Adapted for the screen and directed by Q. Allen Brocka, whose previous work
includes the made for television movies Camp Michael Jackson, Porno
Valley and the hugely popular film Eating Out, Boy Culture does
not live up to Brocka's previous work.
Revealed in sarcastic “confessional” voice-overs throughout the film, we
experience Boy Culture from the perspective of its main character, a
highly successful but emotionally cold, gay hustler who prefers to be known only
as “X”. X, who at 25 is “aging” as a hustler, now seeks something more
substantial in his love life.
The movie also includes X's extended gay “family,” his easy-going, randy
roommate Andrew (for whom X has the hots), as well as his other roommate,
teenage “chicken” Joey, who in a way functions as X's and Andrew's “son”
(though “houseboy” may be a more on-target term).
The threesome's daily routine seems to pretty much rotate from random sexual
escapades in their sex-den apartment, to workouts at the local gay gym, to
appearances at their local gay pick-up bar, and then back to random sexual
escapades in their apartment.
It is only when X starts hooking up with his mysterious new
older client, 80 year-old Gregory, that he begins to drop his emotional
defenses. Although the enigmatic Gregory pays X for each session, he refuses sex
with X until such a time comes when he's convinced their sexual desire is
entirely mutual. This unusual scenario catches X off-guard.
Until then, for his own hidden reasons, Gregory conducts what are basically
quasi-psychiatric therapist-patient sessions with the handsome hustler. Via a
kind of classic “transference”, X starts to find himself actually attracted
to his 80 year-old client/therapist. This situation becomes his training wheels
for being able to develop genuine romantic attraction for Andrew, the one X
really wants.
Are you still following? Yes, this film strains credulity, and in more ways
than one.
The problem lies in the film's script; in how the original
book has been adapted for the screen; and in the script's conception and
depiction of gay life. As writer/director Brocka acknowledged in a Q & A
session to the audience at the film's premiere in NYC on April 26, getting a
good, workable script out of the book was the single biggest difficulty in
making the film. It took many attempts, many re-writes, and lots of time.
Despite all of that effort, the final script still feels wrong.
Once the flash of all the handsome gay eye-candy and erotic appeal wears off,
the essential weakness in the film's script and message becomes apparent. As
adapted for the screen, it's not really about gay love, romance or
relationships. It's really just about gay sex.
Much of Boy Culture is spent showing guys
taking off their shirts, cruising each other, commenting on each others “size”
and/or sexual prowess, making out, laying on top of each other, etc. Even with
some minor side trips and subplots, the whole thing is little more than a big
gay tease.
The film's minimal amount of dialogue is often no more substantial in content
than what one typically hears in gay adult films. It's like the small talk in
between graphic sex scenes. In fact, if all of the many “love” scenes in Boy
Culture were instead explicit and graphic, the film would still seem
entirely at home with itself.
Potentially interesting dramatic situations do continually present
themselves, but no sooner do they appear than they quickly evaporate into
nothingness.
Young club-boy Joey OD's on drugs but simply falls asleep. X is the only
white guest at a black wedding, but it's never mentioned. Andrew comes out to
both his entire family and all his old acquaintances at his ex-fiancés' wedding
with absolutely no consequence except on-the-spot approval from all.
Every money issue that could possibly arise (all of the film's characters
have fabulously easy lifestyles) is immediately taken care of with injected plot
devices such as X's magical stock portfolio that pays for everything.
If this film were true to its basic “boy-meets-boy”, “boy-loses-boy”,
“boy-wins-boy” Hollywood roots, there would at least be some drama, some
tension, some conflict, some arguing, some something between X and
Andrew. Were this any other romance, someone would at least get slapped, run
away, cheat, anything. In this film, no one so much as slams a door.
Boy Culture does a number of
things well. It is well directed visually with fresh camera angles and clever
edits throughout. It has a playful comic sense of itself and quite a few
genuinely funny moments. It is a credit to all involved that Boy Culture came
together looking so good in just 18 days of shooting.
All the actors in the film do a top-notch job with the material they've been
given. From leads to extras, there's not a weak-link in the chain of acting
talent. One could say the performances (along with a certain erotic appeal)
carry this film.
Boy Culture's three, young, buff and gorgeous lead characters are
played by actors with mainly television experience.
“X”, played by Derek Magyar (Commander Kelby from Star Trek's Enterprise
and with appearances on Charmed, Boston Legal and JAG)
is superb. Simmering, understated and with just the right touch of mystery, his
character successfully conveys that inscrutable “straight-acting” quality
typical of so many gay hustlers.
“Joey” is played by relative newcomer Jonathan Trent (The Dawn
Patrol, The Secrets and Lies). Trent's creative and uninhibited approach to
the token “femme” and ditzy, hot-to-trot boy-toy role of Joey results in a
successful characterization that is both believable and eminently watchable.
Darryl Stephens plays “Andrew”, and might be familiar to viewers from his
lead role on Noah's Arc. Freed from the overly posed and self-conscious
acting style of TV, Stephens gets to chill-out and display more of his natural
appeal in the laid back character of Andrew.
The character of hustler X's 80-year old, wealthy client “Gregory” is
played by veteran television actor Patrick Bauchau. Bauchau's film credits
include roles in El Amor y La Ciudad, Vampires: The Turning, and
Panic Room. Through his intriguing screen presence and exceptionally
mellifluous speaking voice, Bauchau manages to make Gregory into a most charming
yet cryptic character.
Much of Boy Culture is backed by innocuous,
techno/disco/trance music of the kind found playing at 4 am in stereotypical gay
dance clubs. It seems the appropriate kind of unfelt, pumping background that
would appeal to the film's one-dimensional, one-track-mind characters and the
audience demographic that will identify most with its style.
Yet on the way out of the theater, this viewer couldn't help humming a
different tune, Peggy Lee's “Is That All There Is?”
Boy Culture had its US premiere this month at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival.
Get more info at the boy
culture official website
see also the Amazon gay DVD:
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