Skip to main content

De l'amour et des restes humains [Love And Human Remains]

A Canadian English film with a French title? I am not sure of the reason behind it, but oh well, such is life. The film is not purely a queer themed film, but since one of the two characters is gay, it qualifies in my rules to be reviewed here. The story is about two friends and a couple of others 30-something youngsters in Canada trying to get a grip on their sexuality and place in the world.

David, a 30ish gay man is waiter by profession. He was a child actor but has totally given up on it. He spends most of his nights in different clubs looking for casual hookups. He spends most of the time with the 18 year old busboy who works with him and is clearly has hots for him. David's roommate is Candy, straight girl, book reviewer and David's ex-lover from another life time. She still years for David and feels no man is good enough for her. She experiments with a lesbian Jerry who completely falls for her while also flirting with a bartender who angers Candy when he doesn’t want to bed her. David hangs out with his misogynist old straight friend Bernie quite a bit. Another friend is a young S&M specialist who, in one extreme and hilarious case, calls upon David to help her out. While we meet all these folks, there is a serial killer on the loose killing young girls and we are told that the murderer could be any of these 5-6 people.

There is absolutely no character build up. I understand that this is an adaptation from a play, but still!. Why is David, who happens to be a very good looking man avoiding love and relationships. Why does he spend most time with the busboy when he clearly is not even interested sexually in him. Why is Candy still so much in love with David despite knowing now of his preferences. Answers to these questions would have helped. Homosexuality and Lesbianism are not of any consequences here. What is weird is the feeling of guilt related to the characters who are rather in a fix regarding their feelings towards each other and sexuality. I am really not sure what as the whole point behind making this film. The film has been publicized as a comedy. On the contrary, I found it more like a tragedy. The two lead actors did a good job, but there was nothing really in the film that held my attention. The serial killer angle was such a drab and you really could guess very easily from the beginning who the culprit would be.

This movie had two great, compelling characters in Candy and David, but it fell flat on its face looking for a plot. (4/10)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Shortest Distance is Round 3: Fallen Flowers

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...

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

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...

One Summer Night (Korean)

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 ...