Holy Trinity is a 2019 American comedy written, produced, directed by, and starring Molly Hewitt in their feature directorial debut. Hewitt plays Trinity, a dominatrix who huffs from a mysterious aerosol can and discovers she can talk to the dead. Theo Germaine co-stars; Joe Swanberg executive produced. The film screened at the LGBTQ-oriented festival Outfest in July 2019 and at the New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Film Festival in October 2019—putting a sex- and kink-positive queer comedy on the festival map without treating BDSM as disposable shock décor.
Cast and premise
Molly Hewitt stars as Trinity, the working dominatrix whose brush with the strange aerosol grants medium-like contact with the dead. Theo Germaine plays Baby, Trinity’s partner and a musician. Heather Lynn appears as Carol, and Imp Queen appears as themself. The plot mixes day-to-day kink labor with supernatural absurdity, spiritual questions, and relationship dynamics—asking how affirmative spirituality and power exchange can share the same life.
Critical reception
On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an 82% approval rating from 11 reviews, with an average score of 6.4/10. Beandrea July of The Hollywood Reporter criticized some of the dialogue but concluded that the film “celebrates living a sex- and kink-positive life and explores how an affirmative spirituality fits into that.”
Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave three out of four stars, praising Hewitt’s performance and calling the movie “an adventure sprinkled with quite a bit of kink.” Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune was cooler at two out of four, labeling it “bracingly sex-positive in all directions, if oddly flat as a performance vehicle.”
Cody Corrall of the Chicago Reader awarded three out of four stars, writing that while the film may not balance every theme evenly, it leaves audiences thinking about “the politics of kink, to becoming a god and subordinating oneself interpersonally and within societal frameworks.” Colleague Ben Sachs admired the production design but felt many scenes drag and that overall pacing felt indifferent—arguing Hewitt still had “a ways to go in terms of storytelling.”
Jude Dry of IndieWire included Holy Trinity on a 2019 list of LGBTQ films not to be missed. For kink-friendly viewers, the takeaway is a rare festival comedy that treats dominatrix work and power exchange as lived identity and spiritual inquiry, not only as a costume for laughs.
