 3.5/5

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Bob Satuloff

The Advocate

Nonprofessionals Gray and Chan are adequate in their roles, and Memphis makes an intriguing location. But with its sparse narrative, humorless style, and deadly pace, The Delta is more excruciating than illuminating.

Jun 1, 2022

Full Review

Armond White

Out Magazine

Against the tide of political correctness, The Delta was first to chart the unsafe streams of gay experience.

Oct 25, 2017

Full Review

John Beifuss

Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

The film now seems more infuential and prescient than ever, a signature work that heralded a revived interest in 'Queer' cinema while pointing the way toward an ever more influential documentarian and micro-budgeted American independent film scene.

Rated: 3/4

Nov 16, 2012

Full Review

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Audience Member

If you're looking for a 90's LGBT themed movie, this is a good pick. It highlights the difficulty of being gay in this time frame. It also displays the sometimes difficult situations that people find themselves in, such as falling in love with someone who is incompatible, and not being able to make things work. There are two violent scenes in the movie where people get hurt and even beyond, displaying both characters serious shortcomings, giving them both serious flaws, one being obviously more serious than the other. I won't ruin the film, but the ending did come as a bit of a shock. It leaves the viewer to imagine several scenarios: did he do it because he felt hopeless after losing someone he intended to be in a relationship with and with whom committed a violent act on him in an act of rage, or did he do it because he's actually a terrible person? I guess one would say he is a terrible person regardless, but it does leave more to the imagination as the movie doesn't present a solution to the crisis it displays. The drawbacks of this film include some scenes that are long-winded without real dialogue, mostly in the beginning where Lincoln interacts with his family and peers. But on the whole, it is a good indy film that has an avant garde feel for a 90's flick. Films like this simply were rare in the 90's, even though it was much improved from the era before it. Its a classic for that reason.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/12/23

Full Review

martin a

An interesting film, a closeted bisexual juggles his girlfriends and male one-night stands until it all goes wrong when a one-night stand falls for him. The location is great, and the cast is great The ending is odd and makes no sense at all, however a very enjoyable film

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Although Sachs cannot sustain the cinematic promise of The Delta's early sequences, his moral seriousness and technical finesse merit attention.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

Full Review

Audience Member

"The Delta" refers to the low land where a river spills into smaller rivers. When a poor Vietnamese immigrant and a white suburban sexually-confused boy take a boat for a ride, we don't know what to expect. I wish the movie had stayed focused on the relationship of the two but it's too busy making the gay Vietnamese into a psychopath. As played by Thang Chan, with a charming accent, the character deserves better. Shayne Gray as the white boy is cute but his character is undeveloped. The narrative is not fully realized and the movie leaves you with more questions. It's a low budget film with sloppy editing and directing.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/20/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Thinks it is clever, but it really isn't. Long, boring scenes of teenagers out of parties put me to sleep for a brief minute or two. Lincoln's struggles with his identity as a gay or straight man is well played out, but another gay character, Minh (African-American and Vietnamese) is so obviously displaced from society that the sympathy for him becomes sickening. The ending of the movie is fun to discuss, but this movie is very pretentious.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/25/23

Full Review

Audience Member

When you like movies with a lot of action, this is not your movie. This story takes you slowly into the lives of some people living in The Delta. It takes it's time. And I like it. An observation of people in confusing social circumstances.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/12/23

Full Review

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Ira Sachs

Director

Shayne Gray

Lincoln Bloom

Thang Chan

Minh Nguyen (John)

Rachel Zan Huss

Monica Rachel

Colonius David

Ricky Little

Ira Sachs

Writer

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Synopsis

A genteel Jew (Shayne Gray) and an immigrant Vietnamese (Thang Chan) living in a Southern town try to cope with their homosexuality.

Director: Ira Sachs
Screenwriter: Ira Sachs
Distributor: Strand Releasing
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 15, 1996, Original
Box Office (Gross USA): $107.7K
Runtime: 1h 25m