Hooks To The Left (2007/Water Bearer)

 

Picture: C-     Sound: C     Extras: C-     Main Program: C

 

 

There have been plenty of gay male hustler stories, but Todd Verow’s Hooks To The Left (2007) wants to make it seedy in a new way by shooting it all on a picture capture cell phone.  This would be often explicit if one could actually see what is going on, but it is a more ambitious experiment than it might have been had it come out of a film school.  Queer cinema has more at stake, so it tends to be more sincere in its experimentation than those (gay, straight or otherwise) for those who think they are artists or trying to be the next money machine.

 

However, despite a narrative of sorts travelling through the life of the hustler dubbed “nail” here, it still has the likes of Midnight Cowboy to compete with and it veers more towards non-narrative work that tries to create a feel than tell its story, though the story has been told so many times before.  At least it distinguishes itself form many other such efforts.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image may have a good transfer, but this was shot on an old cell phone with early picture capture, so the earliest scenes have digital blocking and later shots are not much better.  This has some advantages as far as sending up what we see, but could wear the patience of some out depending on what the viewer wants to see or not see.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound has voice over and is laid over other audio in an adequate way, but fidelity and mixing have their limits.  The only extra is an interview with director Verow.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo