X/Y - QUEERGURU

Mark and Sylvia are a couple of successful thirty-something-year-olds in New York who are going through a rough patch in their relationship. Bad sex leads to tense talks and subsequently a fight which ends when Sylvia blurts out that she has being sleeping with one of her co-workers. The fact he is really hot doesn’t help Mark’s bruised ego and so he packs a rucksack and takes himself off in the middle of the night to sleep on his best friend Jake’s couch. There seems to be some unresolved tension between these two men, and like all the parties involved in this rather morose drama, although they actually talk a great deal of the time, they are all pretty lousy at really communicating with each other.

One night as Jake bemoans the loss of his last girlfriend whilst he walks around his apartment completely naked, he makes a pass at Mark who initially resists and then gets stuck into what turns out to be an extremely passionate and sensual spot of lovemaking with the two men rolling around the floor together and devouring each other. When they try not to talk about it next morning, Mark stresses that he does want Jake to know that they only person he loves is Sylvia.

Sylvia now single continues to abuse her position at her high profile job and keeps having quickies snatched in odd moments with Jason at work, and then she visits her best friend Jen for moral support. Probably not the wisest move as poor Jen is currently out of work and always gets herself in an awful mess by sleeping with inappropriate men on first dates and the drowns her sorrows with an excess of retail therapy that she cannot afford.

The trouble with this well meaning sophomore movie from writer/director Ryan Piers Williams (who also stars as Mark) is that the lives of these self-centered spoilt New Yorkers are far less interesting than he thinks they are. All of them seem totally out of touch with reality and Williams gives us no reason to empathise, or like them in the slightest. The cast however do a fair job and the one stand out is Melanie Diaz who plays Jen and makes the screen really light out in all her scenes. The least interesting role of Sylvia is played by the exceedingly talented America Ferrara who as well as being one of the movie’s producers is also Mrs Ryan Piers Williams. Lets hope their own married life is more fun than the one they shared on the screen.

RCD – Tribeca Premiere for X/Y on TrailerAddict.