Marcus Hu Movies
One woman's day goes all to pot in this resinous comedy from independent filmmaker Gregg Araki. Jane (Anna Faris) is a college dropout and aspiring actress who suffers from a certain lack of ambition, doubtless reinforced by her fondness for marijuana. One morning, Jane wakes with a busy day ahead of her -- she has a big audition, she has to pay the electric bill on her apartment to prevent the power from being shut off, and she needs to pick up some pot after paying her debt to her dealer -- and decides to take the edge off her anxieties by getting a little stoned. Under the influence, the cupcakes her roommate Steve (Danny Masterson) has made for his friends to enjoy at the weekend's Sci-Fi convention look too good to resist, and she gobbles them down. What Jane doesn't realize until it's too late is that the baked goods were laced with some especially strong marijuana, and what starts as a pleasant buzz turns into a world-class high that refuses to go away. As Jane struggles to make her way through the day, fate keeps throwing her into strange and surreal situations involving police officers, Steve's lovesick best friend, and a rare original manuscript of The Communist Manifesto. Smiley Face also stars Adam Brody, John Krasinski, Jane Lynch, Michael Hitchcock, John Cho and Roscoe Lee Browne. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Faris, Roscoe Lee Browne, (more)
- 2000
The third entry in the Boys Life series collects another set of gay-themed indie shorts. In Inside Out, writer/director/producer Jason Gould -- son of Barbra Streisand and Elliott Gould -- plays Aaron, a slightly fictionalized version of himself. Over the course of 30 minutes, Aaron dodges paparazzi, dates a closet case, hangs out with his best friend (Alexis Arquette), and attends a celebrity child support group run by writer/guru Christina Crawford. Gould's father and his stepbrother, Sam Gould, appear as thinly veiled versions of themselves, while several other celeb offspring make cameos. Des Majorettes Dans L'Espace (Majorettes in Space), by French writer/director David Fourier, examines AIDS, religious values, and sexual freedom through a mixture of playful animation, tongue-in-cheek narration, and sometimes mournful live-action scenes. Hitch, directed by Bradley Rust Gray, maps out the sexual tension between two chain-smoking young men, one bisexual and one straight, as they travel the Southwest in a retro van. Writer/producer Christopher Landon's $30, directed by Gregory Cooke, portrays the unorthodox meeting between a matter-of-fact young hooker (Sara Gilbert) and a skittish teenaged virgin (Erik MacArthur) whose father has purchased the girl's services as a gift. And in the seven-minute Just One Time, triple-threat filmmaker Lane Janger plays a ménage à trois-obsessed man who begs his girlfriend (Joelle Carter) to have sex with him and another woman. Things heat up when their gay and lesbian neighbors (Guillermo Diaz and Jennifer Esposito) overhear the couple fighting. The entire cast of Just One Time reunited for Janger's feature of the same name, which appeared around the same time as Boys Life 3. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Robert Lee King directs this wacky, campy fusion of teenaged surfer flicks and slasher sagas. Impossibly perky Florence (Lauren Ambrose) doesn't quite fit in at her thoroughly square high school in her seaside Southern California town -- that is, until she happens upon a band of ultra-hip surfer dudes. Renaming herself "Chicklet," she tries her gosh-darnedest to be the sole girl riding the waves with the group led by suave Kanaka (Thomas Gibson). While adopting her surfer alter ego, Florence soon discovers that other less pleasant personalities emerge when confronted with the sight of polka dots. One called Anne Bowman is a tough, "experienced" older lady, while the other, Tylene, is a stereotypical sassy black woman. Blacking out whenever these other personalities take over, Florence becomes increasingly worried that she is responsible for a series of grizzly murders. Of course, she is far from the only suspicious character in her oceanside community -- there's B-movie star Bettina Barnes (Kimberly Davies), Swedish exchange student Lars (Matt Keeslar), and Florence's own unnervingly-perfect mom (Beth Broderick). This film was adapted from a popular off-Broadway play written by Charles Busch. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lauren Ambrose, Thomas Gibson, (more)
Producer-turned-director Lane Janger also stars in this sexual comedy of manners about a woman who turns her groom-to-be's sapphic fantasies back on him. Just a few weeks before he's due to be married, fireman Anthony (Janger) decides that it's now-or-never time for his fantasy of making love to his fiancée, Amy (Joelle Carter), and another woman at the same time. Although she has repeatedly rejected such a scenario, this time an angry Amy agrees -- as long as Anthony will make love with her and another man at the same time. Soon, the couple find themselves going on "dates" outside their relationship. Anthony grudgingly allows Victor (Guillermo Diaz), a closeted, inexperienced college student who's had a crush on him since high school, to hang out with him and his firehouse cronies, hoping all the while that Amy will call his bluff. Amy, meanwhile, befriends Victor's pal Michelle (Jennifer Esposito), a lesbian furniture maker recovering from a recent breakup. Anthony's fellow firefighters adjust surprisingly well to their colleague's new friend, but problems ensue when Amy's expatriate parents show up early for the wedding, interrupting their daughter's tentative experimentation. Just One Time began its life as an eight-minute short that premiered at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival; it was screened with the feature Ma Vie En Rose during that film's Canadian theatrical run and was later included in the collection Boy's Life 3. Principals Esposito, Carter, and Diaz reprise their roles from the short, while Janger shares screenwriting duties with Columbia film school alumna Jennifer Vandever in a novel arrangement that allowed them to collaborate on the first act and then split up, with his scribing the second act and her the third. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lane Janger, Joelle Carter, (more)
Tommy O'Haver wrote and directed this gay lifestyle comedy about aspiring photographer Billy (Sean P. Hayes) who encounters rocky romantic roads intersecting among an assortment of Los Angelenos -- handsome Fernando (Armando Valdes-Kennedy), who has a steady boyfriend; blond waiter Gabriel (Brad Rowe), who has a San Francisco girlfriend; Billy's roommate Georgiana (Meredith Scott Lynn); and pal Perry (Richard Ganoung). Entranced by Gabriel, Billy takes him on as a model and introduces him at gallery openings and parties, only to see Gabriel leave for better modeling assignments with well-known fashion photographer Rex Webster (Paul Bartel). Fantasy sequences parody Vertigo, '30s musicals, and From Here to Eternity. Shown at 1998 film festivals, including Berlin and Sundance. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Hayes, Brad Rowe, (more)
A group of old college friends work through their long-standing sexual tensions when they reunite for a wedding in this comedy-drama. Bob (Alexis Arquette), a student at George Washington University, has a mad crush on his buff, beautiful roommate, Brendan (Christian Maelen). Brendan senses the attraction, but rejects Bob violently during a play wrestling match that goes a little too far. A few years later, the young men's mutual friends -- Matt (Jamie Harrold) and Carol (Lauren Velez) -- decide to tie the knot, and the old gang reassembles. TV writer Bob brings along his conceited soap-star boyfriend, Sterling (Tuc Watkins). Brendan comes dateless, but old flame Sarah (Marianne Hagan) -- now a conservative senator's aide -- puts the moves on him. Meanwhile, their friend Eric (Guillermo Diaz) vacillates between hooking up with long-lost lady friend Beth (Maddie Corman) or with the nubile sister of the bride. During the wedding reception, Brendan corners Bob and confesses that he, too, is now gay -- and that he's in love with Bob. This doesn't sit well with the newly self-sufficient Bob, who's finally found a backbone and doesn't want to relive painful college memories. But with stick-in-the-mud Sterling around to remind him that his new life isn't exactly perfect, Bob soon finds himself alone in a hotel room with the object of his youthful affection. The debut feature from writer/director Brian Sloan, I Think I Do was produced by Lane Janger, a fellow participant in the Boys Life anthology series. Janger would go on to cast Guillermo Diaz in his own debut feature, Just One Time. Actress/singer Marni Nixon has a cameo as Carol's wise old Aunt Alice -- her first screen role since appearing in 1965's The Sound of Music. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alexis Arquette, Christian Maelen, (more)
- 1996
Bruce LaBruce produced, co-wrote, co-directed, and starred in this satiric black sex comedy about gay hustlers and their customers in Santa Monica, California. Monti Ward (Tony Ward), a male prostitute, is dead, floating face down in a Jacuzzi as the story begins, and in voice over, Monti describes the circumstances that led him to this cruel fate. Jurgen Anger (Bruce LaBruce), a writer from Europe, is in California researching a book on prostitution, and when he sees Monti, he decides that this is the man he wants to be his tour guide. Jurgen offers Monti $1,000 to tell him stories about "work" (which is more profitable and less taxing than what most of his clients put him through), and Monti agrees. However, Monti is no male whore with a heart of gold; earlier the same day, he stole a car and ran over the foot of Eigil Vesti (Kevin P. Scott), another hustler (though after his foot has to be taken off, Eigil discovers a lucrative sideline working with amputation fetishists). As Monti regales Jurgen with tales about johns who like knives, duct tape, or any number of other strange and disgusting things, the writer finds himself developing a serious crush on his hustler. Leading man Tony Ward previously worked as a model and appeared in several videos with Madonna, including "Justify My Love" and "Cherish." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Ward, Bruce LaBruce, (more)
A man pursues his sexual obsessions to their darkest and most dangerous extremes in this gay-themed drama based on a novel by Dennis Cooper. Dennis (Michael Gunther) is a gay man, who as a teenager developed a perverse attraction to violent pornography and simulated snuff photographs, which he describes in great detail in a series of letters to his former lover Julian (Jaie Laplante). As Dennis grows older, his fascination with the darker side of the sexual underground grows more intense, and in time he meets Henry (Craig Chester), a masochist who posed for some of the pictures that sparked his interest in S&M. When Dennis learns that Henry was murdered, he weaves the incident into an elaborate fantasy, in which Dennis suffers a painful death in a dungeon of erotic torture. In time, Dennis graduates from violent fantasies to sadistic interludes with a male prostitute (Michael Stock) and eventually plans a series of sexually-oriented murders, concluding with an episode in which Dennis and two collaborators (Parker Posey and James Lyons) drug a young punk (Alexis Arquette) into unconsciousness. After having group sex, Dennis and his cohorts murder the punk. As one might expect, Frisk proved to be highly controversial and received a sharply divided reaction in its screening as the closing night attraction at the 1996 San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival; some hailed it as a disturbing and iconoclastic masterpiece, while roughly half the audience angrily stormed out of the theater before the film's conclusion. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Gunther, Parker Posey, (more)
Richard Glatzer's bittersweet comedy concerns the production of a sleazy tabloid television program called "The Love Judge" and the problems that arise when the Divine-esque producer Jo (Kent Fuher) announces that he/she is leaving to become a Hungarian housewife. Mark (Craig Chester), the head writer who is mourning the loss of his lover to AIDS, spends the time he has not mourning worrying about whether he'll get a promotion to producer of the show after his boss leaves. In his way is the smarmy Paula (Lucy Gutteridge), who also is hoping for the promotion. In the meantime, Mark is flirting with male office worker Bill (Alexis Arquette), even though his old college friend Jeremy (Carlton Wilborn) is warning against Mark's flirtation -- for reasons of his own. In the midst of all this, it's no wonder that the office secretary Leslie (Illeana Douglas) has sworn off men altogether. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Craig Chester, Jackie Beat, (more)
- 1994
This pseudo-documentary profiles Bruce, a fictional gay porn actor/and director. The film features some hard-core sexual activity that may be disturbing to some viewers. The "creator" of the documentary is the artistically affected Googie. Most of her scenes end in blackouts of Bruce, his former lovers, and his lesbian punkette buddies Wednesday & Jane Friday. There are also numerous clips of Bruce's porno films, with titles such as "I Am a Fugitive from a Gang Bang, and "My Hustler, My Self." Also included are clips from Googie's own attempt at experimental filmmaking, "Submit to My Finger." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce LaBruce, Liza Lamonica, (more)
- 1993
- NR
A group of gay and lesbian teen characters addresses the camera directly in this pseudo-documentary about the travails of queer adolescence in early-'90s Los Angeles. Andy (James Duval), who hides his sensitive side beneath a nihilistic exterior, really yearns to find a nice boyfriend and settle down the way his pal Steven (Gilbert Luna), an aspiring filmmaker, has with boyfriend Deric (Lance May). Meanwhile, their sex-crazed friend Tommy (Roko Belic) has been kicked out by his parents for being homosexual. The only seemingly carefree members of this adoptive family are Michele (Susan Behshid) and Patricia (Jenee Gill), a lesbian couple whose desire to raise a child together leads the boys to participate in a group sperm donation during one of the film's many scenes of these characters just hanging out and rapping about AIDS, fag-bashing, homophobia, and alienation. In-between polemicizing and posing in front of Steven's camera for interviews, Andy meets college student Ian (Alan Boyce), who seems, at least for a while, to be Mr. Right. Just as Andy and Ian's relationship begins to blossom, Steven and Deric's starts to fall apart, but nothing's for certain in director Gregg Araki's angst-ridden world. Framed as 15 vignettes, each one introduced by an ironic intertitle and many of them interspersed with graphic sexual and commercial images, Totally F***ed Up marked the end of Araki's no-budget phase; the glossy, gaudy Doom Generation would follow two years later. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Duval, Roko Belic, (more)
A gentle film critic hooks up with a violent drifter in this HIV-positive road movie, which marked the emergence of writer/director Gregg Araki into the art house mainstream. Jon (Craig Gilmore) has just learned he has the virus that causes AIDS. Still in a state of shock, he stumbles through his usual routine -- until he meets Luke (Mike Dytri), a hunky, gun-toting hitchhiker who has just stolen a car from a pair of homicidal lesbians and shot a trio of would-be gay bashers. Against his better judgment, Jon lets Luke stay at his place and soon finds himself drawn into the nihilistic stranger's world; it doesn't hurt that Luke is also HIV-positive and hot to get inside Jon's pants. Things take a Bonnie and Clyde turn when Luke kills a policeman. The pair go on the lam, first to San Francisco, then all over the western United States. Jon keeps his best friend, Darcy (Darcy Marta), apprised of his situation via a series of ever more infrequent collect calls. But as the road trip continues, Jon becomes increasingly disillusioned with Luke's belief that since they're doomed to die, they should lead consequence-free lives. Like Araki's later movies, The Living End is peppered with pop culture detritus and features a soundtrack heavy on industrial and alternative music -- in this case Psychic TV, Coil, and Fred Gianelli. Marta is a veteran of Araki's earlier Three Bewildered People in the Night, while several other cast members, including Gilmore, would go on to appear in the director's Totally F***ed Up. The Living End's many cameos include performance artist Johanna Went, Eating Raoul director Paul Bartel, Warhol associate Mary Woronov, and Peter Grame, star of the obscure European film Das Gluck Beim Haendewaschen. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mike Dytri, Craig Gilmore, (more)
