The fantasy/sf genres are replete with stories of people going back in time to correct their mistakes or give advice to their past selves in order to have an effect on the future.
But the problem with advice is that the smart don't need it and the stupid won't use it – and, as Booth Tarkington famously wrote in The Magnificent Ambersons, "Let me explain a little: I don't think he'll change—at twenty-one or twenty-two so many things appear solid and permanent and terrible which forty sees are nothing but disappearing miasma. Forty can't tell twenty about this; that's the pity of it! Twenty can find out only by getting to be forty." Philosophically, I am against this type of story because, in the end, we are defined by our choices. Danny Reyes/Zachery Wells doesn't have the courage to live with the choices he's made and build a better future having learned from experience. The idea of going back in time to talk to your past self and inform him of all the ways in which you screwed up your life is pure folly and an abdication of personal responsibility.
However, I prefer to read the film as one generation of gay men giving valuable, fatherly guidance to another. An older gay man says to the twink, "Watch out, kid, gay life can be a minefield. Here's how to navigate it." Though the script provides a few cringe worthy moments in the first act, the solid direction and uniformly good performances make up for it. Sean Paul Lockhart proved to be a tremendous surprise; though his part was small, the former adult star turned in a performance with great emotional depth and sincerity. The kid isn't just a pretty face.
This is one of the best gay titles I've screened in years.
But the problem with advice is that the smart don't need it and the stupid won't use it – and, as Booth Tarkington famously wrote in The Magnificent Ambersons, "Let me explain a little: I don't think he'll change—at twenty-one or twenty-two so many things appear solid and permanent and terrible which forty sees are nothing but disappearing miasma. Forty can't tell twenty about this; that's the pity of it! Twenty can find out only by getting to be forty." Philosophically, I am against this type of story because, in the end, we are defined by our choices. Danny Reyes/Zachery Wells doesn't have the courage to live with the choices he's made and build a better future having learned from experience. The idea of going back in time to talk to your past self and inform him of all the ways in which you screwed up your life is pure folly and an abdication of personal responsibility.
However, I prefer to read the film as one generation of gay men giving valuable, fatherly guidance to another. An older gay man says to the twink, "Watch out, kid, gay life can be a minefield. Here's how to navigate it." Though the script provides a few cringe worthy moments in the first act, the solid direction and uniformly good performances make up for it. Sean Paul Lockhart proved to be a tremendous surprise; though his part was small, the former adult star turned in a performance with great emotional depth and sincerity. The kid isn't just a pretty face.
This is one of the best gay titles I've screened in years.
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