This indie film is a really powerful look at how a community can suffocate you and the hidden corners young people have to find just to be themselves in so many European towns, even with all the progress we've seen lately. The whole story plays out while the town is bracing for a massive, raging flood, and you just can't shake the feeling that some kind of intense reckoning or unavoidable doom is headed their way. To be honest, I didn't go in with super high expectations, but the way it’s put together makes it a seriously compelling watch. Plus, it’s not every day you get to see an LGBT-themed movie coming out of Croatia! The story follows Marko, a popular 18-year-old kid who seems to have it all—he’s got a girlfriend, he’s a competitive arm wrestler, and he’s well-liked at school. When he isn't in class, he’s usually hanging out with his brother, who has a disability, or helping his mom out in her greenhouse. Everything gets flipped upside down when a guy named Slaven ...
Bob Mizer photographed handsome young men for "physical culture" magazines that appealed to gay men when little other literature for them existed. The documentary-drama tells us about his life and incidents leading to how he became to be the photographer he was. It shows Mizer in his photography studio with his models, whom he found as they literally stepped off the bus from across the country--young men who were new to Los Angeles. The documentary part provides interviews with people from the larger California health and fitness culture, including some high profile models from the time. The interviews offer an interesting counterpoint to the narrative that seems stronger than the dramatic part of the film. The different segments are linked by a mixed chorus of singers using a style popular in fifties commercials.
This film cleverly mixes archive footage with new footage shot for the film. There is a lot of male nudity in the film, and yet it doesn't have a erotic or pornographic feel to it. The interviews opened my eyes to a part of history that I have only read about. Having said that, the interviews can use some tighter editing. Some of them did drag a bit at time. But the actors in the drama part conveyed both the excitement of this emerging masculine/Gay "scene" and the tragedy of the legal persecution suffered by the people who promoted it. The film wins on its old footage and the telling the story of an age gone by, but is let down by trying to have too many ideas at once.This film does have historical importance, but I am not sure how many of the newer generation would actually enjoy something like this. (4/10)
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