Remarkable Shades of Gay

I don't know what the other rater smoked before watching this, but each film is different - yet they ALL have a similar component - Gay - but all have different shades of Gay.

1st one is about 2 straight guys who meet each other & give in to attraction & now they wonder (bisexuals).

2nd is about a dying man whose wife orders him a male escort. The escort give him a strip down & skin contact. The escort is probably straight & the man is most likely Bisexual, with a very understanding wife.

There's one about Roommates & the Athletic Closet & 1 who is pressuring the other to come out, or they are not having sex again.

There's one about friends who've been doing it on the Down Low & worried about their wives finding out There's 1 about a hot gay couple, with the hottest, most adorable son having girlfriend problems.

1 about a game of Truth or Dare with 2 very hot guys & their hot girlfriends 1 about a French boy toy leaving his girlfriend for his boyfriend, who falls for the girlfriend All different, & yet similar because of a Gay Component.

Gay filmmaker, William Branden Blinn, created nine unrelated stories about gay men, their fantasies, curiosities and such, as well as their connection to their hetero counterparts. Some of the stories are better than others. However, to this viewer, most are fantasies that have played out over and over in Blinn's mind. One in particular centers around a three way, where an older man brings home a younger gay ? Guy to share with his wife. In the process, the visitor, in his 20s, is 'heterosexualized' as he enjoys both husband and wife, in their 50s. Another similar story deals with a husband and wife trying bisexuality with the husband's secret lover. The subject of bisexuality is a common theme throughout this collection. As Carrie Bradshaw said in 'Sex and the City', bisexuality is a just a stopover to gay town. Personally, I'm not a big believer in it, especially among men. Having said this, I was mildly entertained by this film, but in the end (no pun intended), it was more a yawn fest than a triumph. I wish Mr Blinn had created a picture that was more LGBTQ+ affirming than this one is. He needs better fantasies.

The films were all a bit samey. The characters being portrayed seemed all to be at least upper middle class or wealthy. The younger actors, including the women, were uniformly good-looking with the men all being hunks any gay guy's eye would be drawn to. As it happens, this is not my type but I can understand and appreciate the aesthetics. Even the two older actors and one older actress who appeared in two of the films were clearly lookers in their youth.

Then the plots. They nearly all involved conversion of supposed straight guys into raving homos or alternatively guys not accepting that they are gay and remaining in the closet or at the least having sex with a guy after a clear lifetime of longing to do so.

I didn't find any of this particularly original or true to life. Sure, some guys have a bromance that turns sexual, but to have this theme running through a series of short films or that of a sudden revelation that they are gay, giving in to impulses long hidden is a bit repetitive.

Some of the plots are contrived. Who would write a Dear John, leave it for their partner to find and instead of leaving, wander off for a bath? Would a terminal cancer ward allow a rent boy to stay for a couple of hours without ever checking the patient? OK, these were devices to develop the stories, but I thought that they were clumsy.

The first film, which was the only one I had seen before, had virtually all of these themes - turning gay from straight, being closeted, non acceptance, goodlookers, posh hotel thus wealth.

I have just reread this and have reduced the mark from a five to a four. I really didn't feel this was saying anything to me despite my having lived some of the situations albeit in somewhat different ways.

I watched all the way through over a couple of sessions just expecting more or a hint of a difference. I didn't really get one. These were polished little vignettes but ultimately sterile.