The use of reflections in Leviticus is something that genuinely has me thinking so much.
Like the most obvious reflection scene in the first one in the mill, where Naim and Ryan are making out, but as soon as Naim sees his own reflection engaging in homosexuality, he shuts it down. I’ve thought a lot about this, and I think it’s more the idea of having an out of body experience, if that makes sense. His relationship with Ryan doesn’t match the facade he puts on in Bandee, or around his mom. This is a completely secret life he’s begun that he’s only been taught to feel ashamed of, so even when he’s with Ryan, he can’t fully separate himself from the church, or the expectations he successfully sculpted himself to fit.
It’s not even just Naim’s reflection this symbolism is used with, it’s also Hunter’s, however brief it was. Fifteen minutes into the movie, we see Hunter for the second time, this time in the classroom setting. A student is reading a passage from the Bible in front of the class, and Hunter is sitting in the back with a mirror. It’s facing away from him, catching light to try to get it into this girl’s eyes to bother her. Going with the idea that reflections are representative of being gay, Hunter is actively turning the mirror away from himself and at someone else to hurt them.
When Naim goes to Ryan’s house where he catches Ryan and Hunter together, before he goes around to the backyard, he stops at a the window and fixes his hair. He engages with his own reflection in a positive way, in hopes of looking better for Ryan. He stares his queerness in the eyes and accepts it. He doesn’t turn his reflection away, he uses it to his advantage. The Naim we see entering Ryan’s backyard is one intending on being with Ryan, without shame. Obviously, we know that gets crushed, no shit. Naim ends up seeing the consequences of his queerness with Ryan and Hunter. Ryan, who didn’t care to look back at his reflection because it would get in the way, and Hunter, who turned the mirror away from himself to hurt others. And Naim, who in a moment of looking at it, got punished in the form of watching an allegory for a stoning. So Naim turns the reflection away, he uses it to hurt in a moment of betrayal and shame.
The next scene using reflection is the one of Ryan at the slushy machine. We see him standing, alone with a bruise on his arm, while the reflection shows two boys playing outside. Ryan isn’t looking at the reflection, but he we know he’s aware of it. The same way those two friends were having fun, Ryan was having fun with Naim (debatable with Hunter), an expression of his queerness that got punished. He wants to go back to the way things were, to when it just looked like two boys having fun instead of having a curse put upon them just for it. Naim walking in right after is just salt in the wound. There’s even a shot of the both of them with the same reflection of the boys in front of them. Not with Hunter, but with Naim. It’s Naim that’s the true representation of his homosexuality, of how all of it can turn on you so quickly. Ryan, much like the scene in the mill, still doesn’t look at the reflection, just at Naim himself.
Our last reflection shot in this scene, is just of Naim alone in front of window, the two boys still playing outside, as a bus comes into view, actively foreshadowing the ending of the movie. Of Ryan getting on the bus, and as the bus passes, Naim’s head turns with it. But instead of looking at his escape with Ryan, he looks at Arlene, and turns back to the window. Naim is instead now looking at the two boys playing, a representative of what he fucked up, by turning the mirror away from himself.
Naim goes back to Ryan’s backyard, but this time doesn’t check himself in the window, and we get the whole scene of Ryan talking to Naim’s entity, which Naim himself can’t see, or even know it’s him. Naim follows Ryan and the Entity all the way to the Photo Booth. We get the line from Ryan, speaking to Entity Naim “I thought you were scared”Considering the pictures that come out of the booth, of Ryan being intimate with the invisible Entity, we can assume this had to do with the first mill scene, where Ryan would’ve interpreted Naim pushing him away as being scared of being gay. Entity Naim isn’t scared of being intimate with Ryan, satiating Ryan’s own fears of his relationship with Naim.
As the photos of Ryan taking his shirt off come out on the other side, Ryan says “are you going to do it too? It’s just me.” The second half of that phrase can be taken in a way that he may not have mean— it is just him, alone in that booth, with a reflection of his homosexuality. But as soon as Ryan is attacked( the minute he’s outside of the booth, he becomes just as scared as he thought Entity Naim was. Of being seen, because now, it’s not just him. Ryan never sees the pictures in the Photo Booth, he never sees the reflection of his queerness.
The scene I really became aware of the mirror being used as a metaphor was the one right after Hunter’s death, when Naim has gone to the police to try and find help. We barely see who he’s talking to, just the plastic screen between them, and Naim’s reflection asking for help. We don’t hear the words that are being said in this scene, but we can pretty much assume by the next scene, where he’s trying to justify his belief in something invisible that came for Hunter, and is coming for Ryan next. Naim puts himself up right next to the picture of queerness in front of authorities, even before he outs himself, in his attempt to save Ryan.
Earlier in the movie, right after the second mill scene, we see a scene of Naim looking up at the sky from the car with Arlene with a smile on his face. The sky is a very old interpretation of God, and basically a materialization for Christians to look up to in hopes that he’s listening. When Naim looks to the sky, when he looks to God, it’s after the happiest he is ever seen in the entire movie.
But when Arlene and Naim are driving to the Deliverance Healer, as Naim looks out the window as he puts together his fate, we see a reflection of the sky once again across the screen. Where Naim once saw the beauty, he is now seeing it as a religion his mother fell victim to. A religion that he’s being pulled into against his will to shape him back into who his mother wants him to be. Naim is seeing the harms of Christianity, in one of his last final moments before his curse. Arlene says “I can’t lose you too,” with the shot of the sky reflecting on them. Her husband is dead, in Heaven, in the sky, and in her attempt to keep Naim safe, she’s sending him right into the arms of a religion that will never accept him. If the reflection Naim is looking at is a representative of his queerness, he isn’t seeing himself. He’s seeing the consequences.
Where I think I might be stretching a little is the take that the Entities are reflections too. We never even see Entity Naim from Ryan’s perspective, therefore, we never see Naim’s reflection of queerness from another lens. We never see Ryan’s reflection of queerness. And while I know that the Entity isn’t Naim, that made me start thinking about how Entity Ryan could be used as Naim’s reflection instead
In the funeral scene, Naim goes looking for Ryan, and comes upon the Entity instead. Naim confides in him about his meeting with the Deliverance Healer, and tells him that Arlene “can’t face anything that’s real.” Very similar and kind of ironic to Naim, who is facing an Entity, a version of Ryan that isn’t real.
The first mill scene is a direct setup to the bus scene, starting with Ryan and Naim becoming intimate in front of a singular mirror, and it getting shut down, vs in the bus, and here they become intimate in front of a shuttle made of entirely windows, all reflective surfaces. But Naim doesn’t shut it down this time. He closes his eyes and reaches his arm out, covering his reflection from himself, and continues with Ryan. He only pulls his hand away when he moves his head, completely obscuring himself with Ryan. The real Ryan, the positive face of his queerness and his physical antithesis to shame.
In the scene outside the church, Ryan tells him “I don’t want it to look like some other dickhead. I want it to look like you.” Even after having his ear almost bitten off, Ryan still wants the reflection of his queerness to have Naim’s face. That is until he doesn’t.
During the scene in Naim’s house when he’s alone, and he’s in front of the sink, we see his reflection again. Not only does he not look at it, once he turns out the lights, it immediately switches to Entity Ryan, right where Naim was a moment ago. This kind of backs of the idea of Naim and Entity Ryan being one and the same, even closer than Naim would be to Entity Naim.
The screen door scene is another instance of mirror parallels. Even though there isn’t anything reflective between Naim and Entity Ryan, they both mirror each other’s’ movements, as if they are reflecting the other, even up to the hands, pressing together that way. Entity Ryan tells Naim that “this is what they wanted. For us to be scared of each other.” Naim replies by telling him that he is, and Entity Ryan turns this down, and ends up referencing the snake with the frog in its mouth, from Naim and Ryan’s initial introduction to the movie, to try to reflect Naim’s memories to get closer to him. So if we treat Entity Ryan effectively as just a manifestation of Naim’s homosexuality, the apology Naim gives for outing Ryan and Hunter starts to ring truer. He’s looking Entity Ryan in the eyes, knowing it’s dangerous but trying anyways, to reach an understanding within himself with Entity Ryan as his conduit.
Entity Ryan always says what Naim wants to hear, or what Naim wants to believe, successfully functioning as the reflection of his fears. Naim is able to look himself in the eye as long as it isn’t wearing his face. It’s his queerness that’s always been the block for Naim’s reflection, and Entity Ryan is the embodiment of Naim’s queerness. Naim is only able to conquer (albeit briefly) Entity Ryan by showing it the same gentleness he shows the real Ryan. By showing softness to his reflection, he finds the strength to accept it, thus why he chooses a life with Ryan instead of a life scared of himself.
And as Ryan Whelan says it best himself, “I want it to look like you.”
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