Mutt is a movie that makes the everyday radical

Mutt is a small film with big things on its mind. Director Vuk Lungulov-Klotz’s feature debut is an indie drama that takes place across one day in New York, following Feña (Lío Mehiel), a recently out trans man, dealing with frustrating situations sparked by his sister, his ex-boyfriend, and his estranged father. Feña’s gender identity plays an important part in both navigating the city and his relationships. and Mutt depicts this and its fleshed-out characters with dynamism. Feña isn’t portrayed as a hero or a martyr, simply a guy who is trying to get through the day with as little trouble as possible. For that, it feels quietly radical.

Mehiel, a trans actor himself, plays Feña with a winning sensitivity. We see it in his knotty relationship with his ex, who he hooks up with at a club only to be rejected again the morning after. Family relationships are similarly complicated, as Feña’s sister arrives on his doorstep unannounced, having run away from home. His father, too, requires a ride from the airport and getting hold of a car proves to be a challenge. It’s all relatively low-stakes stuff but each additional layer of stress builds into a sympathetic portrayal of a tough day in the city. These bass notes are accentuated by depictions of the low level aggressions faced by being trans in America, like how the bank refuses to cash a check because his current name does not match the deadname he used to set up the account.

Speaking via Zoom prior to the release of Mutt, which is available to rent and download now, Lungulov-Klotz spoke about his intention when making the movie, the clichés of trans filmmaking, and the lineage of classic movies all set across one day.

The FADER: There's so much empathy in the film, and even just — I mean this as a compliment — everyday mundanity. How important it was to get that across and if you were eager to avoid the trauma narrative that often accompanies queer films?

Vuk Lungulov-Klotz: Mundanity, I think, is a privilege reserved for very few characters on-screen. I chose a 24-hour period to show you the most mundane, most human thing there is, which is just getting through the day. I think it's cool to watch just a trans person fight with their ex, or just walk down the street. I think you don't just get to see people exist. That's a privilege.
I live in a world surrounded by these kinds of people and I really wanted to see that reflected on-screen. I sat down to write a character, and they were trans. It was just reflective of my experience.

In terms of the empathy in the film, you make sure to not cast anyone aside or draw simple binaries between good and bad. Even people who make ill-judged comments, or are unsympathetic, are shown with a degree of fairness. Was that balance hard to strike?

You try to do things when you're writing, but I wanted to treat everybody in the grayscale of life. Nothing is black and white. I think as trans people, trans characters are usually portrayed as good or bad, martyrs, taboos. If I'm asking for society to humanize a trans character on-screen, I can only ask for the rest of the characters to be as human and as complex as the lead.
I wanted to approach the movie with empathy, especially with characters like the ex, the father. I wanted to get in their shoes, and understand what they were afraid of, and really humanize them. I think that was my way of dealing with the people around me when I was coming out, and how harsh they were to me. You have got to kill them with kindness a little bit, I think.

It's more exciting to me that way. It's a better story for sure. At the end of the day, I just think everyday life is very narrative. Humans are really beautiful, and I wish I could just watch them. I would love to be a fly on the wall most days.

The film is all set in 24 hours.There's a great history of these kind of movies, where everything goes down in one day. Was there anything you were watching, or referencing, during the lead-up to shooting the movie?

I love 24-hour movies. I love continuous time. There's so many movies I love. I think The Celebration is an incredible movie. I was obsessed with the Dogme 95 movement when I was in college. That was my version of being an obnoxious film student. Victoria is an incredible movie that takes place in Berlin, too.

Good Time is amazing. Mutt is not Good Time but I love the way they weave through New York. The Night Doctor is this French movie I love. I really like all of the Before trilogy and then Weekend, by Andrew Haigh, is a staple for any little queer.

The title of the film plays into this theme of mixed identities. There's race, gender, nationality, languages, different sexuality, all in there. What did you want to say about these characters?

I wanted to do a dual thing. I think I wanted to talk about the mixed in-betweenness of life as a trans person, where you're always, whether you pass or you don't pass, you're always going to be able to understand life from both sides. There's always a continuous in-betweenness of everything.

Then I also wanted to talk about the mixed ethnicity of most Americans. Most people, and myself included, we're like, "We do not fit into one nationality or one home," I think. Growing up I felt a little bit homeless. I grew up between Chile, Serbia, and the U.S.. For me, being where I feel at home, and I feel safe, and I feel seen, and there's strength in that point of view.

I read an interview where you said that you're keen to escape the clichés within trans filmmaking. I was curious, from your perspective, if you could tell me a bit about what you see those clichés as being?

Well, first of all, not being the lead. I think trans people are always the second character, if they get lucky. We never talk about their love interests. It's always something terrible has happened, they've been rejected, or they're used as the butt of the joke. I had never seen a trans man be sexy on-screen. Hopefully, the laundromat scene comes across as sensual.

I had never seen a trans man, specifically, own that space. I was very excited to shoot a lot of these scenes, because I was so hungry to see them. I fought my entire life to feel like I was good enough, and to feel like I could be loved. It was cool to see that with my film.

Is it harder to make the more nuanced or original trans stories? Do you get the feeling that the industry and audiences actually want the cliches you speak of?

It all depends on who's holding the mic. Trans people usually don't write the narrative, so we don't see complex, nuanced human beings that are just like any other person. We see a concept, which is written by an executive at a studio who is actually attracted to a trans woman, and is terrified of that, and decides to make a joke. I think who is writing the narrative gets to dictate how people see us.

I think something that makes me really sad, because I've been talking a little bit about what the trans gaze is. I think there's a sense of tension and fear that's inherent in it, that is very much because of how I've been trained to watch trans characters onscreen, or gay characters onscreen. I was watching [Netflix series] Heartstopper, which is the cutest show ever, and I remember the first time I saw these two characters kiss, I did not enjoy it.

I had to rewatch the episode, because I realized that the entire time I was thinking, "Oh, fuck, the bisexual character is going to freak out and push the other guy away, or someone's going to burst into a door and berate them." I think we've been trained to be afraid, even when we're watching something that's fictitious, that we're going to be hurt. That's awful, and it has nothing to do with queer people.

There’s a whole book to write on why we have felt the need to berate your characters onscreen. Is it propaganda to scare the people from coming out? Is it just ignorance? Is it evil? Is it a little bit of all these things? I don't know. I think everybody is a little bit trans, and a little bit gay. We're all in the spectrum. The more that the pendulum starts to swing, where people, like myself, or gay people, or anybody that's queer, or pushing against the norm, starts to happen. The more those people show themselves, and show freedom to people, the more there's a pushback to put those back in a box.

You talk about lead characters and Mutt is anchored by this great performance from Lío Mehiel. Where did you find him and what you were looking for in terms of casting the part?

It took two years to find Lío. There are a few out and known trans actors in the U.S., and we went out to them to ask if they wanted to do it, and they said yes, and then no. But I wanted to cast authentically. I wanted to cast a half-Latino trans man. Even these big actors that I was talking about, they weren't half. Me and some friends just started calling college campuses, acting classes. We started doing Instagram blasts. We just started throwing a really large net around, looking for this guy.

We got a lot of non-actors coming out and being really brave. I think a lot of people were really excited to see something different, something that they felt seen in. Lío said that seven different people had reached out to him, saying, "Hey, we have this casting call. Is this you? Is this just who you are?" He reached out, and we did a call, and he was great. Once you take the transness out of the movie, it's a movie about a kid whose dad lives in another country. He's trying to not be a fuck-up. It's not internationality, it's about your past, all these things. I was very happy when I found Lío. He flew to New York, we did a test shoot, to see if we had the right vibe. It was really great.

How do you feel about the movie coming out during a time when trans rights have become this huge moral panic across the world?

I think the movie's coming out at a very crucial time. I wrote it six years ago. It's only become more crucial for it to come out, which is sad that not much has changed in that time span. At the same time, it became a lot more possible for the movie to come out, and to be made. But I think the people that need to watch this movie, it'll reach them. I just think of myself at 13, 14, if I had seen a movie like this, I would've felt less alone.

The world is telling you every day that it's going to be hard to be anything but the norm; to be gay, to be trans, to be whatever you choose to be, to be an artist, whatever it is. We already know it's going to be hard. It's just nice to see someone like me be like, "Hey, I'm a filmmaker and I'm doing okay. I won an award at Sundance, and here's a movie you can watch." I think that that's cool. To have a few more role models is incredibly helpful, because trans people are never going to disappear. They're just going to be more or less scared of coming out.

What kind of stories do you want to tell in the future? Do you see yourself continuing in a similar vein to what you've started with Mutt? Or do you have wildly different plans as well?

I think both. I have wildly different plans but it will always be an empathy-based story. I'm writing a love story that I think is very much in the vein of Mutt. And then I'm also writing an erotic thriller with genre-bending horror elements. I'm just really excited to show the scope of my interests.