GAY
FILM REVIEWS BY MICHAEL D. KLEMM
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GAY
FILM REVIEWS BY MICHAEL D. KLEMM
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Anonymous Bangor
Films,
Director/Screenplay: Starring:
Unrated, 82 minutes |
The
Joy Of Sex
Todd is the night manager at a Manhattan movie theater multiplex. He is a good looking man in his mid thirties. While cocooned in his office, he removes his clothes, cruises the internet, and masturbates behind locked doors. After work, he hooks up with an online trick and then, upon returning home, masturbates again in the shower and quietly slips into bed next to his partner - who is pretending to be asleep and has, no doubt, noted how late the hour is. |
 Anonymous
(2004), a film written and directed by guerrilla filmmaker Todd
Verow, is a harrowing tale about a sexually compulsive man enslaved
by his penis. Todd (played by Verow) has never met a man that he didn't
like and his actions will cause him to lose his boyfriend, his home and
finally his job. His partner is an attractive, but more conservative, man
named John (Dustin Schell). Todd answered John's ad for a roommate; they
had sex, "skipped the whole dating and getting to know you thing" and moved
in together. "John works during the day and I work at night," Todd tells
the audience, "which has probably kept us from strangling each other over
the last five years. Although that would be a welcome change now." |
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| Anonymous is a no-holds barred film that never flinches from explicitly exploring its main thesis. Todd is shirtless or naked for much of the film's running length and the graphic sex is plentiful. Some might consider Anonymous to be naught but self indulgent porn but there is too much artistry employed to consider such a blanket condemnation. | |
 Verow
made his first splash during the mid-90s when he polarized gay audiences
with the controversial Frisk, based on the
equally controversial novel by Dennis Cooper. Verow has remained a very
unconventional and experimental director whose personal films are made without
any concessions towards the mainstream. Anonymous
is gritty and frequently seems to display a distinct improvisational feel.
Filming in digital video with non-existent budgets appears to be is his
preferred method of working. Like a painter experimenting on canvas, he
makes the films that he wants and the public can make up their minds
whether or not they want to go along for the ride. If one word could be
used to describe his films, that word would be "raw." One would guess that
if he ever did receive the backing of a major studio, he would respond
in the same way that Godard once did when he made Contempt and bit
the hand that fed him by making a movie that attacked everything he hated
about commercial cinema. |
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 The
audience doesn't learn much about Todd, aside from the obvious fact that
the man lives to fuck. Sex is a game to this man, which might explain an
otherwise inexplicable dream sequence in which he orchestrates an orgy of
his tricks by commanding "red light" and "green light" as the participants
freeze in their tracks and then continue their couplings. We are privy to
his thoughts; internet relationships are perfect because "we are whoever
the other person wants us to be" and meeting that person "always changes
everything." There is a telling monologue, during an early flashback, in
which he confesses being fucked for the first time (or raped) when he was
12 years old and that might account, in part, for his compulsive and often
childish behavior. It may even hold the key that unlocks much of the sex
in Verow's collected work because a similar story is told in his autobiographical
film, Vacationland
(2006). |
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 Todd's
downfall is painful; I was quite surprised by the violence when his boyfriend
beats him in the men's room. His humiliation is complete when John writes
"Fuck Here" with a magic marker on Todd's exposed ass. When Todd's
next sex partner finds these words, he is told to "follow the instructions."
Moments like this venture into the territory of black comedy. There is a
very funny scene in which Craig Chester (Swoon,
Frisk, Adam
& Steve) plays an auditor who makes a surprise visit to Todd's office
and is underwhelmed by his reckless accounting system (if the office door
hadn't been locked, he would have also found Todd shirtless and working
out with dumbbells). There is comedy and even romance. A flashback shows
Todd actually being shy during his first meeting with John and the sex that
follows is incredibly hot. Later, as Todd thinks back on what he has lost,
he remembers an idyllic moment when they playfully smeared each other's
faces with birthday cake. |
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 One
of the most striking things about Anonymous
is the way its director artfully uses silence for dramatic effect. What
better way to show the main character's isolation? There is almost no background
music in this film. I've complained in the past about how bad or inappropriate
music choices are often the bane of independent films and it was refreshing,
for a change, to enjoy how effective the lack of sound can be when establishing
mood. During one striking scene, Todd is bored and dances in his office.
He strips completely naked, displaying his well muscled and hairy physique
in an act of sheer exhibitionism. Like a child knowing he is doing something
forbidden, he is obviously turned on - but the utter silliness of his behavior
is underscored by the absence of any musical accompaniment. |
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More
on Todd Verow: Berlin
Film Festival Essay: Craig Chester
also appears in: |
Todd
spends much of his free time (not to mention long breaks at work) engaging
in anonymous, sometimes rough, sex with any man who is available. He is
especially fond of prowling public restrooms for fresh meat. One evening,
John visits him at work and surprises Todd in the middle of one of his
lavatory trysts. Furious, he beats his lover senseless, strips him naked,
and leaves him lying on the men's room floor. When Todd tries to return
home, he discovers that the locks have been changed and his lover is throwing
his possessions off of the roof. Suddenly homeless, he spends the night
with a former trick and then takes up residence in his office. Seemingly
undaunted, his cruising continues unabated.
I
found the first half of Anonymous
to be brilliant; its last third is a bit on the rambling side but so,
it seems, is the life being depicted. Todd is defined by his sex life
and so the film's hardcore approach to its subject is appropriate. One
of the film's undeniable pleasures will be its emphasis on the carnal.
Is this film for everyone? Probably not, because most mainstream audiences
let themselves be bound by the constraints of traditional narrative films.
Anonymous is not porn with
a plot. Nor can it be called a vanity project, otherwise Verow would have
made sure that he looked like a Calvin Klein model in every shot of the
film. Anonymous is raw, uninhibited
and - at least in my book - far more interesting than a mindless
big budget blockbuster like the recent Transformers sequel. Love
him or hate him, Verow is one of the most daring filmmakers working in
queer cinema today.