4 Short Films About Male-Male Coupling (or Not) "Boys Life: Four Play" (2003)

The fourth in a series of compilation of gay-related short movies "Boys Life" (2003) is comprised of four short films (which collectively run only 83 minutes) that ask the same question about Anglo youths: "Will they become a couple?"

Well the first one, Phillip J. Bartell's "LTR" begins with a pair (aged 18 and 20, played by Cole Williams and Weston Mueller) who are convinced they have found their one-and-only (life partner). Having been together all of two weeks (already a long-term in their youthful imaginings), they consent to have their union documented. The filmmaker does not share his doubts about the strength and durability of their bond with them. When things begin to unravel (the incompatibility of the love-birds is obvious early on to me, and I suspect to most viewers), the lads get angry with their videographer, which is also predictable. The movie is a not unamusing mockumentary (mocking documentary-making as much as mocking the romantic fantasies of the young males). BTW Bartell edited "Save Me," Boy Culture" and "Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom" and provides the off-camera voice of the documentary maker here.

The longest of the four, "O Beautiful," written and directed by Alan Brown, author of Audrey Hepburn's Neck, writer-director of "Book of Love," does include a wince-inducingly bad rendition of "America the Beautiful." There is much more for the two characters, each of whom has half the screen in split-screen shots, to wince about. One, Brad, played by Jay Gillespie, has just been fagbashed and sodomized with a stick and left naked below the waist, shivering in a harvested cornfield. The other, Andy, played by David Clayton Rogers, the president of the local Athletes for Christ, has his failure to stop the assault by his teammates on his consciousness, and a fascination (approach/avoidance) with homosexuality in general and the victim's in particular. The bashed one gives the guilt-ridden Christian no slack, which is understandable: violence does not generally stimulate nobleness.

The screen is bifurcated again in Eric Muller's "This Car Up" in which we see a pierced and tattooed bike messenger and what he is thinking, and a young executive and what he is thinking. They are attracted to each other, but their minds literally whirl in the top half of the screen, where we see what they are thinking. It's blatantly "experimental" and more than a little coy, but I have to like it being shot in Minneapolis summer.

"Bumping Heads" struck me as filler, with one not especially interesting or likable gay man Craig (Craig Chester, Adam of "Adam and Steve") frustrated that another not very interesting or likable younger gay man Gary (Andersen Gabrych, Tyler in "Another Gay Movie/Sequel") is not in love with him. Who cares? Gary does not seem worth much effort and less anguish about not turning from friend into boyfriend IMO. The "bumping heads" is not only literal, but repeated in a sitcom relationship directed by Brian Sloane, whose "Pool Days" was a highlight of the first "Boys Life" and who also directed the mildly amusing "I Think I Do" 1997).

There's also a music video by Ari Gold, paying homage to the homoerotic still photographs of Herb Ritts, and commentary tracks by each director.

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This is another American entry in my June AC foray into gay-themed books and movies. The risks of being thought to be different for high-school boys is front and center in "O Beautiful." The rest take place in environments less hostile to men who love men (or think they love a particular one" in "LTR").