Sublet (2020)

Starting John Benjamin Hickey. At the Quad

In “Sublet,” Michael Green (John Benjamin Hickey), an uptight, gay, 59-something travel writer for the New York Times, shows up in Tel Aviv, where he hasn’t been since his bar mitzvah, to write an article about the “real Tel Aviv.”  He’s subletting from hunky Israeli Tamir (Nic Nissan), and once they meet at the apartment, he promptly hands his host a list of places he plans to visit.

“What do you think?” he asks.

“If you’re a Jewish princess on her first Birthright tour, they’re fine,” Tamir fires back snarkily .

For the next five days (that’s all the time Michael has), Tamir shows him how a young, good-looking, 20-something, bisexual, free-spirited Sabra rolls. That includes trips to Frishman Beach (where Michael shows up in a sport coat and ogles Tamir as he takes

a beach shower),  a bike shop (where they retrieve Tamir’s stolen bike which the owner wants him to pay for), a visit to an edgy dance performance (where the performers are practically naked), and a visit from Kobi (Tamir Ginsburg), a trick they order in from the Israeli version of Grindr. 

We pause here for a subplot: Michael and his husband David (Peter Spears) are trying to have a baby through a surrogate but Michael isn’t 100 percent with it.

To find out how this low-key, slight movie ends, you’ll have to catch it someday on Netflix (we saw it at the Quad!  A real movie theater!) But to Jeffrey Katzenberg it, “Sublet” aims to show  how two extremely different guys develop a friendship that they both gain something from. If for no other reason, watch it Hickey, who was one of the best things about “The Inheritance,” and who with his rugged Dad body, never fails to demonstrate how 57 is the new 37.