June 22, 2009

"Pornography": Psycho Thriller At Gay Film Fest

Last night I saw "Pornography" at the Frameline GLBT Film Festival. Now, don't get all bent out of shape, it was only softcore pornography... or was it? It was hard to tell just what was going on in that movie, but that's the beauty of it.

David Kittredge's "Pornography" begins with a tight close-up of someone writing the word "action" in a crossword puzzle, because as the director said, "It is a puzzle." The homoerotic psychological thriller keeps you guessing all the way through, and to once again quote the director, "It will haunt you for the next few days." Sure enough, when I came home to a dark house last night, I got a little creeped out until I found the light switch.

I felt obligated to see "Pornography" because of my unique qualifications as both a porn producer, porn reviewer, and my aspirations as a (ahem) legit film artist. The story is about a former gay porn star from the 90's named Mark Anton who, as many do, made a big hit in a short period of time and then disappeared. The movie is in three acts, with three different sets of characters and locales that all start to tie in together, and become more and more entangled as the movie goes on. Throughout the movie you never know if there is a criminal conspiracy involving torture and snuff films or some sort of supernatural forces at work. It could even be merely dreams and madness at the heart of it. I won't give any more away, but I guarantee you'll come out of the movie with nothing resolved.

The suspense and hints of supernatural forces are very reminiscent of David Lynch, but the director says it was not intentional. "In editing, we had three Post-Its on the monitor that said, 'Psycho", 'Rosemary's Baby', and 'The Exorcist'. Those three movies were our inspiration, although not so much with 'The Exorcist'."

Some may see it as the same tired old cautionary tale to "stay away from the gay porn business, it's evil", but it's much deeper than that. We get the sense that these people may not have been involved by their own choice. It may have been either their destiny to get involved or they were recruited for some sinister reason to which we never get closure.

On the surface, "Pornography" is an excellent popcorn thriller with plenty of male eye candy and high tech film technique. The issues of homosexuality and gay porn are treated matter-of-factly and the cast even includes two gay porn stars, Bret Wolfe and Brad Benton (see photo). There is some pretty explicit nudity and simulated sex scenes with some gorgeous men playing porn stars. During the Q&A, one of the cast was asked a very involved acting question, and his only response was, "All I know is I worked out at the gym 6 days a week for 2 months for this movie." Maybe that's why he was cast as a porn star.

Posted by lavenderlounge at 4:16 PM

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