Lucky Bastard
Rusty lives in a motel. He restores houses. While his boyfriend Daniel is away on business, he meets Denny in a convenience store. After they have wild lustful sex in the storeroom they go back to Rusty's motel. A lot of 'f***ed up s***' has happened to Denny. He was in porn movies, he is HIV positive and he's addicted to crystal meth. He asks Rusty for a hundred bucks.
Rusty refuses to give the money. He likes Denny too much. It's the first time in his life that he is not thinking about restoring houses. Denny opens his heart. Rusty gives him 200 dollars. Denny has to suck the drug dealer's dick to get the crystal meth. Back at the motel Denny steals money from Rusty, phones his drug dealer again and buys more drugs ('maybe we'll do the blowjob thing next time okay'). Rusty hears the conversation. The next morning, he leaves the drugged up Denny in the motel. Daniel returns from his business trip. The motel's been turned into a drug den.
Rusty declares his love when he returns. Denny gets angry ('you don't love me! Look at you. You've got money, you've got friends, you've probably got a boyfriend to go back to once I'm gone'). Rusty then tells Denny 'It's just not working out'. He drives Denny to Echo Park. As he drives off Rusty stops his car and looks through the rear-view mirror. When Daniel returns he tells Rusty that he saw his naked drug friend. Rusty tries to explain. Daniel is willing to give him a second chance. They kiss. While lying in bed they discuss moving out of the motel to find a house. As Rusty drifts off to sleep, the last image in his head is of Denny in the rear-view mirror…
Disc: The picture is clear, the sound is good and the subtitles are in yellow.
Special Features: There are 23-mintues of deleted scenes, which explore the back-story and there is an insightful commentary by director Everett Lewis and cinematographer Linda J. Brown. Lewis delves into the psychology of the characters, discusses their personality and what effect they have on other people. Brown discusses the lighting progression from light to dark. If you want to make movies, their knowledge is illuminating.
Verdict: Do you have to be gay to enjoy a movie about gay romance? Make up your own mind.
Your Opinions and Comments
However, I think the director Everett Lewis was trying to say something (I could be wrong). With the relationship being contrived he presented them in contrived situations etc. He seems like an intelligent guy on the commentary track. I want to watch a film he did called An Ambush of Ghosts with David Arquette, Stephen Dorff and Anne Heche.
It would be a good poll question: Do you have to be gay to enjoy a gay movie? I'm glad I'm not the only one who can watch 'gay interest movies' without it detracting from the story (just think of all the classic movies and books that deal with it). I have no qualms with watching men kissing or having sex on screen. With being comfortable with my own sexuality, I don't feel it infringes on my orientation. If it got a huge response of disgust and it offended me I would think 'why did it evoke such a powerful response?' and would probably uncover a repressed desire or something (lol).
It'll be good to watch A Single Man - I've heard of the film but never realised it was based on a book.