D'Agostino

Writer/director Jorge Ameer continues to make fascinating little films that dare to go where few others even contemplate. Asked to review the Unedited Proof of a film is both exciting and frustrating: exciting because the viewer gets to see all the ideas in their various forms before being edited into a final product, frustrating because the film comes in bit and pieces that dilutes the impact of the story. But there is enough here to see that once finished this strange, somewhat macabre story should have appeal with audiences.

Allan Dawson (Keith Roenke) is in a seemingly flatline relationship with live-n girlfriend Sylvia (Torie Tyson, better known for her singing than her acting skills): something is missing (other than the apparent age mismatch between the young Roenke and the more mature Tyson), a fact that becomes apparent when Allan is notified that his grandmother has bequeathed him land on the Greek Island of Santorini. Allan departs to investigate the surprise, thinking he will immediately sell the property to better his financial status. But once he arrives in Santorini he is mesmerized by the beauty of the island and is introduced to the inherited home by an agent Niko (Jorge Ameer). As Allan settles in he hears strange sounds and discovers they come form a locked closet containing a human clone - filthy and whimpering. The naked male is named D'Agostino (Michael Angels): apparently heading on a transatlantic voyage at sea from an Italian lab to America, D'Agostino is a human clone left for dead at the shores of Santorini. This lost cargo, commissioned by wealthy individuals for organ transplants, is abandoned as the freight cannot be recovered.

Allan cleans the clone, feeds him, keeps him on a leash like a pet animal, an slowly becomes attached to D'Agostino. When D'Agostino goes missing Allan is frantic and searches for his lost treasure along the shores of the island - the place where the lost D'Agostino sits in reverie. Through a series of dream sequences we watch as Sylvia becomes less important and D'Agostino becomes the extension of Allan he has always longed to discover. There is a surprise ending the will take the audience off guard and Jorge Ameer handles this neo- science fiction ending very well.

As is usually the case with Ameer's films, the visuals are of utmost importance. Here cinematographer Zach Voytas captures the flora and fauna and the generally breathtaking beauty of Santorini to great effect. The musical score, the reason for this release of a memento of the film, is a mixed bag, too often covering the dialogue of the film, but the ingredients are there and hold great promise. It is bizarre, challenging, and in line with Jorge Ameer's fresh take on cinema.

Grady Harp

I saw this film in New York City last November and was impressed and the beautiful scenes from Santorini. The story was very dark and disturbing. Allan Dawson (Keith Roenke) is a top executive, rich beyond avarice with a beautiful lover named Sylvia (Torie Tyson). With wealth and power. Outwardly you would think that he'd be one happy man, but he finds none of it to be satisfying. Bored and detached. The opportunity to get away from it all comes quite unexpectedly when his grandmother passes and he is left with a small island estate in picturesque Greece. With the pretense of heading off to investigate his inheritance — leaving Sylvia behind (he's got to figure out a way to get out of that relationship) — he packs up and jets off to his hoped- to-be island paradise (filmed in around Santorini).The path that the filmmaker takes us down is totally unexpected. Once Allan arrives at the estate, he discovers a naked, perhaps even feral man cowering in a locked room. It is a mystery how he got there, but it is D'Agostino (Michael Angels) of the film's title The film get dark and very weird from there.

Don't want to give away too much, but all I have to say is that you must see this to believe it. I personally loved it. its intriguing and fresh. Its has a horror sci fi ending that is very satistfying. recommended.

The films of Jorge Ameer always entertain. They're not always good, but they always entertain. His early feature THE SINGING FOREST (2003)was notable for a reincarnation plot involving Nazi concentration camp victims, featuring well-fed prisoners and very uneven, hand-drawn Swastikas on armbands. In the supernatural drama THE HOUSE OF ADAM (2006), the characters freak out if a front door unexpectedly swings open but remain calm and collected when encountering a man tied to a chair for torture.

In D'AGOSTINO, Ameer raises the bar very high. Dissatisfied American yuppie Allan Dawson (Keith Roenke) lives with his fiancé Sylvia (Torie Tyson) in London. She is quite a bit older than he, which may explain his sudden outburst heard at the film's beginning – "What do fat and ugly people think they look like?" Things are mundane and boring until Sylvia says, "Your grandmother left you some property." Did his grandmother die? She doesn't say. "Your grandmother left you some property in Greece." So Allan jets over to Greece. The "property" is a very nice candle-lit apartment. Allan takes some time to sight-see, and then returns to the apartment that night. Looking behind a heavy oaken door, Alan discovers a disgusting human male (Michael Angels) covered in feces tied up in a tiled room. Slamming the door behind him, Allan takes a hot shower … goes back to sleep … wakes up the next day … does some more sight-seeing … has some lunch … Yes, none of it makes any sense, but perhaps it's not supposed to. Allan doesn't TELL anyone about the horror lurking in his apartment, in what amounts to a twisted agenda. Later that night, Allan showers his new-found friend off, notes a dog collar that lists his name as D'Agostino and checks his trusty laptop. "I see that you're a secret clone bred for organ harvesting," the smug Allan says – as if this would be posted online – from a dog tag that has no URL address. The barking, yelping D'Agostino has the mentality of a newborn baby trapped in the body of a young man, and Allan seizes the opportunity to put him on a leash and teach him a few, uh, "tricks." It's exactly what you think it is.

Very little, other than nonstop mental and sexual degradation of the title character continues for the rest of D'AGOSTINO's two-plus hour running time. Other than a pushy landlord (played by director Ameer himself) seems to interrupt the two mens' sadistic idyll. The viewer continues to watch the film as if to ask themselves, "why am I watching this?" Why ineptly told, D'AGOSTINO hammers home a classic fable of all the horrible things that happen when a human being considers another human being as being less than such.

It falls apart at the end when D'Agostino symbolically eats from "the tree of knowledge," i.e. Allan's laptop for an ending straight out of an EC horror comic book. Allan gets his comeuppance, but its not what the ending COULD have been.

D'AGOSTINO calls to mind such favorites as SALO: 120 DAYS OF SODOM (1975). It also recalls, with its minimal cast, single setting, Greek locale and sadomasochistic games the cult favorite SINGAPORE SLING (1991) and art house favorite DOGTOOTH (2009). In either case, D'AGOSTINO is the rare kind of movie that I wholeheartedly recommend to everyone – knowing full well that lots of them will ABSOLUTELY hate it. See it – it's not a good film, but remains a highly unique viewing experience.

I struggled to even give this move a 4. The basic story is intriguing, thought provoking and interesting, I will grant you that. But the movie was so poorly done!! the plot was completely disjointed as was the acting. Endless (it seemed) dead scenes of sites around Santorini etc. beautiful as it must be. The main character finds a filthy naked man in his grandmother's apartment. After the initial shock and shower then just goes back to bed and sleep. Like seriously? He easily finds out the origin of the naked man on the internet???? what on Google? He then just treats the man like a pet dog He doesn't seem to be the least bit concerned as to how diago got there behind the locked oak door. The whole move movie as it 'developed' was too bizarre. I have to say I was disappointed. The plot and story premise had such potential. the whole social, ethical question around human cloning, owning another human as a pet, the issue of cruelty/sadism but I think it failed.

The "gay interest" movie genre basically falls into two sub- categories.

On the one hand, there are movies which altogether lack any pretence of artistic merit: they are badly acted, badly staged, badly costumed, and badly filmed, with a screen-play completely devoid of any literary quality. Their only redeeming feature is that they usually have a cast of hot young men, who show plenty of flesh.

On the other hand, there are the "art house" gay movies, which absolutely reek of production values. These tend either to be cast with older, fatter, and/or uglier actors; or, if a pretty boy finds his way on to the set, he resolutely keeps his pants on.

D'Agostino is a rare exception to this dichotomy. The two stars – Michael Gordon Andricopoulos (aka Michael Angels) and Keith Roenke – are both exceptionally handsome: indeed, more handsome, in my humble opinion, than the smooth-skinned and pumped twinkie-boys who populate most of the gay soft-core porn movies.

And there is no shortage of flesh on show. Andricopoulos/Angels is naked in virtually every scene in which he appears. Whilst Roenke keeps his clothes on for much of the film, he obviously has no inhibitions about shedding them when the script calls for him to do so. There is only limited overt sexual interaction between these stars, but the entire plot throbs with implicit homoeroticism.

The acting, costuming, sets and cinematography are all first-rate. But what is most surprising is that this movie has a plot which is as competently crafted as it is intriguing. It is one of the few "gay interest" movies which I would bother with just for the story. Perhaps the plot-line is not entirely original, as it could be described as a gay version of the ancient story of Pygmalion and Galatea, from Ovid's narrative poem Metamorphoses, in which a sculptor falls in love with a statue which he has carved. But even that derivative theme is handled with startling originality.

Allan Dawson (Keith Roenke) is a city-based business executive, in a loveless de facto relationship with an older woman. He has recently inherited his grandmother's estate on the Greek island of Santorini, and takes the opportunity to abandon both his professional and his domestic complications by relocating to this island paradise.

Meanwhile, D'Agostino (Andricopoulos/Angels) was washed up on the shore of Santorini and taken refuge in Dawson's recently-acquired property. D'Agostino, it emerges, is the result of a cloning experiment, commissioned by men of wealth solely for the purpose of harvesting organs for transplantation. Lost overboard in a maritime accident en route from Europe to the United States, he has been left for dead.

When Dawson first discovers D'Agostino, he is apparently bereft of human qualities. Locked in a cupboard and covered in his own excrement, D'Agostino walks on all fours like a dog, and seems incapable of rational thought or intelligent communication. But the relationship between Dawson and D'Agostino gradually mutates, from that of master and hound (or master and slave), to one of mutual support and affection. I will not spoil the final twist, but it is quite unexpected.

Movies this good do not come along very often. It should be savoured.