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After "revolutionizing" straight porn with "Puzzy Power" pics CONSTANCE and PINK PRISON, Lars Von Trier's Zentropa (operating for the occasion through a subdivision labeled Innocent Pictures) attempted to do the same for the gay end of the industry, with mixed results. Sort of a post-modern overview of homosexual iconography throughout the 20th century, it presents viewers with six vignettes of varying intensity, tied together by American writer-poet Ron Athey (an impressive one man collection of body art) who also supplies a brief solo scene while voicing his longing for a distant lover straight out of Jean Genet.

Influences include Greek mythology as represented in PINK NARCISSUS, Kristen Bjorn's ecological rain forest romps, S&M-tinged beat poetry, Tom of Finland's swaggering machos, David Hockney's swimming pools and Greek orgies. All of these scenes are shown against semi-abstract, video-generated backgrounds appropriate to the theme. This means that the film ends up having both a unifying style and a lack of visual variety. Save for Athey and bodybuilder Billy Herrington (a former Colt model and therefore already an icon in his own right), models are Scandinavian, unfamiliar to fans and, sadly, somewhat interchangeable as none of them are given voices. They simply strut their stuff to a thumping techno beat.

Director Knud Vesterskov, a Danish underground filmmaker (with titles like A MOTHERLY PEEPSHOW and URBAN DISSONANCE on his record) who previously helmed Zentropa's maiden porn effort CONSTANCE, keeps a cool distance throughout, scrutinizing his cast as bizarre anthropological artifacts rather than living and breathing human beings, making this perhaps more of a performance art installation for the jaded hipster crowd rather than a really hot gay porno flick. The initial fascination generated by this approach wears decidedly thin over a 95 minute running time. Predictably, only the American performers manage to break through these barriers that separate the audience from the spectacle. Herrington's exaggerated, pumped-up physique makes him the picture-perfect Master in an elaborate and relatively extreme domination sequence with two slender slaves (the movie's undisputed erotic highlight) and I'm sure we could all have done with a lot more of the amazing Athey whose deep, droning voice adds further authority to his already imposing appearance.

As it currently stands, HOTMEN COOLBOYZ is a movie best taken one segment at a time to avoid sensory overload or viewed with the bemused, pretentious posing of an art critic at an exhibition's opening night. Disregarding publicity hype to the contrary, this film is not on a par with truly groundbreaking gay pornographic films of the '70s when directors like Jack Deveau (LEFT-HANDED), Peter De Rome (DESTROYING ANGEL) and Fred Halsted (L.A. PLAYS ITSELF) explored and exposed a community they were part of. Vesterskov remains determinedly outside, looking in on a scene he gives little evidence of understanding.

If this 2000 film, produced by Lars v. Trier is porn, then a good portion of your "mainstream" films need to be reclassified. I only found this film in your base, after a thorough search. For the first time while voting for many a sex themed and gay themed film, I had to opt for "more titles" for "those wishing to see them." This revealed a porn section I did not even know existed, and is very interesting, definitely confirming your site once again as the best in its class.

However, firstly, this title is as "porn" as many movies seen in any alternative film festival in the past 7 or 8 years. Secondly, what's with the voting? When I first opened this title a week ago, to see your site's "view", to compare with the very positive view in the local conservative newspapers (which nevertheless revere anything with the v. Trier name), and the glossy attractive entry in the Mix Brazil catalog, I was shocked to see that all 18 votes were 1!

Now, how can this happen? I thought this site had some filtering system to avoid one or two people having 18 or 20 votes certified votes calculated. That two (even one) user can have 20 accounts, I don't doubt that. But I thought there was a control (by computer address or cookies) for this type of abuse.

Also, what sicko would vote a "1" 18 times for a so-called porno flick, and then not even submit a comment using one of his aliases? Has he no desire to justify it since he's spent his time voting 18 times for the same film. Well, if this is the case, this guy is sick anyhow. Go figure how his mind works.

The other (remote) hypothesis is that maybe there were 18 very dissatisfied users since this film is not a porn flick at all, again it is not even in the top 5 or 6 most graphic sex scenes in recent "serious" and "straight" festivals I've attended. And, it is GAY, possibly causing a backlash by straight porn addicts.

Anyway, DON'T be misled. I will not give this film a slanted review; I'll just state facts. This, though they may not be read after the initial 18 or 20 "one" ratings cause a potential viewer to rapidly close the page, especially after having to pass the "porn hurdle" and ask the site to upgrade your preferences to those of a "porn" viewer.

The film is a video, but shown theatrically at many festivals. Here alone, close to a dozen times, at a total of 3 large cities. It consists of 6 scenes, depicting 6 worlds, 6 desires. Lars v. Trier's prestigious production company presents a new world of male gods, or men as gods. These new male gods seek to redefine the ancient "sex gods" found in Greek mythology, Roman orgies, more recent bondage and domination legends, and so on.

SEE FOR YOURSELF WHAT YOU THINK OF IT! You're unlikely to find this title in a PORN SHOP, though you ARE likely to see it at a film festival with rigorous selection processes, as I happened to find it.