|
|
Regular
Price $24.95
Starring:
Frank Bank,
John Sebastian (III),
Al Ruscio,
David Kent,
Joseph Mell,
Directed By:
Don Taylor,
Rated: Unrated
Release Date: 1962-04-02
Studio: Picture This
Format:
Color,
DVD-Video,
NTSC,
|
Customer Reviews for
Boys Briefs
Well Done
I found this DVD quite entertaining, at times touching, at times almost tragic, but over-all, quality entertainment. There are many stories to be told about this subject matter.Boys Briefs
A great selection of shorts! From a biased guy.
This is a really great bunch of shorts. Of course, I would say that, being that I wrote & directed the longest short on it, "Fairy Tale".
This 30 minute film took 3 years to make when I was 24 years old, just a couple of years out of NYU. We shot on 16mm in 1996 and it premiered in 1998 at Outfest in LA. It went on to win some awards and screen at over a couple dozen festivals around the world.
To make "Fairy Tale as a young indie filmmaker, I had to max out my credit cards to the tune of $30K when my annual salary as a temp/secretary was about $29K. My relatives and friends thought I was crazy. Looking back on it, I'm really happy I did. So many people have bought "Boys Briefs" on VHS and DVD and have let me know how much they like the film. I've long since paid off my credit card debt and moved on to higher paying gigs, and have made another short called "Target Audience" which recently showed on Showtime. Even understanding all the struggle that was put into it, "Fairy Tale" will always be really special to me.
I'm really happy and thankful the people at Picture This decided to distribute it-- they're the real thing, a great independent company run by good people. If you want to support gay cinema and you like smarter movies, put your money toward DVDs & tapes like this. Independent filmmaking can only exist because of stuff like this.
Best wishes, and I hope you enjoy!
Dave
[...]Boys Briefs
Eclectic collection of gay short cinema
Well the idea is always good -- showcasing short cinema, in this case with a common theme of young gay men coming to terms with their sexuality. Yet, as with nearly every short film collection, some of the installments are great, some are pretty lousy.
"Smear" is as confused as is the protagonist (at least I think he was the protagonist). "Front Room" is a gimmick that is more akin to something a high-school student would do in the privacy of his bedroom.
"The Absolution of Anthony" is good, especially with a cast that includes Victor Garber (of "Titanic" fame). "Stanley Beloved" is even better, but the ending is so unresolved and the characters so underdeveloped, I found it hard to care for it beyond the limited scope.
"Fairy Tale," while second-best here, is a bit uneven and I thought some of the characters were broadly-drawn and stereotypical, but there is some real depth to the plot and the dialogue. Like any short story or short film, it is difficult to keep the pace up without feeling rushed. This one handles it pretty well, with a few fits and starts that frustrated me. Still and all, among the dramatic pieces here, it was the most emotionally satisfying given the genre.
BEST BY FAR is "Piglets." I haven't laughed out loud like that in quite a while. The bizarre situations and characters made me watch this one over and over. I like the pantomime aspect of it, it is a German production, which lends a universal feel to it all. Kudos!
I'm renting Boys Briefs 2 soon -- let's see if our fortunes improve a bit...
Boys Briefs
Miserable
What amazes me is that there was a demand for more Boys Briefs movies after this one. Every single "brief" was a complete failure. The first brief, The Absolution of Anthony (as if there was any absolution) featured a young Hispanic on the verge of coming out, who had a very odd "hobby" of calling random people out of the phone book and asking them to tell him that they wanted to *blank* him. It ended with what was a hint of an encounter with a (likely) heterosexual. The most ambitious, Fairy Tale, was miserably unbelievable. A guy goes home for his birthday bringing his partner of three and half years, and is so upset by his mother's coldness that he runs into the woods and has sex with a stranger. There's a terrible attempt at symbolism, with a red hat and a forest, and Little Red Riding Hood - it just doesn't work.
I had very low expectations, but I thought that at least one would be good. I was very wrong.
Boys Briefs
Host segments
I agree that these shorts are pretty lame. The name of the other host is Jason J. Tobin, who recently appeared in "Better Luck Tomorrow" and also starred in "Yellow."Boys Briefs
|
