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So ... I was in the mood to watch one o' them there gayboyvids tonight. (No, no, no, not one of THOSE gayboyvids. There was no nekkid cavorting ... which, come to think of it, is really unusual. Oh, there was nekkid buttage here and there, and one -- and only one -- very brief full frontal, and that actually served a story purpose. So did the nekkid buttage, for that matter. Apparently, gayboy film has grown beyond gratuitous nudity. Whoda thunk? But I digress, already.)
Anyway. The one I rented was Boycrazy, a series of shorts from Wolfe Video. The collection is bracketed by two very different musicals: "Fairies", which became the feature Were the World Mine, and the titular "Boycrazy". Structurally, they're very different; "Fairies" is a bit more traditionally structured, while "Boycrazy" is very nearly through-sung. But this isn't a comment on those.
There are two other films in the middle besides the ones below: "Dish" and "Teddy". "Dish" involves some Hispanic teens in Los Angeles; everyone seems to be very very out and clear about their sexuality, which makes me wonder what high school in LA is like these days. Israel, one of the teens, is figuring out what he does and doesn't like -- at his age, sex sounds both terribly fascinating and thoroughly icky ("I'm not sticking it up someone's butt!"). "Teddy" is about leaving old things behind, shall we say. Despite the fact that "Teddy" is the best reviewed film of the ones in the collection, it honestly made almost no impression on me.
"Frequent traveler" is the tale of an airport security agent and a frequent traveler, as the title implies. And all I can say is, by the end of this very short (8 minutes) video, you're hoping that one of them gets the courage to talk to the other and ask for a more regular date. Not just because people like romances, but because this, as a method of not-getting-acquainted is truly kind of icky. This, by the by, is the film with the moment of frontal nudity. Apparently, when confronted with unexpected screening beeps, airport security agents will take you to another room and strip and cavity search you. Other security agents will stand behind one-way glass and ogle wistfully. So ... see what I mean about an icky way of not-dating?
"The Back Room" is not at all about what the title would imply to your average gay guy. It takes place in the back room at a used book store. That guy comes in, asking for a book on a particular artist. The clerk helps him with his request, and is clearly very attracted to the customer, who may or may not be somewhat oblivious -- it's a bit hard to tell. They're very different; the clerk is long and lean and clearly more educated than the customer, who is beefy and burly and has a hard time martialling the vocabulary to describe what he's looking for. It turns out that they've been to the same town in Italy, where the customer came across the work of this artist. They bond over the rembrances of this place, and you can see them growing closer, and it's really a lovely, very emotional scene. The clerk finally tells the customer the correct name of the artist he's looking for, and gets him the a book of the artist's work. (At which point, it should be blindingly obvious to the customer that the clerk has been deliberately keeping information from him for some reason -- the only way the clerk could have laid hands on that book when and how he does is if he'd known what to look for the whole time -- but it's not at all clear whether that guy gets it or not.)
And then ... things happen.
And honestly, I wish that film had been about 10, 15 minutes longer. It didn't need that, you understand; I just wanted it. I wanted to see the rest. To be sure, given where it ends up, what we see would have been followed by a bit more romance, which would have been followed by sex, which hopefully would have been followed by more romance. (What? ... What? Hey, I'm a sap, OK? I freely admit this! One of these days, I will write about my excursions through the land of Ravenous Romance. Some of which has gone well, and some of which ... really really hasn't. Stay away from some of the movie remakes is all I'm saying. But I digress. Again.)
Any road, said film may be viewed in its entirety at Logo, should you so desire.
Anyway. For no reason that I can explain, I wound up looking up the principal actors from the film. The lead actor, Greg Ivan Smith, the clerk, was also the director and not very hard to find at all. (My inner geek and former web designer wants to tell him to change the title attribute on that page, and to get rid of the scrolling text at the bottom that is very 90s, but is at least also relatively unobtrusive, as those things go. But I shall resist manfully, because to do otherwise would be kind of assholish. But I digress. AGAIN.) And it turns out that "The Back Room" is also a very personal story for him. (I now find myself intensely curious as to what his partner looks like, for no apparent reason.)
And then I looked up the other actor, Dan Sturges, whose character is actually credited as "That Guy". And ... well, you absolutely never know what you're going to find, do you? Seriously, that could not have been more unexpected. (No, it's not porn. Alas. Yes, it's entirely worksafe.)
Anyway, it was, as they say, an interesting way to spend an evening.
Anyway. The one I rented was Boycrazy, a series of shorts from Wolfe Video. The collection is bracketed by two very different musicals: "Fairies", which became the feature Were the World Mine, and the titular "Boycrazy". Structurally, they're very different; "Fairies" is a bit more traditionally structured, while "Boycrazy" is very nearly through-sung. But this isn't a comment on those.
There are two other films in the middle besides the ones below: "Dish" and "Teddy". "Dish" involves some Hispanic teens in Los Angeles; everyone seems to be very very out and clear about their sexuality, which makes me wonder what high school in LA is like these days. Israel, one of the teens, is figuring out what he does and doesn't like -- at his age, sex sounds both terribly fascinating and thoroughly icky ("I'm not sticking it up someone's butt!"). "Teddy" is about leaving old things behind, shall we say. Despite the fact that "Teddy" is the best reviewed film of the ones in the collection, it honestly made almost no impression on me.
"Frequent traveler" is the tale of an airport security agent and a frequent traveler, as the title implies. And all I can say is, by the end of this very short (8 minutes) video, you're hoping that one of them gets the courage to talk to the other and ask for a more regular date. Not just because people like romances, but because this, as a method of not-getting-acquainted is truly kind of icky. This, by the by, is the film with the moment of frontal nudity. Apparently, when confronted with unexpected screening beeps, airport security agents will take you to another room and strip and cavity search you. Other security agents will stand behind one-way glass and ogle wistfully. So ... see what I mean about an icky way of not-dating?
"The Back Room" is not at all about what the title would imply to your average gay guy. It takes place in the back room at a used book store. That guy comes in, asking for a book on a particular artist. The clerk helps him with his request, and is clearly very attracted to the customer, who may or may not be somewhat oblivious -- it's a bit hard to tell. They're very different; the clerk is long and lean and clearly more educated than the customer, who is beefy and burly and has a hard time martialling the vocabulary to describe what he's looking for. It turns out that they've been to the same town in Italy, where the customer came across the work of this artist. They bond over the rembrances of this place, and you can see them growing closer, and it's really a lovely, very emotional scene. The clerk finally tells the customer the correct name of the artist he's looking for, and gets him the a book of the artist's work. (At which point, it should be blindingly obvious to the customer that the clerk has been deliberately keeping information from him for some reason -- the only way the clerk could have laid hands on that book when and how he does is if he'd known what to look for the whole time -- but it's not at all clear whether that guy gets it or not.)
And then ... things happen.
And honestly, I wish that film had been about 10, 15 minutes longer. It didn't need that, you understand; I just wanted it. I wanted to see the rest. To be sure, given where it ends up, what we see would have been followed by a bit more romance, which would have been followed by sex, which hopefully would have been followed by more romance. (What? ... What? Hey, I'm a sap, OK? I freely admit this! One of these days, I will write about my excursions through the land of Ravenous Romance. Some of which has gone well, and some of which ... really really hasn't. Stay away from some of the movie remakes is all I'm saying. But I digress. Again.)
Any road, said film may be viewed in its entirety at Logo, should you so desire.
Anyway. For no reason that I can explain, I wound up looking up the principal actors from the film. The lead actor, Greg Ivan Smith, the clerk, was also the director and not very hard to find at all. (My inner geek and former web designer wants to tell him to change the title attribute on that page, and to get rid of the scrolling text at the bottom that is very 90s, but is at least also relatively unobtrusive, as those things go. But I shall resist manfully, because to do otherwise would be kind of assholish. But I digress. AGAIN.) And it turns out that "The Back Room" is also a very personal story for him. (I now find myself intensely curious as to what his partner looks like, for no apparent reason.)
And then I looked up the other actor, Dan Sturges, whose character is actually credited as "That Guy". And ... well, you absolutely never know what you're going to find, do you? Seriously, that could not have been more unexpected. (No, it's not porn. Alas. Yes, it's entirely worksafe.)
Anyway, it was, as they say, an interesting way to spend an evening.