A brief encounter in a gay bar in Virginia one night results in small-town boy Anthony packing up and traveling to the West Coast where his one night stand has returned home too. Stephen is older and reasonably wealthier and offers his new boyfriend everything …. but it comes at a steep price. When Stephen’s volatile personality results in spousal abuse, the unemployed ‘kept boy’ moves out into his own apartment into a rather rough neighborhood in San Francisco.
Once there he befriends Gavin a homeless runaway and part time hustler, who although he is even younger than Anthony, is mature for his age and provides him with support and advice on how to survive on his own in the big city. Their friendship is much deeper and real than anything Stephen claimed he could provide.
This is writer/director Scott Boswell’s debut feature film and although not biographical he claims it is based on several people he met when he first came to S.F. as a young man. It’s interestingly filmed in a cinéma-vérité style, and the way he reveals the action out of chronological order is a tad annoying at first, but once you grasp this fact you actually appreciate the story more.
Three really good young lead actors, and if you think you may have seen more of Raphael Barker (‘Anthony’) it’s because he was one of the very energetic and malleable sexual performers in ‘Shortbus.’
Its a touching wee drama that must seem very real in particular to all those young men drawn to S.F. (and other big cities) to ‘find themselves’. And kudos too for including the spousal abuse which gets such infrequent mentions in gay narratives.
Available now on DVD and VOD.
