May 24th INSIDEOUT Day 6

http://www.insideout.ca/21/schedule/index.php Daily Movie Schedule

5pm INTERNATIONAL MALE (shorts program)

Seven shorts dealing with gay men around the world, their lives and their interactions.
It was mentioned at an earlier screening that this year around 600 short movies were submitted to Insideout. The question then is why is one from a previous screening repeated in this screening? Not even a short that was so fantastic it deserve to be seen twice. The only two that stand out in this program were CAKES AND SAND, a German short about two men and their realization of what their relationship has come to, and TRIPLE STANDARD about two American men and the direction their "relationship" has been taking. Although I could have done without the director saying before the film that he dumped his friend the movie was written for to showcase some guy he found "intriguing". In other words he thought he was hot.

7pm GUN HILL ROAD

This is definitely the second pleasant surprise of the festival. The first being TOGETHER (ZAI YI QI). GUN HILL ROAD is about a Puerto Rican man coming back home after being in prison for three years. He has to deal with what happened to him in prison as well as what is happening now to his gay son. The movie is well written with realism and no sugar coating of issues and feelings. Very emotional and highly entertaining movie. Well done!

9 30pm WEEKEND The Centrepiece Gala for the festival.

Personally I think GUN HILL ROAD would have made a better centre gala, but it doesn't have two good looking white boys making love in it. And for me the good looking lead actor was the only good thing about the movie. Just two guys who meet as a casual hook up and all of a sudden are talking about relationship and one trying to convince the other its a good idea, while the other, because of his bitterness, is trying to convince him that relationships are a bad idea. If the director is not encouraging drug use, what the hell is the point of all that drug use that is so prominent in the movie. No it is not recreational, that's just a word used by drug users to make themselves feel better. Everything you put into a movie reflects who you are and sends a message to everyone who watches. We need to think very clearly about the messages we are sending to each other. Its obvious from the laughter in the crowd that there is a major drug problem in the gay community, accepting and promoting that gay men take drugs is not a responsible way to go.
People seemed to like this movie but I found it boring. Reminded me of those sun movies with Ethan Hawke, where two people just go around blabbering about life and relationships. Yatta yatta yatta.