This sassy new movie follows the lives of five Brown University graduates who are reuniting for NY’s Gay Pride weekend. They are all African-Americans too as it is after all the handiwork of Patrik-Ian Polk the filmmaker that brought us the unmissable ground-breaking TV series ‘Noah’s Arc’. In this latest work he continues the essence of what became to be known as the ‘Black Gay Sex In the City’ but he has added a few preachy parts less we all get complacent about how much fun having lots of sex can be.
The drama centers around Magnus whose new boyfriend Ryan has refused to have sex with him for the first six months, even though he is putting out for everyone else in the city; naive Sebastian who’s pinning for the promiscuous Kyle costs him his virginity and a whole lot more when he unwittingly takes Ecstasy at a Club and gets date raped; curiously shy Joey who lets his unhappiness about his life back in Atlanta almost get in his way of having some fun; and finally Langston the lesbian fag-hag who is oddly addicted to gay male porn and who has the quickest wit of all of them.
These are a group of close-knit friends who are out to have as much fun together as they possibly can. However once the different strands of the plots start to unfold the whole thing unravels a tad creating some confusion and our interest starts to slowly wane. The main characters themselves are extremely engaging and so we manage to remain in their corner through all the drama of the good and bad sex …. and there seems to be an awful lot of it. Joey’s rather funny lecture to Sebastian about losing his virginity tells you ALL you need to know about anal hygiene, and although it is rather heavy handed at times, the coverage of AIDS awareness is admirable.
Full of hot looking bodies, the backdrop of New York’s Gay Pride, cameo performances from some ex Noah’s Arc cast such as Darryl Stephens and Wilson Cruz, and a great beat-thumping soundtrack (also by the multi-facted Polk, who has written/directed/edited and produced this feature) it is a throughly entertaining piece. Polk also credits himself as the Casting Director too, a job he did exceptionally well with all the main actors turning in terrific performances : Jussie Smollett, Anthony Burrell, Blake Young-Fountain, Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman & Shanika Warren-Markland.
If Quentin Lee is the go-too filmmaker for Asian/Gay cinema (see ‘White Frog’) then Patrik-Ian Polk holds the same status in African-American/Gay movies. And that gives me real hope for the future of queer cinema.
Available on DVD and AMAZON VOD
Available on DVD and AMAZON VOD
