Boy Culture

Review By: Rocco Passafuime
RoccoPassafuime@TheCinemaSource.com

In the decades since Stonewall riots of 1969 and the AIDS scare of the 1980’s, gay America has made great strides in bridging the often unsettling gap in understanding with the rest of society at large. One of the ways they’ve been able to tell their stories is through the medium of independent film.

They allow filmmakers the incredible opportunity to present for everyone out there who is willing to see and hear it the agony and ecstasy of being gay. One such filmmaker Q. Allan Brocka has put together which is surely one of the more fascinating glimpses into the many different facets of the gay lifestyle, known as Boy Culture, which is now available on DVD.

In Seattle, a young male known only as X (Derek Magyar) makes a fairly comfortable living off of being gay as a prostitute. However, he shares with a wealthy and revealingly closeted client named Gregory Talbot (Patrick Bachau), who often serves more like a therapist to X, not having had any serious sexual experience since he first realized his attraction to other men, preferring to save himself “for someone special”.

He generously takes in roommates Andrew (Darryl Stephens), who just emerged from the closet, and the very young and flamboyant drifter Joey (Jonathon Trent). While Joey pines for X, X’s feelings are for Andrew, but he is reticent to be openly admissive of the depths of them, due to his client Gregory’s supposed tales of romantic heartache with his longtime lover. When Andrew is invited to attend the wedding of his ex-girlfriend, X goes along with him for the ride, which begins a slow and steady streaming out of the real core of X’s closely guarded feelings for his roommate.

Boy Culture provides an incredibly fascinating window into different facets in the life of the gay male. For the viewer, it’s a rather telling account of the trials and tribulations gay men often endure in the pursuit of love and companionship.

The roles are performed superbly by the three male actors. Derek Magyar delivers the right amount of acerbic wit mixed with nuanced emotion that makes the mostly rather cold X emerge as more and more an endearing figure.

Darryl Stephens hits all the right understatedly subtle notes as the more sensitive Andrew and Jonathon Trent reveals a rather innocent playfulness to the younger and more amorous Joey. While Boy Culture comes off a bit too overtly erotic at times, particularly with often rather blunt dialogue by Brocka and Philip Pierce, the film’s mix of sardonic cynicism with sensitivity in telling its subject matter makes it a highly fascinating view for any sexual preference.

The DVD picture quality is in the 1:77:1 widescreen aspect ratio, with the sound quality in standard Dolby 2.0 Stereo. The DVD is also packed with plenty of special features.

The first special feature is audio commentary by writer/director Q. Allan Brocka and writer/producer Philip Pierce. They both provide plenty of informative recollection ...