A Horny Vampire

Directed by Bruce LaBruce **** To watch a Bruce LaBruce film is to wait patiently for it to exhaust itself or to give up and get intensely frustrated. It's why they tend to work better when you're thinking about them afterwards. The Raspberry Reich is this at it's most extreme. LaBruce's provocations are incredibly overbearing here. Not just in sexually explicit material, but in the style of performance and visual appearance, splashing text all over screen to deliberately challenge and subvert the visuals, most often during those sex scenes. So, there'll be two guys fucking while CORNFLAKES ARE CAPITALISM flashes on the screen like a hyper socially conscious Noe. And that gets exhausting after a while. But as I sat in bed, trying to go to sleep, I couldn't shake the idea that The Raspberry Reich had something more important to say. And then it hit me, this is perhaps the only film I've seen that comes close to examining the overwhelming s...

Directed by Bruce LaBruce ***1/2 Is it weird that this is the LaBruce film I've liked the most? It helps that he's not on screen. Watching one of his films is so frustrating. Underneath all the lazy, empty provactions (skinhead cumming to Hitler = eye roll), there are some interesting ideas about different ways to live as M/M (gay homophobic bullies vs domestic middle-class gays). Extended porn version is a better, smarter film (no joke, I promise).

Directed by Wakefield Poole **** The first half contains some of the most beautiful imagery I've seen in erotic cinema. Gorgeously colourful and psychedelic visuals have an abstract meaning but are always visually arresting. The second half featuring a looooong orgy scene goes forever. While it's interesting to see how each guy's kink manifests itself with different depictions of gay sexual activity, I craved for something more tangible. Still, Wakefield Poole remains a smart pornographer whose work is seriously underrated. Highly recommend the Vinegar Syndrome DVD which features a stunning restoration and a fun little interview with Linda Williams. Her book, Screening Sex, has shot straight to the top of my purchase list.

Directed by Bruce LaBruce * A completely pointless infuriating follow up to Otto . While that film demonstrated that LaBruce has ideas backing up his provocations, this is nothing but gross sex. Wound fucking, mindless sex and a confusing narrative that never coalesces into something meaningful. Especially frustrating given there are moments that stumble towards something poignant. The aching loneliness that pervaded Otto is here, hiding just out of sight, giving this awfully dull film an air of melancholy. LaBruce is just interested in grossing out by shoving a weird penis in an open chest wound for no reason other than to shock. Shock works best when paired with narrative or thematic value and that has none. As a porn film (I watched the hardcore director's cut version), this also fails. The sex, after it gets past the gross bit, is formulaic and predictable. The orgy scene that ends the film doesn't even feature Sagat and feels like time wasting. One posi...