Punks

The film when released in 2000 was one of the first ones by, about and for African-American gay men. Of  course, by now we all have seen plenty of those but at that time this was a big deal. Surely, from a story perspective it all all the 'necessary' elements of drama, humor, emotion to keep the audience engaged and busy and like the film. 21 years later, its sometimes hard to appreciate all the good work that happened years ago, but even today this was not a bad film to watch at all.

The story is about 4 friends. Marcus is hopelessly romantic and refuses to just have one night stands, also because he is scared off by AIDS paranoia. Then there is Hill, who on his 30th birthday finds his boyfriend cheating on him, so he walks out the next day. The life of the group is drag diva Chris, who apparently has a steady boyfriend whom no one had ever met and finally the baby of the group, Latino rich kid Dante who is on the one-trick-a-day diet. All these individuals are going through their own shit. Chris is letting her ego come in the way of almost breaking up the drag ensemble that has made her famous. Hill, though enjoying a single life and all the hook-ups secretly pines for companionship and warmth of his ex-boyfriend. Marcus, keeps on a lookout for a potential suitor to date. When mega hunk Darby moves in next door, Marcus' hopes go up but turns out the man is straight and has a steady girlfriend. The two men become really good friends and the mixed signals by Darby confuse him a lot. Of course, things all fall in place with Hill getting back with his ex and Darby finally being true to himself and profession his love for Marcus ending in a beautiful kiss.

I guess, for gay men of color, specifically African-American men, the term "punk" is the one that's often used in US to put them down, but the film attempts to fight against that. The story was simple and it was very heartening to see the happy yet complicated lives of these men in LA. Yes, many things are cliched but sometimes they work. You just are supposed to not watch the film with logic but with heart. As with most happy films, things fall in place for every one of them, including Marcus finding a happy romantic suitor for himself. The production quality was a bit on the south side, but that doesn't matter. The chemistry of the four guys is very good and there are plenty of drag numbers (I think 4) with full on singing and performance by Chris and his troupe. The ending with Darby suddenly felling love for Marcus comes out of the blue, but you always were rooting for them anyway. This is no great cinema but a simple, average and decent film that can easily be watched without any stress. (5/10)