GAY
FILM REVIEWS BY MICHAEL D. KLEMM
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GAY
FILM REVIEWS BY MICHAEL D. KLEMM
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Aaron... Albeit A Sex Hero Waterbearer
Films, Director/Screenplay: Starring: Unrated, 82 minutes |
Lock,
Stock And Two Smokin' Gay Guys
Aaron... Albeit a Sex Hero gets my vote for the most unusual and creative queer film title that I've come across this year. The strange name sets the tone for this offbeat and tongue-in-cheek, low budget action flick from writer/director Paul Bright. This one is a fresh and comedic take on those intolerable late night thrillers on cable that usually star Stephen Baldwin (before he found Jesus). What it may lack in studio gloss is more than compensated by its quirky originality. |
 Instead
of an ex-marine or an international assassin, our hero is a cute but quasi-geeky
Texas tour van guide who dreams of a new job on a cruise ship. His name
is Aaron (Matthew Charles Burnett) and he's having a bad day. For starters,
he hates his job. The cheesy tour forces him to feign excitement as he points
out a mountain used as an establishing shot in a John Ford Western. His
doting grandmother (who acts like one of the mothers in an old Woody Allen
film) is amongst the passengers on what is supposed to be his last day as
tour guide. The van is populated by an assortment of older women dressed
as movie stars and wearing way too much perfume. On the bright side,
Aaron has a new driver, a hunky Latino named Jesse (Rafiel Soto) and there
seems to be an unmistakable sexual tension between them. |
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 A
number of years ago I used to complain that I was sick of coming out and
fabulous makeover films. Aaron... Albeit a Sex
Hero takes a wild left turn at Albuquerque and runs with
the ball full throttle in my book. Taking a page from the Hitchcock
thriller manual, Aaron is an ordinary man caught up in extraordinary circumstances.
Movies like this are dumb when the hero is a James Bond clone; make him
an everyman and not only is the film more believable but it's also more
fun. The filmmaker's quirky sense of humor assures that this will be more
than just a passable, and mindless, action flick. |
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 Yes,
Aaron... Albeit a Sex Hero is
sometimes silly but that's part of its charm. I lost it laughing when I
discovered that the cocaine was being smuggled in this tour van because
the stench of the women's perfume fooled the drug sniffing dogs at the border.
There's also a great running joke involving coitus interruptus: each time
that our heroes get down to some hot lovemaking, they get interrupted by
the untimely arrival of the bad guys. |
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 Expect
the unexpected in Aaron... Albeit a Sex Hero.
A slutty border guard, who promises to drop in on one of the women at their
overnight lodgings, shows up at Aaron's door instead. A crime boss is henpecked
by his wife. The grandmother's "niece" turns out to be her lover. The cocaine,
which is hidden in food supplement bottles, accidentally winds up being
added to the old ladies' orange juice at breakfast. The concluding punchline
is a hoot, don't stop the film as soon as the end credits begin. |
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 Inbetween
all the hijinks, the director slips in a few lines of politically charged
dialogue. A climactic shooting suggests a climax of another kind. We're
not talking Quentin Tarantino here, but the film is more violent than most
gay action flicks are. In a really controversial character touch, a series
of quick flashes suggest that Aaron is a former teacher whose career ended
because of inappropriate relations with one of his students. (The pupil
looks almost as old as the teacher so we can surmise that he isn't under-aged.)
I'm not sure what point was being made with this detail (except maybe
to contrast with Jeese's previous undercover job conducting internet sex
stings) but it adds another dimension to what is already a very unconventional
movie. |
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More on Paul Bright
in: Matthew Charles
Burnett also appears in: Cynthia Schiebel also appears in: |
Aaron
gets off on the wrong foot at first with Jesse and things are about to
get worse. Unbeknownst to Aaron, the tour van is being used to smuggle
cocaine over the Mexican border and his life will soon be getting complicated.
Before the film is over, Aaron will find a tarantula in his hotel room,
almost get killed by drug smugglers, get stung by a scorpion and attacked
by a rattlesnake while fleeing for his life. When Jesse, brandishing a
gun, finds Aaron hiding in the woods, we are unsure at first which side
the gunman is on. The two men become unlikely allies and, later, lovers.
I've
written before that that I can look past a low budget when the story and
the acting is worthwhile. I cannot judge a handmade personal film by the
same standards as a Hollywood blockbuster, nor do I expect such a film
to look like it was shot by Vittorio Storaro or Nestor Almendros. It's
similar to the difference between an edgy Off-Off Broadway play done on
a bare stage and overblown kitschy glitz like Phantom of the Opera.
Aaron... Albeit a Sex Hero
is a fun and unpredictable movie that deserves an audience. It offers
an offbeat story and two scruffy but attractive leads who heat up the
screen. Take a walk on the wild side, you won't be sorry.