Avant garde sculptor and artist Henry Coombs helming his first feature film stretches both his imagination and our patience in this new micro-budget Scottish gay psycho drama. It’s the story of Albert an aged gay therapist (David Sillars who also co-wrote the script) who is inveigled upon by an old friend (a scene stealing Marcella McIntosh) to try and sort out her rather morose young grandson Ben (Jonathan Leslie) who is also gay.
The sessions take place in Albert’s disheveled hovel-like apartment which is dominated by a large cheeseplant that Albert has named Priscilla, and who he talks too when he has smoked a joint or two or imbibed the E tablets he confiscates off Ben one day. The young man’s problem is a case of unrequited love with a local DJ who seems to want to break up with him after every time they have sex. Albert’s problem (now anyways) is that despite his lofty and over-intellectualized statements, he is in fact really jealous of the boyfriend.
A large part of the second half of this drama is when they are all high on something other than just life, and it gives Coombs more opportunities to let his imagination really run wild with some very vivid dream-like sequences.
The two main leads are making their film acting debuts and sadly that shows all too often. Sillars is at least enthusiastic in his role as the older man, but sadly Livingstone’s wooden performance as Ben really lets the whole piece down.
For the most part it is an intriguing wee film and deserves full marks for tackling the gay psycho drama genre which very filmmakers dare to take on. It will appeal to those who like their LGBT movie-fare to challenge them more than the norm, but it will certainly not float everyone’s boat.
Labels: 2017, nudity, psycho-drama, Scottish
