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"I'm here and I want a record that I'm
here." - Cole Tucker, porn star
This isn't a film about gay, naked bicycle
riders but I wish to God it was. This is a lousy,
boring and overly long documentary that purports
to take a look at the changes in porn over the
last seven years but is, in actually, just a
bunch of bad documentary ideas deconstructed
to the point of being disinteresting and strung
together with the thinnest of connecting membrane.
Filmmaker, and I used that term loosely,
Jochen Hick seems to be attempting to make the
gay porn version of Michael Apted's classic
documentary series "7 Up" by purporting to catch
up with the stars of his 1997 doc "Sex/Life
in L.A." This film is subtitled "Sex/Life in
L.A. 2" but it doesn't matter if you haven't
seen the original. There's hardly anyone here
to interest you and no one here to care about.
Since this is supposedly an examination
of the "cycles" the porn industry has undergone
over the past few years, part of the story is
about the boys who live in a on-line web cam
house that is owned and operated by porn maven
Chi Chi LaRue. The fat, ageing, drag queen should
star in a biopic about Divine as he/she has
somehow morphed into the John Waters cult icon
in his/her older days. If Divine were alive,
they would be like twins. anyway, I swear to
God I've seen this part of the film before,
either in a short doc or some other film. I
remember the thing about them kicking guys out
of the house using a viewer voting system ala
"American Idol."
Then there's the disgusting and sickening
subplot about Hot Desert Knights, a video porn
company that specializes in "Barebacking" DVD's
where gay men have anal sex without condoms.
There is an elongated and ugly look at some
old male porn star who cannot make a cumshot
happen. All of this, like the film itself, is
designed not to enlighten or provoke thought
but rather to mock and evoke laughter. The subjects
of this film in this segment are held up to
ridicule in a fashion that is normally reserved
for mockumentaries, not documentaries. Hick
is much more interested in exposing the repulsively
absurd than he is in engaging his audience and
allowing us to consider his subjects and make
up our own minds. Hick has determined that the
older male porn stars are ridiculous and he
only films and edits his doc to support this
theory. He wants you to laugh at his subjects
as heartily as he does. It's repugnant.
The only likeable segments in the film
are the somewhat "Now and Then" featurettes
on subjects like Cole Tucker (who is also made
light of slightly), Matt Bradshaw and Kevin
Kramer. The latter is the only subject of the
film shown in anything close to a loving and
thoughtful manner. And while the other porn
stars from Hick's 1997 doc have gotten old and
fat and uninteresting, Kramer is still attractive,
fit and lust-worthy. He has to work quite hard
to cover up his minor effeminacy, but he is
still hunky and interesting to look at nonetheless.
This, of course, is not nearly enough to make
this film worth looking at in total however.
Notes:
The film debuted in Berlin in February
of 2005.
Viewed at Agliff in October of 2005 with
Johnny Oh!
The video presentation of the print we saw
had the words "Festival Print" placed on the
upper corner of the picture at various intervals
throughout the running.
Report Card
Content: F
Completeness: F
Cinematography/Lighting: D+
Special Effects/Make Up: C
Music: C
Final Grade: F
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