August

Perhaps age is affecting my perception. Criticism flows more easily than praise. August is another Gay-themed film that has had a lot of buzz; it expands on a short film,” Post-mortem," which aired here in 2005. It was called, among other things, “Stunning." Troy returns to L.A. after several years in Spain and contacts his ex-lover. We learn over coffee that Troy broke Jonathan’s heart when he left. We learn fairly soon that it wasn’t that broken and even though Jonathan is now in a “loving” relationship with Raul, Troy and Jonathan are back in the sack and all Jonathan’s friends [and Raul] are terrified. Please! This is a nicely photographed film with better-than-average Gay stereotypes, decent dialogue and adequate exposition. It also portrays its characters as shallow, beautiful people incapable of making intelligent choices. There are lots of bare chests and expensive underwear, trendy restaurants and clubs, hot-homo-humping, cell-phone-itis, and yearning glances. In the end, everything goes back to “normal.” It should have remained a short.