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This film looks at the way gay men relate to sex, romance and each other. You get to see a wide range of gay male relationships, from the one night stand who comes back to haunt you, to the fuck parties to the blossoming relationships to the long term relationships struggling to stay afloat after the initial magic has long worn off.

Although this film liberally plays with stereotypes, the characters are deep and complex enough (some of them - just like real life) to make you believe that these are or could be real people. There is a bit of the campy cartoon element, which is hardly avoidable when dealing with a subculture that has used camp as a way to express and define themselves in recent history, but its an honest look at gay men's lives and the issues they face when dealing with love, sex and romance, so I give it a point. Art only mirrors life. Evidently, much living is in order. There are some refreshingly enlightened discussions in this movie that takes a frank look at gay men and their conflicting desires between image and substance while they try to find their place and worth in a marginalized subculture. This film broadens its scope and perhaps uses as a way to contrast the main plot with a subplot of a straight woman who is also looking for love and can't find happiness.

The movie culminates in an emotional scene that leaves the viewer without an elegant resolution. This is when the point of the movie is driven home.
People walked out this movie stunned into silence because gay men see themselves, their attitudes and their prejudices so clearly. This film is a scathing indictment on what passes for a "lifestyle" in the queer world. Although this movie is a gay film I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in stories that involve significant character development.

There is one notable stylistic element. The director uses the protagonist as narrator throughout the film by periodically cutting to a black and white film of the protagonists in a chair,alone, with his thoughts, which acts as an effective frame for the Hamlet-esque internal drama (or in the parlance of a drama queen "trauma"). Except that Hamlet had a reason to be pissed off and paranoid. There is no hero. It's more like a trial, and the audience sits as jury.

Revealing and sometimes depressing look at the cost of shallowness in a gay man's life. Several types of relationships in different stages are explored but serve mostly to highlight the difference between someone who thinks they are "perfect" and their less than fulfilling life.

link directly to this review at https://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=1271&reviewer=67
originally posted: 02/22/99 19:59:47
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