Sex Is...

Annoying and amateurish. A bunch of randomly selected (?) gay men spew (with a couple of exceptions) mostly un-insightful observations about their sex lives. The attitudes are mostly homogenous and add little to a dialogue re: gay male sexuality, unless one finds the experience of listening to a bunch of guys go on...and on...and on....and on...about their experiences terribly entertaining. What's lacking is a variety of attitudes and a sense of dimensionality to the range of experiences presented here. For the most part the words could have come out of the mouth of one person and the viewer wouldn't notice anything missing. The usual tired avenues...S/M, cruising, hustling, etc. etc. etc. are re-hashed for the non-edification of the viewer. The strongest reaction it got out of me was a desire to throw my shoe at the screen. Sex Is? So What? Tell me something I don't know or don't realize!!! Isn't that the point of a "documentary"!?!?!?

I caught this at a small art cinema back in 1993. Basically it's interviews with different gay men about sex, love and relationships. Occasionally throughout we get clips of grainy gay porn. This was before "Will & Grace" or "Queer As Folk" made gay relationships and sex more open. The men interviewed hold nothing back. The language and sexual talk is pretty frank. Back then I found it fascinating. Seen now, 15 years later, I STILL like it but the shock value and ground-breaking feel of it are gone. Some of this language can be heard on daytime TV! Still it is an interesting documentary that tries to cover all aspects of gay sex and love. There's no way that can be done in 82 minutes but they do try. So, I think this would be interesting for gay men to watch as a period piece. Straight audiences probably won't be too interested. I give it a 7.

This documentary covers the whole fascinating spectrum of what sex means in gay society. It covers the issues of race, religion, monogamy/promiscuity, love, friendship, community, gender identity, coming out, coming of age, coming...(!) and by showing the dichotomies of different stories, it weaves a whole patchwork of the makings of a community from the personal to the political. All the commentary is interesting because as diverse as it is, each commentator is telling us about some piece of ourselves. By including people of all ages, it tells us something of our history (something which the current generation is commonly interested in forgetting). History of the past and history in the making. It's also damn sexy!