GAY
FILM REVIEWS BY MICHAEL D. KLEMM
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GAY
FILM REVIEWS BY MICHAEL D. KLEMM
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The Boy With The Sun In His Eyes Waterbearer
Films, Director: Screenplay: Starring: Unrated, 95 minutes |
Todd
Verow's European Vacation
I've written before, flippantly, that I have a love-hate relationship with the films of Todd Verow - in much the same way that I once did with the early films of Gregg Araki. Verow is the very definition of a guerrilla filmmaker who makes edgy and personal films with no thought towards mainstream commercial success. In a manifesto that he penned for the 2009 Berlin Film Festival Teddy Awards, reprinted on his Facebook page, Verow wrote that, to him, "experimental or underground film and queer film [are] synonymous" and implored filmmakers to make their visions and not sell out to commercialism. "Life is gritty, dirty, full of shit and blood and semen. It is sticky and messy... Shoot with whatever means you have available, don't go chasing... the most expensive, state of the art camera, we are not technicians we are artists. Get your hands dirty. Make ugly beautiful and vice versa... Get passionate. Feel something. Then go tell your audience." (Click here, or at the bottom of this page, to read the manifesto in its entirety.) |
 His
first film was an adaptation of Dennis Cooper's controversial novel, Frisk,
and it polarized gay audiences in 1996 with its decidedly un-PC approach
to an S&M enthusiast who might also be a serial killer. 2004's Anonymous
was an erotic and harrowing portrait of a sex addict. 2006's Bulldog
in the Whitehouse was the clumsiest film that this reviewer has
ever sat through but was also one of the best attacks on the Bush administration
ever filmed. Last year's Between
Something & Nothing was a rambling but evocative tale about an art
student who moonlights as a hustler that featured some of the funniest and
most honest art school classes that this former art student has ever
seen. |
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 The
Boy With The Sun In His Eyes
opens with a flashback between John and Kevin (Josh Ubaldi). Kevin, as is
his wont, is being vague about the time he spends with Solange. John complains
that he never tells him the end of his stories and that "it's always a headlong
punge into drama." Kevin asks John to promise him that he will get tested
for AIDS, quit smoking, learn to drive, and quit his dead-end cubicle job
and get out and see the world. Solange is filming a guerrilla-styled pilot,
a food and nightlife television magazine entitled The Un-Tourist Guide,
and she offers John an opportunity to fulfill his friend's wishes. Suddenly
he is quitting his job and flying to Paris to be Solange's personal and
production assistant. |
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 John
is swept away by this new booze and drug-fueled la dolce vita that takes
him from Paris to Milan to Berlin and back to Paris again. With video camera
in tow, he follows Solange on an endless party. In Paris he enters into
a passionate affair with a new wave performance artist named Alain (Valentin
Plessy) that is abruptly cut short when a rival makes an attempt on Solange's
life in a crowded dance club. While fleeing to Italy, John reluctantly finds
himself accepting another role as father confessor to the increasingly unstable
and needy diva. Before long, a series of bizarre events leads John to believe
that Solange is keeping secrets from him and that the hip circles in which
they travel are hiding more dangers than he can imagine. |
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 Most
of the film is a wild roller coaster ride across art happenings, trendy
restaurants and "Now's the time on Sprockets when ve dance!"
- style nightclubs. Now and then, the action slows down long enough to take
a breath. It is during these breaks when some of the dialogue really sparkles.
Despite the larger than life presense of Solange, the emphasis is on John,
a fish out of water who is enjoying his newfound freedom but is, ultimately,
completely out of his element. A man who manages models seduces John in
Milan by telling him that he has "a very marketable smile" and that "a good
smile sells food, furniture... Not every model is on the runway for Gucci
or Prada." John smiles, disappointed, and says "It's the typical story for
me. I can be in a glamorous profession like modeling but I would be hawking
ravioli and desks." |
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 There
are frequent flashbacks to the relationship between John and Kevin. There
is a touching moment where Kevin asks John to buzz off his hair before it
begins to fall out on his own. Many of these scenes, some presented as dreams,
serve to sober the drug induced tornado that propels our protagonists across
the cities of Europe. Solange tells John that Kevin liked to keep his friends
in different boxes and John asks, "Which box was I in? The boring childhood
friends box?" She smiles and tells him that it was more like "the safety
deposit box." A demented but ultimately touching third act twist will reveal
the mystery surrounding the sick man's death. |
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 Mahogany
Reynolds as Solange is an exotic creature who, at times, reminded me of
David Bowie's supermodel
wife, Iman. Tim Swain, as John, is major league cute, and hot, and I would
be a liar if I didn't admit that some of the pleasures that I derive from
Verow's films are prurient. Verow has a talent for filming and editing hot
and artsy sexual interludes that are far more satisfying than watching porn.
He finds the proper rhythms within electric and rapid-fire montages of passionate
kisses, intertwining limbs and textural landscapes of facial stubble and
chest hair. The best scene is a hot sexual tryst between John and Alain
that is intercut with Alain's Devo-esque dance club performance. Their exuberant
smiles indicate two young man who are undeniably hot for each other and
the music propels the scene into another dimension. I also liked the "art
terrorists" who cut off John's shirt with scissors and then duct taped him
and Alain together. Although John will enjoy more hot sex in other cities,
he remains in love with the French performance artist. Later, when the international
intrigue plot engulfs the storyline, Alain calls John to warn him that he
is danger. Will these young lovers get to reunite and live happily ever
after? |
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 The
first act of The Boy With The Sun In His Eyes
is a fun guilty pleasure but I have to admit that its second half gets a
little silly. I could suspend belief and accept Solange as a jet-setting
Mata Hari but Joe was too cute and innocent looking to be believable in
a climactic scene where he is brandishing a gun. Even so, I had a good time
with most of Verow's latest homemade film. It is often gleefully incoherent
and stuffed with moments calculated for maximum shock value. Filmed on location
throughout Europe, The Boy With The Sun In His
Eyes is an exotic and sensual travelogue. |
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More
on Todd Verow: Berlin
Film Festival Essay: Tim
Swain also appears in: |
His
latest film is The Boy With The Sun In His
Eyes, an adaptation of the novel by his longtime collaborator,
James Derek Dwyer. Tim Swain, who starred in 
Is
this a tale of innocence lost? Is Solange's character meant to spoof a
half century of James Bond femme fatales? Without the autobiographical
nature that propelled many of Verow's previous films, The
Boy With The Sun In His Eyes may lack the same visceral
power that bubbled beneath the surface of his other works but, as always,
he lives up to his credo to jetison all concessions to accepted commercial
cinema. It is loud, it is flashy, the soundtrack is a killer, and the
visuals feel decidely European. The story pushes credibility at times
but it's a manic and original ride that I found wildly entertaining. And
what does the title mean? I don't have a clue.