The main problem with TRAVELING TO OLYMPIA is that it can't decide what it wants to be: an indictment of unfair treatment of gays or a soft-core porn flick. It is much too "talky" and "preachy" and it's lecturing to an audience that is already converted. And it's slow. Oh, is it SLOW! There are also numerous gratuitous scenes--such as a clumsy dance by unattractive, would-be cowboys in a gay bar, and a song by a singer whose off-keyed wail is so bad you will reach for the mute button. There is also an interpolated scene with two people we have never met before who have a tender, highly erotic love scene. ("This was your first time, wasn't it?" "Yes.") But we stop wondering who these people are and just enjoy the first enjoyable thing in this movie. As to the main love stories, Justin McFarlane and Michael Harboush are engaging performers and make us care for their final declaration of love. Though it seems odd that someone who has spent from age 16 to 19 in a maximum-security institution would have his navel and both nipples pierced; and someone who is in his early twenties would be a successful attorney. But most peculiar of all is why the cute, wealthy kid played by Donald Allen wants a balding Daddy-figure? (Wealthy Daddies keep cute twinks. Wealthy twinks do not keep old Daddies.) The final annoying thing about this film is that there are no chapters, so one has to fast forward to get to the "fun" scenes. The film means well which is why I gave it two stars, but the scripting, the direction, and the acting (with the notable exceptions of the three performers mentioned) is stricly amateur.
Review of Traveling to Olympia
