Reviewing Movies

I just finished watching two gay bromances. What makes homosexual love stories unique is the fact that they involve two testosterone-driven aggressive male egos. Lovers tiffs can become truly rock em sock em brawls in which the combatants are quite capable of doing one another true harm--think Brokeback Mountain. At some point the genre has to get beyond the star-crossed lovers afraid to come out to one another, the theme has been worked and reworked from virtually every possible angle.

Regarding Billy is a three-hander involving three relatively unknown actors. Billy moves home to be with his mentally challenged younger brother after the death of his parents. His best bud Dean shows up at

his door after a near fatal air force injury and the relationship deepens. The military would seem to be an odd and dangerous choice for a gay male trying to find himself. The direction is lightly handled unfortunately the best acting job is turned in by the younger brother, the lovers seem wooden and awkward way beyond what their parts would seem to call for. The best scenes are of Billy walking the harbour fishing wharf and the three sporting on the beach where there are no lines.

Shelter is again shot in California among surfer dudes. Zack has sacrificed his art scholarship to support his older sister, the reluctant single-mother of 5-year-old Cody. He runs into his best bud Gabe's older brother Shaun, a starving writer rumoured to be nudge, nudge, wink, wink, gay. The two bond shredding the waves at theirfavourite break. The surfing scenes at Malibu Beach are gnarly, Zack's home in San Pedro rather a depressing looking slum. The acting here is good though the storyline seems rather shallow by comparison.