Though it might sound like five minutes of a Todd Solondz movie stretched to nearly 20 times that, Elliott Tuttle’s feature debut certainly goes the distance, even if its uncompromising nature will be too tough for mainstream consideration. But for braver audiences, notably those more used to Europe’s cinema of provocation, Blue Film speaks out loud about the unspeakable, featuring scenes that would leave even Gaspar Noé gasping. It helps that it’s a very deftly played two-hander, which allows the controversial premise to breathe, giving life and depth to both its characters. It could also do for newcomer Kieron Moore what Love is the Devil did for Daniel Craig, revealing him as a magnetic screen presence unafraid to address issues of masculinity and homosexuality.
The opening sequence is a lot; Moore plays Aaron Eagle, who is what they apparently call a “camboy”, basically an online male escort who taunts his submissive gay audience with his jacked, tattooed body and sexually loaded insults. All he’s wearing is a pair of white briefs, but the hidden booty of what’s inside gets the cash registers ringing. Aaron is pretty good as this, and the money is flowing in. But even by his own flush standards he’s about to strike gold: an anonymous fan has offered to pay him $50,000 for an overnight stay, and, much to the fan’s surprise, he’s taking him up on the offer.
We see this when the man, wearing a balaclava, opens the door to his single-use Airbnb and finds Aaron on the doorstep with his overnight bag. Aaron is good to go, but the man has other plans, insisting that his guest sit down first for an extensive video interview. It becomes pretty clear that this mysterious stranger knows a lot more about Aaron than he has bargained for, chipping away at his cultivated but clearly fake identity in ways that leaves him vulnerable — and angry. From this point on, it’s impossible to discuss the film without revealing what could be construed a major plot point, though instead of a spoiler alert, it may be fairer to call it a trigger warning.
Removing his balaclava, the man reveals himself to be Hank Grant (Reed Birney), a former teacher at Aaron’s junior school. Hank made headlines for molesting one of Aaron’s classmates, going to prison for the crime. And his reasons for wanting this hook-up with Aaron are beyond disturbing: Hank reveals that he was smitten with Aaron as a child, and has carried a torch for him ever since. “I want to know if I still love you,” he says.
At this point, the cards are on the table, and you are well within your rights never to come near this film if that plot development offends you. Nevertheless, though his attempts to “humanize” pedophilia sometimes stray into the grayest zones of questionable taste, Elliott’s film does carry water. The goal of the film is not to gloss over Hank’s criminal needs — an affliction he at least affects to wrestle with — but to investigate the ways that desire creates a power imbalance that so easily becomes abuse. Aaron is violent and dominant, but Hank is more stealthy and calculated. Both men know what they are, and the magnetic center of the film is their disgust with each other, an initial repulsion that slowly ebbs away over the course of the night (as they say, game recognizes game).
Again, it’s strong meat, but smart audiences will pick up on its themes of perverse destiny, and not just gay audiences at that. It plays out like a twisted Richard Linklater movie — a BDSM Before Sunrise — but approach with caution: though it probes some similar issues, Blue Film is the very antithesis of a date movie.
Title: Blue FilmFestival: Edinburgh International Film Festival (Competition)Director/screenwriter: Elliott TuttleCast: Kieron Moore, Reed BirneySales agent: SubmarineRunning time: 1 hr 30 mins
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