Hustlers and flow.Boys Briefs 4 * Starring Salim Kechiouche * Picture This! Entertainment * In limited theatrical release The conceit of Boys Briefs 4, a collection of gay short films about hustlers, sounds potentially cheesy cheesy (che´ze) caseous. . But these six international offerings--many well-traveled on the film festival circuit--are a strong lot overall, often poignant, edgy, and artful. Free of dialogue, barring spasms of flowery flow·er·y adj. flow·er·i·er, flow·er·i·est 1. Of, relating to, or suggestive of flowers: a flowery perfume. 2. Abounding in or covered with flowers. 3. on-screen on·screen or on-screen adj. & adv. 1. As shown on a movie, television, or display screen. 2. Within public view; in public. text, Welby Ings's Boy is a standout, a stylized styl·ize tr.v. styl·ized, styl·iz·ing, styl·iz·es 1. To restrict or make conform to a particular style. 2. To represent conventionally; conventionalize. piece--think the Brothers Quay meet David Fincher and Derek Jarman--that involves a restroom-cruising schoolboy. Also stylized, but in pretentious angst-ridden French fashion, is Gigolo gig·o·lo n. pl. gig·o·los 1. A man who has a continuing sexual relationship with and receives financial support from a woman. 2. A man who is hired as an escort or a dancing partner for a woman. , the collection's weakest link. Straightforward narratives Build and Into the Night are solid yet unspectacular, while Rock Bottom--about a lonely, chubby gay man who takes home a seemingly honest hustler with a drug habit and ulterior motives-mesmerizingly unfolds with twists and sordid developments. The collection's finale, Gold, in which a strung-out hustler assists an elderly near-blind painter, packs a moving climax--no pun intended. |
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