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October 15, 2003

PLGFF 2003 - Sexo: Boys' Shorts I

After Yossi & Jagger, I stayed for a collection of short films titled Sexo (also the name of one of the shorts). This was a definite mixed bag of films, mostly because many of them are "experimental", i.e. non-narrative. Sometimes this can work, but more often than not, it doesn't. One thing that was nice about it is that most were shown using digital video projection. There was some occasional pixelization, mainly in the first film, but overall it was bright and with good color.

Here's the individual reports:

DaMNaged
This is a film about an odd sort of relationship. A bit twisted if real, though I thought the filmmaker might be trying to visualize fantasies/visions the main character had of himself. But I think he was just having a sort of relationship with someone who reminded himself of his younger self. It was watchable, and I give it a 6.
Sexo
The collection's namesake film is one of the "experimental" ones that I thought worked well. It's a commentary about the hypocrisy around criticism of porn, and I thought it was funny, interesting, well done and an intriguing style. 8 out of 10...
How to Lose A guy
This was one of the experimental pieces that didn't work. It was random, semi-relevant images behind some text listing the steps while a narrator described them. Boring --- there wasn't anything particularly surprising out of the lot. 3 out of 10.
1000 Cumshots
Despite the attention getting title, this was another experimental piece that not only didn't work, it didn't even really deliver on its promise. There may have been 1000 cumshots in it, but if there were, they were about 1 frame long so you couldn't see them. I was expecting something artistic, like 1/2 second shots that would just have time to register the interesting random patterns the splatter makes in the air or on a body when it lands. I think that would have been actually interesting in a non-erotic way. Instead, it's a blur of images that go by so fast you can't really see anything and is pretty pointless. 2 out of 10.
Butch
In complete honesty, I don't remember a thing about this one. I probably would if someone jogged my memory, but the one-liner in the program simply says "A man in transition wonders what does it mean to be Butch?" and that doesn't jog it. I do seem to recall a moderately favorable impression, but have to give it a 5 (if it had been really bad, it would have stuck).
L.T.R.
This was one of the good ones, I'm happy to say. It's a mockumentary in the style of a reality show following a young couple's relationship and does a great job of poking fun at gay dating. It's pretty funny - 8 out of 10.
Precious Moments
This was good, but I'm not quite sure what the point of it was. Apparently based on a true event, this is a scandanavian film about a boy just short of his 16th birthday (apparently the age of consent there) answering a personal and meeting a 30 year old man in a hotel for sex and getting caught. It plays pretty much as a plain, unbiased reporting of the events, except I wasn't quite sure the boy didn't do it for the money because at the end they report that he got $5000 compensation from the man in court. But it diidn't look like that all through the film. I dunno. I do think it's silly to criminalize consensual acts on such an arbitrary boundary (the kid's not going to mature significantly in 2 months, give me a break), but there are good reasons to make the rules clear and well defined. Still, the film doesn't seem to be taking a stand on either age of consent or multigenerational sex, so I'm not sure what to make of it. 6 out of 10.
Judas Kiss
This is a semi-experimental piece that sorta works. Basically, a couple are in a bar, one goes to get beers and comes back to find the partner kissing someone else and we see some of the aftermath. The experimental part is that the soundtrack is a portion of an opera (Handel? Haydn? I forget now) that deals with infidelity. The opera wasn't the annoying screeching woman that I can't stand either. 6 out of 10.
Paradisco
The last film of the bunch was one of the good ones and I rather liked it. Waking up the next morning after bringing a younger trick home, rather than the trick leaving immediately, they talk. The older man tells the younger of his past, inviting him to be a part of his life. I particularly liked the stylistic way it was done, where they're walking around the apartment in the middle of a disco party from the past as he points out different people and talks about them. It worked quite well - 8 out of 10.

I think I'd have to give the program as a whole a 7 --- overall it probably wasn't that good, but the good ones were worth sitting through the bad ones for. Posted by abatie at October 15, 2003 02:04 AM

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