Bag Boy Lover Boy

Bag Boy Lover Boy is... different, and fairly unique. I like different. I like to be surprised. Much of this lies in exactly how much of an oddball the lead character, Albert (Jon Wachter) is, but the story, situations, actions, and colorful cast veer the whole movie into a different and intriguing territory. Always a plus when something unique has a clear narrative (anyone can do a surreal, self-indulgent art flick). This definitely qualifies as a dark comedy with horror elements, if you're into that sort of thing.

Albert works at a hot dog stand in New York City, but dreams of being a photographer. He is "discovered" by a pompous art snob named Ivan (Theodore Bouloukos), who offers him a modeling gig, strictly to exploit Albert's freakish persona. Albert accepts the gig, hoping to learn the ropes of photography from Ivan. These photo sessions are, I dunno how to put this, eccentric? Ivan gives Albert a Polaroid, then promptly splits for a job in Italy, so Albert starts to... explore. And his sessions, with prostitutes, drunks, a flirtatious friend, get even more bizarre... and deadly.

Seems like Albert's freakish charm is a hit with the ladies, only he wants absolutely nothing to do with them (seemingly happy to just masturbate to dirty photos). No, he has taken his inspiration from one of Ivan's sessions, in which he really lives up to the moniker "bag boy."

I can really only fault this movie with its brevity (77 minutes). I don't know if a low budget factored into this (the movie looks great, anyway), but I felt a lot of avenues went unexplored, or could have been explored further, characters more fleshed out. Certainly, more screen time from this cast of characters would not be unwelcome. The ending is abrupt, but I did really enjoy the ensuing resolution. I'd love to see a sequel, but, well, that ain't happening.

Another one of my pun summary lines - and another one that is sort of fitting I might add. Now before we go on, you have to ask yourself one thing: do you care for low budget horror movies? Do you like watching them, for whatever purposes (tingling feelings while being safe, escapism or any other reason)? If so, and you generally watch horror movies, you may want to give this a try.

Apart from the horror (violence/effects), you also have a fair amount of nudity in this. Actually there is a shot of a vagina at some point - which you may feel is unnecessary. Apart from maybe shocking some of the audience members. And that is what the movie sets out to do. More or less it does succeed. It is looking very good when it comes to the video quality, the framing and the editing is also well done.

Acting wise you may feel it has some flaws. That is a fair assessment. But you normally do not watch these for that particular reason. The story holds up to scrutiny overall. I have seen better executed (another pun) and well done (thematical) movies than this one - so this is only for the hardcore fans. But for the budget it had, it is decent.

"The Demon Butcher of Meat Street." Oddball Albert works evenings as a hot dog vendor but you wouldn't want to purchase anything from him. Dropped sausages are put back on the grill and dirty Albert picks his nose and even masturbates behind the counter! When he needs to excuse himself to go to the bathroom he just pees behind the stall. A sleazy photographer offers him work posing as an unusual model for adult content. When Albert is given a Polaroid camera he embarks on his own photography, several women end up dying for his art! Jon Wachter gives one of those love it or hate performances as Albert, either way it is very memorable. New York City may have cleaned up over the years but this movie is great viewing for lovers of Grindhouse - raw, dark and depraved but also funny in a twisted way. Expect very strong language, violence and nudity which includes a close up of a shaven vagina. Taking into account an obvious low budget, a cast of unknowns and a directional debut the end result is impressive, most definitely not movie for your average Joe but if exploitation cinema is your thing then I highly recommend you BAG yourself a copy, 'cos BOY you might LOVE(r) it!

Don't just vote for Pedro, vote out this dark and disgusting cousin of Napoleon.

What an odd little "movie." Probably more of an experiment or a lost bet from drunk buddies, this comedy-horror is so out there, you feel more uncomfortable than entertained. And, even more strangely, this does have a plot and straight line from beginning to end.

An absolutely repulsive (inside and out) NYC hot dog vendor undeservedly gets his big break into modelling and is pushed too far from those using him. Way too far.

Not really to be taken seriously, as this is supposed to be a comedy, our never-hero ventures into the dark side while trying to, ah-hem, model himself after his sadistic mentor. Things don't go well.

Admittedly, I did laugh a couple of times, namely with said boss/mentor. He did steal every scene he was in and that's totally a good thing because the actual lead actor was not pretty to look at. Yeah, that was the point, but once you see how gross he is on the inside, his exterior becomes even more repulsive.

Not really recommended as I don't see anything of mention here. It was, again, an uncomfortable experiment and the few laughs were not worth the measly 77 minutes. Plus, about half-way through, they tried, unsuccessfully, different horror subgenres that made no sense/connection to any of the motivations in addition to somewhat ripping off the movie: Maniac.

See this hot dog man? Catch the next vendor.

***

Final thoughts: I *knew* there was a reason I hated hot dogs!

I watched this film expecting it to be a cheapo indie slasher film, but I was exceptionally impressed by the production values and especially by the perfomance of Theodore Bouloukos as Ivan, the sleazy career-minded photographer, Theodore played the role brilliantly, giving a performance that put me in mind of a sort of mixture between Stanley Tucci's Jack Warner in FX's "Feud: Bette & Joan" and William Petersen's Gil Grissom from "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation". The overall story of "Bag Boy Lover Boy" is an urban drama-cum-thriller in the vein of Michael Powell's classic film "Peeping Tom", presenting us with the tragically lonesome character Albert (played beautofully by Jon Wachter), wanting to further his creative prospects as a studio photographer, but with a kinky sort of death-fetish tie-in. Andres Torres certainly pulled out all the stops with this movie and I will be eagerly looking out for any of his future titles, especialy if they are as good as "Bag Boy Lover Boy".