GAY
FILM REVIEWS BY MICHAEL D. KLEMM
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GAY
FILM REVIEWS BY MICHAEL D. KLEMM
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The New Twenty Wolfe
Video, Director:
Screenplay:
Starring:
Unrated, 92 minutes |
Lovers
And Friends
The expression, thirty is the new twenty (and its variations), has become a popular phrase in our lexicon. I know that I, when I hit the half century mark last year, also began saying that fifty is the new forty. The New Twenty is the debut film from out director Chris Mason Johnson, and it chronicles the adventures of five inseparable college friends, three straight and two gay, who are contemplating the direction (or lack thereof) their lives are taking as they reach the end of their second decade on Earth. |
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Andrew is clearly the alpha dog and the leader of this pack. His ambitions will tear apart the longtime bonds that once held this small circle of friends together. A chance meeting, on the squash courts, with a forty-something venture capitalist named Louie Kennick (Terry Serpico) sets in motion Andrew's dream to go into an unspecified business for himself. |
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 Much
of The New Twenty revolves
around this business venture, but this is also an ensemble drama like Diner
or Love! Valour!
Compassion! and so the tale is flavored by the stories of the other
participants as well. Tony becomes involved with Robert Cameron (Bill
Sage), a university professor. Tony is commitment-phobic, and he also
has to deal with the fact that Robert, though healthy, is HIV positive.
Felix has taken up with a young woman who shares his interest in drugs.
He claims that they are only "fuckbuddies" and that there is nothing serious
between them. Felix is often depressed and calls his moods "a touch of existential
malaise due to late capitalism." Ben, who comically writes online that he
looks like Sam in The Lord Of The Rings, bombs out on one internet
date after another. Louie, the investor, acts as a catalyst for change and,
ultimately, destruction within the group. |
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 The
New Twenty
is not about being gay. In fact, it fills the criterion for Vito Russo's
old dream, when he wrote The
Celluloid Closet back in the 1980s, that someday there would be
films in which characters would be simply gay and their sexuality would
be incidental to the story. More and more men and women are out these days,
and it makes sense for the movies to reflect this by depicting circles of
friends that include gay comrades. It is commendable that neither of the
two gay men are the usual fabulous sidekicks that proliferated in late 90s
cinema - and still do, to an extent, today. The inclusiveness of this dramatis
personae is also extended to Asian siblings - another plus in the film's
favor. |
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 While
there is no clear "star," Andrew dominates much of the action. (He also
provides much of the film's eye candy.) Andrew is the proverbial life of
the party who often turns out to be a complete dick. Ben begs Andrew for
a job with his new business, and Andrew strings the poor sluggard along.
Feeling guilty, and also diverting attention from the job that he has no
intention of ever offering, he asks Ben to be his best man - angering his
fiance in the process because she thought her brother, Tony, was the first
choice. Tony is slated to work with Andrew, but he changes his mind when
he overhears the obnoxious Louie refer to him as a" faggot." By
making a Faustian pact with an outsider, Andrew's true self blooms and he
turns into a first class bastard. Driven by ambition, he manages to alienate
everyone. Everything falls apart following a disastrous stag party. |
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More on Chris Mason Johnson: Bill
Sage also appears in:
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 CLICK THE ABOVE BANNER TO PURCHASE THIS WOLFE VIDEO TITLE |
Andrew
Hatch (Ryan Locke) and Julie Kim (Nicole Bilderback) have just announced
their plans to wed. Both are successful Wall Street investment bankers
and, because the film is set in 2006, the stock market meltdown is still
in the future. Julie would actually like to quit her job, but she has
just received another promotion which she laughingly attributes to her
bank's desire to have a "hot Asian chick" in the public eye. Julie's brother,
Tony (Andrew Wei Lin), is gay and, judging from some of his sideline glances,
probably once had the hots for Andrew. Tony's roommate, Felix Canavan
(Thomas Sadoski), was once considered to be the brightest of the bunch
in college but now he has a secret heroin habit. Ben Barr (Colin Fickes)
is also gay but, unlike Tony, seems to be in the closet. He is a chubby
couch potato and slacker who spends his time cruising internet chatrooms
and watching television. 
Louie
is confirmed as a jerk from the beginning, not to mention a homophobe
who doesn't mind getting checked out by other men, when he first begins
to bond with Andrew in a sauna. Upon discovering that both Andrew and
Julie are bankers, Louie strikes a nerve when he asks "Who makes more
money?" and then laughs and says "She does, doesn't she?" Admitting that
he sometimes goes too far, Louie also claims that it's his "job description."
He might be straight, but he nevertheless seduces Andrew with the lure
of hypothetical riches 
The
New Twenty nicely mixes the comic and the dramatic. The
acting by all is exceptional. The colorful cinematography employs a lot
of moving cameras, and jump cuts, and is flashy without being grating.
The movie's tone nicely illustrates the frenetic ambitions of this group
of Generation-Xers. Montage transitions are kept to a minimum and the
music during them, unlike in so many other indie films, doesn't stop the
movie cold. Without being obvious, or resorting to overly melodramatic
set pieces, the scenes flow loosely and organically into one another,
thus reflecting real life. Ensemble films like this often become vehicles
for frat boy humor of the lowest sort. In this case, the viewer really
gets a sense of these friends who wish they can cling to their carefree
college days forever but, as often happens, they are beginning to splinter
and drift apart. Will the marriage between Andrew and Julie go off without
a hitch? Will Tony stay with Robert or will the professor's HIV status
drive him away? Will Ben ever get laid? This is an impressive first film
and I hope this isn't the last that we hear from this director.