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 Cold Showers
In Cold Showers, Mickael (Johan Libéreau) is the
star of his high school's judo team. When a wealthy man
approaches the impoverished athlete to help train his son
Clement (Pierre Perrier) in exchange for financial backing
for the team, Mickael agrees and begins a close friendship
with the hot Clement, sharing trade secrets and eventually
his own girlfriend, Vanessa (Salomé Stévenin),
in what becomes a red hot ménage à trois.
But when the threesome becomes unbalanced, Mickael wants
to call it off. Will Clement and Vanessa concede? There's
no doubt that one will need a cold shower after seeing
this appropriately named erotic film. But beyond the titillation
of delicious leading men, locker room nudity, and adolescent
sexual exploration, this coming-of-age story is a genuinely
entertaining tale with a great balance of comedy and drama.
The characters are well developed and likeable, despite
their many flaws. In fact, the flaws of Mickael's parents—one
is a raging alcoholic and the other a persistent pessimist—help
bring much-needed comic relief to the otherwise heavy film.
Bonus Features: trailers, interview with director Antony
Cordier, photo gallery. —John Hobbs
Night Watch
Hustlers and sex workers provide subject matter for so
many gay-themed foreign films and Argentinian director
Edgardo Cozarinsky’s Night Watch is no exception.
We follow a night in the life of Victor, a young hustler
(Gonzalo Heredia), as he plies his trade in a seedy section
of Buenos Aires.
Although there’s no real plot to speak of—Victor
has sex, sells drugs, witnesses a murder, all with little
impact on his character—and the ending is inconclusive,
Cozarinsky creates a genuine elegiac feel to the film,
which is set on All Souls' Eve. The movie’s chief
asset is the charismatic Heredia,who bears a striking resemblance
to Gael Garcia Bernal and and he even indulges in a playful
shower room romp right out of Y tu mamá también,
but the other characters who come and go don’t make
much of an impression and the other performances are generally
unexceptional. Bonus features: trailer and "Making
of Night Watch" featurettes. —Jeremy Kinser
Vanilla
Having discovered the body of the infamous Bay City Strangler,
Jeff (Ryan A. Allen), a 17-year-old student photographer,
develops a morbid curiosity about the serial killer,
inspiring the shutterbug to create an art project based
on the horrific crimes. When he is visited by ghosts
of the victims, Jeff suddenly finds himself on a supernatural—and
often surreal—voyage to better understanding the
gruesome crimes. But to fully understand, will he have
to sacrifice his own life? Inspired by a short film that
ran out of steam during production, the fleshed-out thriller
takes audiences on an intense ride that artfully blends
reality with ethereal dreamscapes. Despite its captivating
storyline, Vanilla—much like its predecessor—simply
runs out of steam. The actor's performances seem amateurish—a
situation not helped by the fact that the 47-minute film
spends too much time on gratuitous sex scenes and not
enough on thorough character development. But you'll
find a little comfort in the bonus French flick of the
same name by Armand Lameloise. Bonus features: making-of
featurette, deleted scenes, Unfinished (the short film
that inspired Vanilla), and the French short film, A
Little Comfort. —JH
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