He like a guys (2008)

He like a guys (2008)

Director: Damien Rea, Bill Taylor, Rachel Zisser, David Maurice, Edward Gunawan, Sam McConnell, Justin Ross, Pat Mills
Scenario:
Genre: Short movies
Country: USA
Year: 2008
Duration:
Rating: 10/10

Steam 2008, 3 mins. Great Britain, Dir. Damien Rea
A super buff party boy gets all steamed up.

Silver Road 2007, 13 mins, Canada, Dir. Bill Taylor
At the end of an idyllic summer on the farm, what will happen when Danny finally acts on his desire for his best friend, Mark? Andrew Hachey and Jonathan Keltz give stellar performances in this accomplished gay drama.

Traces 2008, 19 mins. USA, Dir. Rachel Zisser
What if Julian’s Dad knew the truth about his handsome collegiate son? Sometimes parental love can trump homophobia; and sometimes the truth comes out too late. A tragic cinematic drama from the American Film Institute.
Just 2007, 12 mins., USA, Dir. David Maurice Gil
PlanetOut Short Movie Awards Top 5 Films Winner
Two buff Asian guys (one 23, one 32) have relatively anonymous hot sex after meeting online. The younger man is offended when he finds out that the older one is cheating on his boyfriend. A very well written and beautifully shot short about the ideals of monogamy.

Laundromat 2007, 13 mins. USA, Dir. Edward Gunawan
Beefy Lawrence and his new live-in boyfriend Joey bicker over Lawrence’s cruisy ways. Will they stay together? Crossing paths with elderly Bob at the laundromat gives them inspiration for couplehood in this poignant drama.
Seeing You in Circles 2005, 21 mins. USA, Dir. Sam McConnell
On the night of his 30th birthday Jerome asks his ex-boyfriend Wade to meet him at their favorite place in Brooklyn for a drink. The insensitive Wade brings along his latest squeeze Cal. From writer-director Sam McConnell comes this aching drama of grown up gay men learning to, well, grow up.
Waiting for Yvette 2007, 14 mins, USA Dir. Justin Ross
Wendie Malick (Just Shoot Me) heads up a perfect ensemble cast in this humorous yet poignant meeting of the Gay Men’s Tuesday Night A.A. Scheduled for her final gender reassignment surgery, will this be Yvette’s last meeting? Or not.

Babysitting Andy 2007, 11 mins, Canada, Dir. Pat Mills
What do you do if you’re 9 years old and nobody will tell you what “fellatio” means? If you’re as devious as Andy, you corner your gay uncle and his boyfriend with a Supersoaker and demand answers.

Description:

Review by Cycads

As a member of my college cinema club, I would show a film a couple of nights every month. Usually, the featured movie would be preceded by a surprise short film—nothing too long, but always something entertaining. Recently, I showed Laundromat (2007, 13 mins) by Edward Gunawan from a collection of acclaimed gay short films, He Likes Guys, to my unsuspecting audience. Little did I know that the DVD’s menu page featuring a buff torso would draw a variety of gasps—some amused, some more ambivalent, and even a rather repulsed, “Whaaat?!”

Silver Road
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Fortunately, Laundromat promised nothing loaded with hackneyed gay stereotypes. In this smile-inducing drama, newly-cohabiting couple Lawrence and Joey bicker over their differences when doing the laundry. Their squabble later gets the attention of an elderly man who teaches them a small but profound lesson in the value of love, life and relationships. So far, so Zen-like.

Another short film that I felt moved by was Traces (2008, 19 mins). Directed by Rachel Zisser, Traces examines the tragic side of trans acceptance (or rather the lack thereof.) After seeing his handsome college-going son off at the airport, a father is shocked to hear of his son critically injured in a car accident some miles away from home. Arriving at the hospital too late, he is shown the body of his son, in women’s clothing and bewigged. He is later consumed by a desire to piece together his late son’s hidden identity, using different objects once belonged to his son that eventually lead him to uncover not only a secret double life but also a man who had stood between them for years.

He mixed response from the audience at the prospect of watching a film with gay themes that night says a lot about the position of homosexuality in the margins of cinematic discourse. But He Likes Guys is an anthology with an important social message at its heart. Part of the pleasure of watching the mini social commentaries is attributed to the film-makers’ measured use of thought-provoking drama and humour to humanise gay culture. Perhaps the only weakness can be found right at the beginning—in the first short film, Steam (2008) by Damien Rea. At (mercifully) three minutes long, it is effectively a music video and an exercise in male objectification—a bland starter to the far superior films that are definitely worth a watch.