“I think of Goodnight Ladies as a screwball drama,” says Alex Matraxia of his latest short film. “It’s a phrase I’ve borrowed from Pedro Almodóvar – so it’s drama and comedy, intense but camp and it’s meant to be playful.” A backstage melodrama that unfurls under the technicolour haze of a London drag bar, Goodnight Ladies presents a unique intersection of character-driven narratives against the backdrop of a single, charged evening. Three stories collide and interlace at once, all cinched together by the communal pressures of performance, pride and second chances. The characters? An “old-school queen facing off with a rising star, a young couple trying to work through their secrets and a has-been actor making one last grab for the spotlight.”
Written and directed by Matraxia and starring none other than English multi-hyphenate – performance artist, avant-garde cabaret artist, singer, actor, comedian, film director and all-round “glamour icon” – David Hoyle, who takes on the role of the washed-up actor, the film also features a vibrant troop of London-based LGBTQ+ community members, many of whom had never acted on screen before. The result is an authentic, lived-in portrayal of queer nightlife, layered with a sincere exploration of the themes of labour, art and entertainment shot entirely on 16mm film courtesy of Kodak (Goodnight Ladies received the First Flights x Kodak Film Fund).
Also produced in affiliation with Trans On Screen – a directory for trans+ and non-binary professionals in film and TV – and Wendyvision, an all-queer production company, the project is as much about who made it as what it depicts. Amidst rising hostility and legislative threats – especially in light of the UK Supreme Court ruling which ruled that the legal definition of a woman is based solely on sex – ”it feels more vital than ever that film and TV not just include queer and trans voices, but actively fight to centre them,” says Matraxia. In that way, Goodnight Ladies is not only a love letter to a shifting past, but a vision of what cinema can be: joyful, defiant and defiantly entertaining.
The London-based writer and filmmaker’s fifth cinematic production, Goodnight Ladies continues Matraxia’s fascination with spaces of performance and intimacy. “It’s part backstage melodrama, part love-letter to showbiz and a tribute to nightlife,” he says. Describing Goodnight Ladies as a modern All About Eve, Matraxia set out with a rich cinematic lineage of classic ‘showbiz’ pictures in his reference book, inspired by their indulgence in pleasure and theatricality. “Think All About Eve after too many martinis, with a nod to Cabaret, Opening Night and some Vincente Minnelli movies,” he says. Bringing new life to the bygone, yet timeless genre, Goodnight Ladies offers a glimpse behind the curtain to lives lived in the wings – messy, heartfelt and still determined to dazzle.
Emerging in the aftermath of the Covid-19 lockdowns, when nightlife and community spaces began to reopen but felt irrevocably changed, Goodnight Ladies began with a “unsolicited email” sent to producer Sophia Shek in October 2022 – found through Trans On Screen. Helios B., the founder of Trans On Screen, later joined as associate producer, helping to form the foundation of a crew – or “dream team” as Matraxia says – committed to queerness both on and off screen. At the time, there was a strange, aching nostalgia – an awareness that the world we once moved through so freely had shifted in tone, rhythm and meaning. That sense of beautiful disorientation – of longing, burnout and fleeting connection – lives at the heart of Goodnight Ladies. Matraxia wanted to capture the messiness and glamour of queer nightlife, and allow the story to echo the fragmented, non-linear memories we carry of those spaces.
With its glittering chaos, raw vulnerability and undeniable charm, Goodnight Ladies doesn’t just slip into the lineage of great backstage dramas – it high-kicks its way in, lashes first. It’s a film that understands the duality of queer nightlife: the performance and the persona, the collapse and the comeback. And in a cultural moment where queer joy is often overshadowed by political erasure, Matraxia’s short reminds us that resistance can look like sequins, sound like laughter and feel like community. Whether you’re there for the drama, the drag or just the dazzling chaos of it all, one thing’s certain: this is a curtain call you won’t want to miss.
Head down to Dalston’s Rio Cinema tomorrow evening (May 8) for the premiere screening of Goodnight Ladies.
Matraxia’s previous films – Afterparty (2021), Dream Factory (2023) and Brief Encounter (2023) – premiered at BFI Flare, were selected at Fantasia International 2024 and screened at Cannes as a finalist in the Straight-8 Film Competition, respectively. Matraxia has previously been shortlisted for the BAFTA Rocliffe New Writing Competition.
Photography courtesy of Alex Matraxia.
