Boy Culture
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Movie Reviews of Boy Culture
Movie Review: Nice
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a cute movie for the eyes with superb soundtrack (available for download only.) Directed by gay director Q. Allan Brocka based on a novel of the same name, it is a much more matured and intelligent movie than Eating Out series which he directed also. The movie has cute straight actors Derek Magyar (X), Jonathon Trent (Joey), and Darryl Stevens (Andrew), also a seasoned powerful actor Patrick Bauchau (Gregory.)
X, Andrew, and Joey are roommates. X is a cold hearted high roller hustler with 12 clients (12 disciples.) He likes what he does and considers it as a very high paying job. He does not care about the morals. He does not believed in true love even though is secretly in love with Andrews. Andrews is an athletic young African American who thinks that what X does is wrong. Joey is a flamboyant, feminine young kid that X likes and picked up, felt sorry for him. Joey is in love with X but he pretty much rejects the idea.
The movie is set in Seattle, Washington. The beginning scene has received some acclaimed where X is filmed upside down while riding in a bus.
X meets a new client, Gregory, an older, refined, cultured, and educated gentleman, who hires him for sex but uses the time to talk to him and figured out what kind of person. A fatherly bond develops between these two, where X starts opening up to him with his problems. There is finally the sexual encounter between the two toward the end of the movie.
X and Andrews go around and around each other trying to prevent from getting involved personally. X's walls to protect from getting hurt are just too thick and strong. At home there is always the scenes where X looks at Andrews tenderly and in love but nothing never happens. Joey, a third party, is a flaming queen who thinks only of sex, He just wants a happy family.
There is finally a trip to Andrews' parents house (Portland) to attend the wedding of a girlfriend he used to have in his youth. Apparently he dated her because he was interested in her brother (who discovers that he is gay.) Andrews has asked X to go along with him so that he looked like he was not alone. X rents a very expensive car so they go in style. The trip becomes a disaster because of X not letting up on his feelings. When they returned home, Andrews decided to move back home.
Gregory interferes by visiting Andrews to stopping from making the same mistake he did when he was young. Andrews and X become a couple a he pays X a penny every time they make love. Andrews accepts X as what he is, a pay hustler.
This movie is nice. Even though X is a hustler, there is no poverty and abuse. This may make the movie rather a fantasy and I wish type. They all live in a very nice apartment with expensive things. The one client which is most portrayed is very rich, living in a very expensive, exclusive place. There are bar scenes, but again a nice place. There are special features with interviews of the director and actors.
Movie Review: the risk of love
Summary: 4 Stars
This short film is entertaining as you watch scores of handsome gay men in the Seattle area as they work, live and love. The story is one of a male prostitute who has supported himself for 10 years in this manner, narrowing down his clients to 12 wealthy men. He rents bedrooms in his stylish apartment so as to throw off the IRS as to his real profession. Derek Magyar plays the part of X, the prostitute, and does a good job of a man who represses pain. Andrew Thompson, a handsome African American man is played by Darryl Stephens. Joey, an 18 year old club kid is played by Jonathan Trent. Both Andrew and Joey create a sexual tension in the home.
This is basically a film about the courage to love. Through the film we learn that X once fell in love with a school mate, made love, and then was rejected by his new love. Since that time, he operates as a sex machine, staying always in control, and never allowing himself to fall in love and thus become vulnerable to another person. Yet he does fall in love with Andrew and he fights against these feelings so as to avoid relationship, avoid love, avoid commitment, and thus avoid emotional hurt.
Andrew has gradually fallen in love with X and begins to try to penetrate X's hard veneer of cold calculation and cynicism. X's sarcasm and hurtful comments however keep Andrew at a distance. Give the man credit that he keeps trying. He tells X he will keep trying up to a point and then if X does not bring down his wall of defenses, then Andrew will move on. Andrew is actually one of the most emotionally mature characters in the film.
The turning point for X comes with a new client, George Talbot, played well by Patrick Buchanan. George gradually seduces X with a long tale of his relationship with his lover and the courage to act on emotion. This tale is cautionary and helps X realize he must act or lose Andrew forever.
In the end the film is about the courage to risk love. For young Joey, this is no risk at all and he falls deeply in love with X. To the credit of X, he is mature enough to realize that this 18 to 30 romance would never work and X takes on a parental role for Joey. We gradually learn that George is not telling the truth and that he did not have a lover for 50 years but instead is a lonely reclusive man who never really revealed his love to the man he cared for. But George redeems himself by calling on Andrew and revealing to Andrew that X cares for him even if X is unable to risk being hurt.
Does risking love always pay off? Of course not. But 'the pain of having loved and lost is far better than never having loved at all'. I don't remember who said that famous line but it is the central theme of this film.
Movie Review: An Intelligent and Stylish Film That Goes Beyond Its Genre
Summary: 4 Stars
BOY CULTURE is a very fine little film and were it being evaluated solely within the confines of gay films, it would easily rate 5 stars. It is well written, well directed, well acted and has messages that cover a fairly broad territory (racism, homophobia, hustler life style, relationships, coming out tales and tales from the closet, etc). There are some technical flaws with the film and some unresolved character problems that prevent it from being what it comes close to being, but finally here is a gay themed film that is wise, entertaining, and user-friendly for a larger population than the community for which it was made.
The story is biographical in nature: "X" (Derek Magyar) is a male hustler who lives off the income from a limited clientèle of regulars, who occupies a living space with two gay roommates - Andrew (Darryl Stephens) and Joey (Jonathon Trent) - and who has what he thinks it takes to make him happy. The missing element is love, and in several ways he comes into proximity with that missing thread: his newest client is Gregory (Patrick Bauchau in a richly nuanced performance as a elderly closeted loner) who introduces X to the finer things in life, including introspection and looking for what is missing in his world. Andrew is a conflicted African American man who still misses the caring he had with a girlfriend whose wedding he is to attend. Joey has just turned 18 and looks to X and Andrew as father figures. The problem is that X and Andrew have deeper feelings of attraction and commitment to each other than either wants to admit, and the story (as narrated by X) is about how this mutual challenging need is resolved.
Q. Allan Brocka directed and co-wrote the film with Philip Pierce and the dialog is snappy at times and gently tender at others. The cast is quite fine: the young lads are top notch eye candy while bringing solid acting skills to their roles, and the older actors bring a since of resilience to the story that keeps it grounded in style. This is a very good little film that deserves a wider audience, one that needs to see this aspect of the population once considered merely peripheral. Movies like this help understanding interpersonal relationships, and everyone needs to address that. Grady Harp, August 07
Movie Review: Will You Find Culture?
Summary: 4 Stars
TLA offers the world many new GLBT movies each year. The challenges of making a good GLBT movie are: bringing something new to the table, getting the balance between sex and romance (if there really needs to be sex), and to have a story line that can grab anyone and pull them in.
Does this movie bring in anything new? I wouldn't say that this movie offers anything that you haven't seen before, at least theme wise. Male prostitutes looking for love and the tango of sexual yearning men are all things we have scene. BUT, this movie does offer a deeper side. The protagonist does have a decent emotional development throughout the movie and the way the other characters help him along turned out to be heart felt.
Balance? This movie has sexual themes. Of course it does, its main character is a highly selective male prostitute. They did not get carried away with it though. They offered enough sexual tension or display in the movie to help you understand and feel the situation better. Romance is highly present and I am personally happy that they made romance shine more than the sexual adventures the protagonist goes through.
Storyline? YES! though its not like a deep novel, you will find yourself caring for the main character and sub characters. You will generally seem to care and possibly be able to find a little bit of the characters inside yourself.
I recommend, especially as a GLBT movie. If you would like something more that oiled up bodies and heavy panting, this is the movie for you.
Movie Review: Well done flick
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm soooooo glad the movie did NOT give too much in the way of unnecessary gratuitous sex. The characters were perfectly believable and demonstrated caring in a simple honest way, demonstrating how relationships develop over time. The actors did a nice job. It's not an earth shattering movie, by any means, but it helps that the film showed a bit of diversity and some honesty with how it came off, even if it carried it a bit far with the homecoming scene in my opinion. If I were to say one thing bothered me (sticking with the diversity concept), it's not even a part of the actual film - it is with the director comments. Not sure why it happened, but I get the feeling I use to in West Hollywood where people of a darker hue are often ignored as if they don't exist. The director spoke about Patrick, Derek, and Johnathan and he left Darryl out. He may not have meant to, and Darryl may not care, but to others of us of darker hue out here in the viewing public - we do care and it's important that sort of oversight doesn't happen. I'll leave it there.....