Skip to main content

Confessions

I wasn't sure what to expect of this film since Mark Bessenger's films have been a mixed bag so far. So, I was a little skeptical in the first place. This film is more like an anthology of 10 short films, where 10 men are sort of confessing their secrets directly talking to the camera taking us through the journey of a gay male psyche.

The film starts with a straight actor opening about his struggles trying to make it as an actor. He talks about being taken advantage of by his agent, then a producer and that how he landed into the gay film because a man has to eat. There’s a young man who has to find the bravery to tell his parents that he’s a puppet, despite the fact they think that puppets are disgusting and abnormal. We have a man who appears to have kidnapped someone and is holding him in his basement, who slowly undresses as he reveals what is going on. In another, a hot young guys talk about what he’s really looking for as he lies in the arms of another man just after sex. A man slowly shaves off his beard, with each look he tries on a new persona that allows him to explore the fact that despite being with a woman, he has strong desires for men. And more...

Anthology films are always hit or miss, just because of the nature that some stories connect better with audiences and others don't. Even though genre wise, we get to see comedy, horror, empathy; but there were actually only 2 segments that I connected with. The first one with the actor really establishes the contrasting light and dark reveals that are to come over its duration. And then of the man slowly shaving off his beard was intense and gripping. That one was deep, but rest of the others were strictly ok or bad. The actors are thankfully good to look at and easy on eyes, but after a while, the constant jibber jabber takes my mind away from actually focussing on the film and as an audience I feel thats a problem. Surely, we are all looking for different meaningful cinema but it should still manage to hold your attention. I will probably give it a pass. (4/10)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Shortest Distance is Round 3: Fallen Flowers

Continuing with the weird trilogy of "The Shortest Distance", I am so glad that finally I am done with part 3 and won't have to deal with this again in future. Thankfully, as of now the makers have not announced any further parts; which will save all of us on this earth from the embarrassment of watching this in near future. After the first 10 minutes are used in sort of recapping bits of first two parts, the story moves forward. Haruto is now starting to have feelings for Ruka, the mysterious pole dancer from second part. In a fit of rage, Ruka ends up killing the goat man and to save him and Haruto, Shibahara asks them to go underground. Meanwhile Shibahara continues the search for Seiya (the guy who had cut off Haruto's penis). It turns out Seiya is now also taking care of the original club owner from part 1. Both of them were released after they had informed Shibahara of Aoyama's secret location. Shibahara tortures Seiya's boyfriend leading to Seiya killin

One Summer Night (Korean)

I really wanted to like this film but for non native speakers, these movie leaves a lot to be understood and the way scenes were unfolding in front of me, I wasn't sure many times what was really going on. The story had potential button getting any back story on any of the characters limited my ability to empathize with any of these actors. Film starts with two North Korea military guys Yong Joon and Jae Sung having sex and they are caught red handed and they run. Three years later we see Yong Joon in Seoul leading a very mundane and poor life. He has a boyfriend Tae-Kyu, who is a weird guy. He is carefree, doesn't do any work and is completely emotional and financially dependent on Young Joon. In fact, even Yong Joon will go to any lengths to protect him , fend for him and taking care of him to the extent of even taking up prostitution. Suddenly one day Jae Sung appears in their life again. His motivation is not clear but it is obvious he wants Yong Joon back in his life, who

Ultimate masturbation: Shigoki no yama (Japanese) [The Ultimate Masturbation]

I would never know what was the point behind making this film. Was it supposed to be a comedy, cos it wasn't. It wasn't even porn. It was just a silly attempt at making something absolutely senseless and ridiculous. The story, as well as direction is equally shoddy. You could laugh for having seen something so bad, but I wouldn't call that comedy. An old man runs a camp about gay masturbation. The explanation given is that gays masturbate for pleasure unlike straight men, for whom the act is seen as shame or because they can't find a woman. One day a straight man shows up and wants to join the camp for his thesis. After discussion, he is allowed in. Rules include that you can masturbate together, you can masturbate one another, but there is no fellatio or anal sex. Some students of course breaks rule. The teacher then talks about 2 forms of masturbation which gives ultimate pleasure. He shows one without touching and then refuses to talk of the other. Somehow suddenly,