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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Realtionships > Gay > Television > Lesbian > Sex Industry > Drama > Love Story > BoysTown: Season One, Episodes 5 & 6 (2012)/Kamikaze Hearts (1986)/Morgan (2012/Water Bearer Films DVDs)

BoysTown: Season One, Episodes 5 & 6 (2012)/Kamikaze Hearts (1986)/Morgan (2012/Water Bearer Films DVDs)

 

Picture: C+/C/C+     Sound: C+/C/C     Extras: D/D/B     Main Programs: C/C+/B-

 

 

Now for the latest gay & lesbian releases from Water Bearer Films:

 

 

BoysTown: Season One, Episodes 5 & 6 (2012) continues what they have decided to claim is a single season in progress despite running since 2004.  That is some kind of record if one considers 8 years not too long for a season, though I can hear the Moonlighting jokes now.  We have covered the previous double episodes DVDs of the show at the following links:

 

1 & 2

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11474/BoysTown:+Episodes+1+&+2+(2004,

 

3 & 4

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11694/BoysTown:+Season+One,+Ep.+3+&

 

 

We get more of the same that is watchable, but the storylines are starting to wear thin a little and the actors can only do so much with their roles.  I am not expecting Dallas or Dynasty, but less clichés and predictability would have been nice.  The actors have stayed well with their roles, but the writing needs to take a new course.

 

There are no extras.

 

 

Juliet Bashore’s Kamikaze Hearts (1986) is a semi-fictional look at a lesbian XXX star (Sharon Mitchell) back in the mid-1980s dealing with the politics, ups and downs of the hardcore sex industry as it is mostly produced on analog videotape and as wacky as ever.  This film is shot on film however and wants to be an important, honest drama on the subject, but the results are mixed and it becomes a rare time capsule instead of a time when you could make big money on XXX titles prior to the Internet, big cable, big satellite and the digital era.

 

In one way, it is amusing and almost charming, but at 87 minutes is more than enough and for some (especially those looking for a lesbian cinematic discourse) may find it even landmark.  It is at least a record, even by accident, of a time long gone and ironically, AIDS is hardly a subject so it is the last of such films on this subject that will ever get made.

 

There are no extras.

 

 

Finally we have a big surprise in Michael Akers’ Morgan (2012) which is one of the best gay dramas and independent dramas I have seen in a while.  The title character (Lee Minaya) is a very athletic, energetic guy who loves sports and the outdoors, but a fatal turn in a bike race leaves him in a wheelchair and he has to deal with many issues as a result, including being alone.

 

One day, he is going by a basketball court when meets Dean (Jack Kesy) who is also gay and is interested in him.  Dean has his won resent problems and rough past, but they start to fall for each other and get involved against the odds.  From there, the film gets better and shows us a real love story that defies the genre and sexuality that was a real nice surprise.

 

The scenes with the other actors are hit or miss, but the scenes between the leads are very effective because the actors have chemistry, believability and play as very personal, private and intimate.  Remarkable and the best gay cinema I have seen in sometime, Morgan is worth going out of your way for.

 

Extras include a feature length audio commentary track by Akers and Producer Sandon Berg (who co-wrote the script) that is good but is drowned out slightly by the audio of the film, Original Theatrical Trailer, Deleted Scenes that show how smart they were in figuring out how to avoid clichés, Slideshow and a Behind The Scenes featurette.

 

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on all three releases are a bit soft and save Hearts (shot on 16mm film in an older video master) are digital HD shoots.  Morgan looks the best by a narrow margin and the makers actually knew how to push the format so it would not look generic.  The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on Morgan is a little better than its Dolby 2.0 Stereo mix or the PCM 2.0 Stereo mixes on the other Water Bearer DVDs.  The newer releases have some location audio issues, while Hearts is slightly compressed.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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