Few movies set the scene with such succinct clarity as ‘Test’ from writer (and lead) Brock Yurich and director Sam McConnell. Here, we watch as a handsome and very muscled man, wearing nothing but a cock sock, is rollered in fake tan by an older woman while singing a hymn and giggling.

Eddie (Brock Yurich) is an amateur competitive bodybuilder who lives with his mother, Joanne (Tammy Blanchard), in a state of codependency. He divides his time between the gym, work and church, but neither Eddie nor his mother are doing particularly well; she’s a functioning alcoholic selling make-up to her friends, and he works in a restaurant to pay the bills with a more profitable side hustle as a cam model.

Joanne is also Eddie’s well-meaning de facto trainer, but she’s holding him back with amateur advice and undermining his standing with the contest judges with her overzealous outbursts.  He’s also getting his steroids from the local drug dealer with no plan in place to move forward in achieving his dream of earning a pro card to take him to the next level.

Early on, Eddie bumps into his high-school girlfriend, Abby (Paloma Garcia-Lee), who’s temporarily back from New York, and who becomes another reminder of a life that he could have. So, after failing to win in his most recent contest, Eddie realises that he needs more help than Joanne can provide, so he approaches Mike (Mike Edward), a trainer with a reputation for working with winners.

Mike puts Eddie on an alarmingly complex new cocktail of drugs, sets him straight with his posing and his workout routine, and all seems to be paying off. Then, one night, as Mike drops Eddie off at home in his car, he leans in, and they kiss.

Homosexuality in bodybuilding, even in 2026, isn’t commonplace. You have to go back decades to find any big names in the sport, such as Chris Dickerson, who came out in the late 1970s, or Bob Paris, who came out in 1989 (a gay men’s gym in London, Paris Gym, that operated from 1995 to 2015 and was named in his honour).

Up to now, except for ‘Stay Hungry’ (1976), which is more of a caper movie, and ‘Pain & Gain’ (2013), a Michael Bay black comedy crime movie, there haven’t been any narrative features about bodybuilding, and none that have featured a lead questioning his sexuality. ‘Test’ is subtle in how it deals with this and excels in conveying Eddie’s predicament of maintaining his life while coming to terms with his sexuality in a relatively small Midwest community in Ohio.

Among the complications in Eddie’s life is his religious background. Matthew Morrison (Glee) plays Pastor Gregg, a calm, outwardly compassionate man devoted to his religion. Without hammering home a message that all religion is bad, through Gregg, ‘Test’ depicts the insidious, uncompromising need of some devout followers to suppress queer people.

Added to this, the correlation between LGBTQ+ folk and substance abuse is well-known and here the substances in question are largely the drugs Eddie takes to maintain and improve his physique. ‘Test’ addresses this topic pragmatically without an ‘all drugs are bad’ lecture.

Ultimately, Eddie is a good man trying to do right by everyone, his church, his mother, his friends, and his trainer, all the while trying to keep a sense of himself and achieve his own goals. However, he’s filled with self-doubt, and at one point he heartbreakingly confesses to Mike that he believes himself to be a bad person. Then later on, Abby says to him, ‘All I see when I look at you is a little boy who’s just really fucking scared,’ to which Eddie replies, ‘I’m trying to be really strong, but I’m really weak and really tired’. To show the human frailties of an outwardly strong-looking man, without turning him into a dislikeable or pitiable caricature, provides us with an exceptional piece of filmmaking.

There are no extraneous characters or performances in ‘Test’; every one of them is there for a reason, and without the need to go into too much detail, we’re able to understand them all. In particular, this is a fearless, sensitive and flawless performance from Brock; he’s in practically every scene and even with a look, he can convey a whole story of emotions. What’s even more remarkable is that, having written, produced and acted as the lead, Brock maintained his incredible contest-worthy physical condition throughout this journey.

The superb direction from Sam McConnell perfectly complements Brock’s performance. ‘Test’ has a documentary feel with its camerawork and naturalistic dialogue. Sam also knows exactly when to use music and when to allow the dialogue and quietness to best convey the narrative (stay on for the end credits to listen to the gorgeous ‘Atrophy’ by Tony Tacheny).

The contest scenes were impeccably shot and convey the rivalry between competitors as they perform as a group and their isolation as they perform alone. There was a fascinating intimacy here as well with the focus being on the competitors and main characters with little intrusion from the audience. At one point, I wasn’t even sure if they were even there.

‘Test’ is independent filmmaking at its finest, succeeding where many mainstream movies may fail in giving time for the characters to develop, to allow us to understand and connect with them on a human level. I’m thinking of ‘Lean on Pete’ in terms of pacing and exploration of character, but I think ‘Test’ can comfortably sit alongside ‘Pillion’ and ‘All of Us Strangers’ in the wider conversation about the queer experience.

This may be another Sylvester Stallone / Rocky auteur moment for Brock Yurich with this delicately crafted, poignant movie, set in a similarly hyper-masculine world. His is a name to watch out for.