Golden Years (1982)


Directed by Toby Ross
****

Less of a narrative (despite an odd framing device that never gets any kind of explanation) means there is more of a focus on the action. Most of which is heavily stylised, like the naked dance that opens the film or the fantasy fireside sex at the end.

 Uses pop music in a hilarious way that adds to the mood. One scene, featuring a vaguely bored boy, is set to Emerson, Lake & Palmer's 'C'est La Vie', giving the scene a touch of bitterweet melancholy that actuallly works, even if I doubt it's what Ross intended. But the best scene in the film is a lengthy solo session where a naked guy walks around the house vaguely horny. Unlike many solos in modern gay porn, climax isn't the point, more of an erotic exploration. It feels unlike anything else I've seen in erotic cinema because it doesn't feel performative, but merely an expression of this guy feeling himself.

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