a short road movie about life and finding your place in it
Venturing into a gay bar for the second time in his student life, vulnerable Will finds himself the object of attention from the over confident hunk behind the bar; a young man named Eli who promptly invites Will to a party held along the breathtaking Bonneville Salt Flats of Utah. Only Eli is not all he appears to be. For a start - he’s straight, prone to hustling and the son of the boss.
Or is he? Given the only fact that’s certain is that Eli’s got a-liking for playing with fire, mooning to a couple of queer bashers driving a truck in the back lane and delighting in almost outing Will to his friends outside an all-day diner by pretending to be his boyfriend. Yet the real Eli is a lot more complicated, as Will is set to discover when the two set off for a drive together - road movie style.
For that’s in essence what we have here, namely a short road movie, or to be more precise the product of the requirements for a University Film Degree. Not that the remit detracts from the narrative. For punctuated by way of bar and diner interiors, the interplay between Art Gager as street wise Eli and George Loomis as the new gay boy in town enhances a vibrant, if somewhat unnerving scenario, in particular when the truck scene is all too reminiscent of a dark October night in Laramie.
Only into the mix of two lost souls, director Sam McConnell has added some meat on his cinematic bone, with Eli in particular having to face the painful reality of being both mother and father less within a matter of hours. Yet perhaps more disturbing is the nature of Wills’ mentality, seemingly only too happy to drive along a deserted road in the middle of the night with a total stranger; one who quips "nobody would hear your screams."
Aided by the lush photography of cinematographer Jarin Blaschke, together with some striking attention to the light, shade and colour of the piece, Twoyoungmen, UT like most road movies is a film about life and if anything, finding your place in it. That Eli’s life is but a web of lies, prompts the question of whether he was really telling the truth when he said he’s straight, given and like many a gay short, it ends just when the relationship between the pair was starting to get interesting. Such is life.
available on DVD as part of the Peccadillo Pictures catalogue - 'Boys On Film 5: Candy Boy' release 25.10.2010
starring: Art Gager, George Loomis, Brant Kaiwi, David F Browning, Jim Rose, Derek Nicholas, Edward Hunt,
Leslie Murphy, Frank Meli, Jordan Klumper, Timmy Sasser, Christopher Totten, Dmitry Panin
Venturing into a gay bar for the second time in his student life, vulnerable Will finds himself the object of attention from the over confident hunk behind the bar; a young man named Eli who promptly invites Will to a party held along the breathtaking Bonneville Salt Flats of Utah. Only Eli is not all he appears to be. For a start - he’s straight, prone to hustling and the son of the boss.
Only into the mix of two lost souls, director Sam McConnell has added some meat on his cinematic bone, with Eli in particular having to face the painful reality of being both mother and father less within a matter of hours. Yet perhaps more disturbing is the nature of Wills’ mentality, seemingly only too happy to drive along a deserted road in the middle of the night with a total stranger; one who quips "nobody would hear your screams."
