Not all of Canadian filmmaker Rodrique Jean’s output necessarily have LGBTQ content, but the last two he made ‘Love in The Time of Civil War’ and also Men For Sale are unapologetically about the street hustlers in NY.
He uses the city again as the setting for his latest and by far his most extraordinary and rawest movie to date. It’s another bleak cold winter where the snow is relentless, which may be the reason why the construction of some large apartment buildings are way behind schedule.
Regardless of the fact they are not finished Christophe (Sébastien Ricard) a middle-aged successful business man is still anxious to buy one on the 20th floor and move out of what was once his family home. Whilst he is there he randomly meets Micha (Yury Paulau) a homeless man who has been sleeping there in the empty building occasionally.
This very chance encounter sparks an immediately chemistry between this two completely opposite men that quickly leads to rough, and at at times violent, sexual intercourse. No words atre ever exchanged and then Micha insists they keep on an anonymous basis.
We learn that he is a Russian born acrobat whose career is in jeopardy since he has an accident that broke his leg and had made him both angry and bitter. He is determined to prove that someone had deliberately forced him to fall, but the Russians in charge of the Acrobatic Show refuse to agree or even give him any of the insurance payout that is due to him.
Christophe on the other hand has a dying mother in a nearby hospice who he visits somewhat infrequently and who seems the source of his deep rooted unhappiness.
Rodrigue Jean leaves plenty of gaps in the plot for us to possibly work out what is going through the minds of these two very complicated men where sex is merely a release for all their internalised rage.
There is a lot of very explicit and extremely erotic sex which leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination. Ricard is an established and talented actor but the hunky Paulo was making his film debut, and both men seemed more than comfortable with giving it their all. Literally.
The explicitness doesn’t mean The Acrobat should be dismissed as pornography as what Jean has created is a tale of anger and resentment that need to find some outlet no matter how explosive
