As the dynamics between these three people change and eventually alter the lives of all involved, Sachs depicts the pain and the pleasure of the messes we make when we blindly follow desire.

Caustically amusing, sexy, sad and unflinchingly intense, this is an intimate study of the formation and collapse of a romantic triangle, played with an invigorating absence of sentiment by three actors at the top of their game.

Ira Sachs is a master of the small, delicate gestures that wind up having seismic repercussions in our lives. In Passages, which might be his masterpiece, he fashions the most delectably ruinous of love triangles.

What makes it all work so well is the tiny details packed within each scene; the blocking of actors within a frame, a particular line of dialogue, a glance or a longing look.