Boy Culture

There being only one other comment leads me to make my contribution. At no point could I see this film as being dark or depressing, unless of course once wished to 'make' any form of minority life negative in aspects. The premise is hardly romantic and uses a fact of gay behaviour: escorting and 'tricks'.I saw this film as part of the local Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and liked it very much. I believe one error is to make it factual or to align it to real life, as with most celluloid productions. I 'read' the metaphors in the film and saw perspectives that were either enhanced or exaggerated to make a story, e.g lifestyles. At the end of the day it's a romance almost. I won't go into more analysis as to do so starts to remove the simple enjoyment. Is ' Queer as folk" dark and depressing? Well it can be if one uses those elements to apply to the entire series. It only uses a premise to explore relationships and situations. I found it entertaining and enjoyable and wish it were available on DVD.

BOY CULTURE is a very fine little film and were it being evaluated solely within the confines of gay films, it would easily rate 10 stars. It is well written, well directed, well acted and has messages that cover a fairly broad territory (racism, homophobia, hustler life style, relationships, coming out tales and tales from the closet, etc). There are some technical flaws with the film and some unresolved character problems that prevent it from being what it comes close to being, but finally here is a gay themed film that is wise, entertaining, and user-friendly for a larger population than the community for which it was made.

The story is biographical in nature: "X" (Derek Magyar) is a male hustler who lives off the income from a limited clientèle of regulars, who occupies a living space with two gay roommates - Andrew (Darryl Stephens) and Joey (Jonathon Trent) - and who has what he thinks it takes to make him happy. The missing element is love, and in several ways he comes into proximity with that missing thread: his newest client is Gregory (Patrick Bauchau in a richly nuanced performance as a elderly closeted loner) who introduces X to the finer things in life, including introspection and looking for what is missing in his world. Andrew is a conflicted African American man who still misses the caring he had with a girlfriend whose wedding he is to attend. Joey has just turned 18 and looks to X and Andrew as father figures. The problem is that X and Andrew have deeper feelings of attraction and commitment to each other than either wants to admit, and the story (as narrated by X) is about how this mutual challenging need is resolved.

Q. Allan Brocka directed and co-wrote the film with Philip Pierce and the dialog is snappy at times and gently tender at others. The cast is quite fine: the young lads are top notch eye candy while bringing solid acting skills to their roles, and the older actors bring a since of resilience to the story that keeps it grounded in style. This is a very good little film that deserves a wider audience, one that needs to see this aspect of the population once considered merely peripheral. Movies like this help understanding interpersonal relationships, and everyone needs to address that. Grady Harp

I just came away from a screening of "Boy Culture" at the Seattle International Film Festival (where the director Q. Allan Brocka began his love of film), and thought "that was a very good gay film". The character acting was strong (especially the cameo part of Andrew's little sister "Cheyenne"). The audience all laughed throughout the film, which helped to ease the tension of some very powerful emotions. Derek Magyar pulled off the difficult job of being jaded and emotionally distant and yet a likable and charismatic character. "X" is part strong, silent, and manly and part Dorthy Parker with acidic observations. During the Q&A after the film, I found myself wanting to read more of the source material that Matthew Rettenmund has written in the original novel. IMDb doesn't give credits for Andrew's family but they really helped bring out his character more. While Darryl Stephens didn't have the same level of emotional non-verbal delivery that Magyar did, he was beautiful to watch and gave a strong performance. Jonathon Trent did a great job in the love triangle and made me think of the original "Queer as Folk" series.

As more or more gay themed movies are released, it seems that the percentage of bad films has risen dramatically. That is why it was such a joy to discover this smart, funny, and wise movie that I can recommend to my straight friends as much as to my gay friends.

"Boy Culture" is not a good gay movie, but a very good movie period. It sports a terrific cast of three-dimensional characters and it is hot and sexy to boot. I have not seen their previous work, but if this is an indication of their output, I look forward to seeing everything they've done.

Kudos to everyone involved!

BOY CULTURE looks like it might be trash, but it really is a treasure. The saga of a male prostitute dubbed X and his falling into love with his roomie. First off, the film looks terrific. This is a smart and classy movie. Second, the writing and performances are really quite good. Even the supporting cast is terrific - I only wish there were more time for them in the story. I loved the lesbian waitress and the entire family of the roomie. The story could have easily been trite and the dialogue cliché, but it neatly avoids that most of the time. It reminded me of an upscale episode of QUEER AS FOLK (before it devolved into soap opera hysterics). All in all, this is well worth a look see - gay or straight.