Sinner Supper Club: A Queer Mumblecore Film Exploring Grief Through Raw, Intimate Storytelling

Mumblecore cinema continues to evolve, spawning fresh subgenres that push creative boundaries. Sinner Supper Club, this year’s standout indie film, has already earned dual labels—“mumblegore” and “mumblequeer”—but its co-writers and directors, Nora Kaye and Daisy Rosato, are embracing the chaos while forging their own path.

“Mumblecore is a movement that kind of started here,” Kaye explains to Den of Geek at SXSW in Austin, Texas. “Films like The Puffy Chair, Baghead, and Creep rejected the studio system. They brought friends together, shot on the fly with handheld cameras, and used whatever resources they had to make a movie. We asked, ‘What if we did that—but instead of predominantly cis white men, it was our incredible community of clowns, trans folks, and queer people?’”

The result is an improvised story shot in just six days. It centers on a turbulent queer friend group gathering for a final party before one member moves away, priced out by New York City’s soaring rents. The reunion is also their first tense get-together since a friend’s death, adding a supernatural layer that has led some to call Sinner Supper Club a “mumblegore” film. Yet the label only scratches the surface of what the movie offers.

“Mumblegore is definitely an emerging subgenre of horror,” says star Sophie Sagan-Gutherz. “I think it takes mumblecore one step further. You’re watching something you feel like you shouldn’t really be engaging with—it emits stress and discomfort. There are moments in our film where we do lean into that genre.”

Influences and Innovations: From Dogme 95 to the iPhone

The directors drew inspiration from The Celebration, a Dogme 95 film by Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg that stripped away cinematic artifice. They also embraced the tradition of using consumer-level cameras. The result? Sinner Supper Club was filmed entirely on an iPhone.

“There’s a lot of resurgence and nostalgia around mini DV cameras and camcorders from films like that,” Rosato notes. “But films made in 2025 or 2026 using those cameras feel nostalgic, not ‘of the now.’ So we asked, ‘What would be our version of a mini DV camcorder?’ The answer was the iPhone. It started as a creative choice but became practical too—I could submerge the camera in a shower to shoot a scene without worrying about damage. We threw it in a freezer, mounted it to a bike. It made filming faster and more spontaneous, letting us keep up with our actors and ideas.”

Kaye adds that the iPhone’s portability allowed them to get close to the actors, creating a movie with “propulsion and freneticism.” There was no need for elaborate setups between shots. And because people are used to smartphones, the camera felt invisible to the cast, letting them stay in the moment.