Skip to main content

Johns

By Golu
This is a metaphorical story about people's dreams as they search for themselves and some meaning to life. Unfortunately, not much of those metaphors were interesting enough to hold my attention. It seems like people enjoyed this movie but for me, it didn't do much. 

Its Christmas Eve and John, a male prostitute has a plan for Christmas which also happens to be his birthday. He wants to make enough money so that he can stay in a luxurious hotel for one night. John works on a street in Santa Monica Blvd in LA trying to make money. One of his close associates is a friend of his barely 18 who left home because he was gay. Interestingly John is not gay. He has a girlfriend. Throughout the film we meet his clients, his friends, his enemies, and we are a voyeur to the problems he faces in his line of work. He's a likeable chap. In al this he also has a $300 dollar loan that he has to pay back to a drug dealer. The film continues to show us what happens in the life of John in that one day. The day is sooooo long in the film, yet John's shortage of the stuff keeps up the tension and sympathy, especially as he allows himself to take bigger risks, and the viewer knows it, as the camera indicates visual clues as to his possible next chapter in the day. David Arquette plays the character of John with total honestly. I think I was able to watch the film only because of that. Otherwise the film had not much to offer. The character of his young gay friend was also not clearly sketched. He liked John but John had no feelings for him. And randomly there were a lot of characters being introduced which would affect the flow. Way below average for my taste. (2.5/10)
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
I think you might have rated this one too highly... I do not own this one I think I got to see it on like IFC or something. Did not really do much for me at all.
June 20, 2010 at 10:41 AM
Golu said…
I sometimes rate it just for visual appeal of lead characters :)
June 22, 2010 at 1:55 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Shortest Distance is Round 3: Fallen Flowers

By Golu
Continuing with the weird trilogy of "The Shortest Distance", I am so glad that finally I am done with part 3 and won't have to deal with this again in future. Thankfully, as of now the makers have not announced any further parts; which will save all of us on this earth from the embarrassment of watching this in near future. After the first 10 minutes are used in sort of recapping bits of first two parts, the story moves forward. Haruto is now starting to have feelings for Ruka, the mysterious pole dancer from second part. In a fit of rage, Ruka ends up killing the goat man and to save him and Haruto, Shibahara asks them to go underground. Meanwhile Shibahara continues the search for Seiya (the guy who had cut off Haruto's penis). It turns out Seiya is now also taking care of the original club owner from part 1. Both of them were released after they had informed Shibahara of Aoyama's secret location. Shibahara tortures Seiya's boyfriend leading to Seiya killin...
5 comments
Read more

Sei no Gekiyaku (Japanese) [Dangerous Drugs of Sex]

By Golu
Every person has their own unique way of dealing with loss. This film is as much a psychological thriller as it is a soft porn BDSM portrayal of two young men that makes the film overall horrifying as well as humane. It is really hard to describe the genre of this film in one word. Its important not that the film has some really disturbing scenes so if you go into seeing this film, please proceed with caution. Although any sexual non-consensual activity is not ok, this film has its won strange way of showing that suicide is not the only solution to all life's problems. Makoto is a regular office goer, who just finds out that his girlfriend is probably cheating on him. ON top of it, his parents sudden death coming back from a trip that he forced them to take, he gets completely dejected and decides to commit suicide. Unknown to him, he is saved by mysterious man Yoda Ryoji, and he wakes up finding himself tied up in leather and belts in a very BDSM setting. This mysterious saver soo...
3 comments
Read more

One Summer Night (Korean)

By Golu
I really wanted to like this film but for non native speakers, these movie leaves a lot to be understood and the way scenes were unfolding in front of me, I wasn't sure many times what was really going on. The story had potential button getting any back story on any of the characters limited my ability to empathize with any of these actors. Film starts with two North Korea military guys Yong Joon and Jae Sung having sex and they are caught red handed and they run. Three years later we see Yong Joon in Seoul leading a very mundane and poor life. He has a boyfriend Tae-Kyu, who is a weird guy. He is carefree, doesn't do any work and is completely emotional and financially dependent on Young Joon. In fact, even Yong Joon will go to any lengths to protect him , fend for him and taking care of him to the extent of even taking up prostitution. Suddenly one day Jae Sung appears in their life again. His motivation is not clear but it is obvious he wants Yong Joon back in his life, who ...
Post a Comment
Read more