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Reviews
Gerontophilia (2013)
BLB Shines Again
A modern take on the Harold and Maude theme from a more modern viewpoint. The lead character is eye candy, fun to watch and has decent acting skills. This tale is fun to watch.
The cute couple's relationship is complex, twisted and endearing, something difficult to capture on film. Both seem to tread through life learning about themselves and their desires, exploring their sexuality and both seem content to be with each other while they try and comprehend their fascinations/fetishes.
As they delve deeper into their extracurricular activities they seem to drift apart while struggling with their own ability to make sense of themselves.
As Lake absorbs himself with Melvyn, he falls deeper into the relationship until he's outed by his coworker while Melvyn health takes a turn for the worse. It doesn't help his mom works for the same old folks home and goes ballistic when she finds out Lake's affair with Melvyn.
To squash the relationship the home drugs Melvyn into a cathartic state which angers and confuses Lake.
Everyone around Lake goes insane except Lake who initially denies the relationship but then frees his object of desire by kidnapping him with the help of his girlfriend.
As in Harold and Maude, Lake wants to free Melvyn so he can experience his last wishes all with the girlfriend's support.
This modern take on an old tale is very well done in the true BLB style.
The Strange Ones (2017)
Unconventional Love
I had to watch this movie twice to capture all the subtle nuances of this gem. The movie opens with a tragedy that isn't completely clear but you know that it's serious enough when they light a fire to cover their tracks and flee the scene. You're not even sure of Sam and Nick's relationship and to confuse things even more they introduce themselves as brothers. Sam gets a text from a girl he knows when they're getting gas but replies he's dead and throws the cell phone in the trash. He's not being kidnapped, he's just done with his old life and is moving forward with his new life with Nick.
Nick is the neighbor that Sam would go to when his dad was working nights. Sam seems to confuse affection for intimacy and a lot reviewers immediately default to Nick being a pedo but I don't see this. Yes, Nick cares for Sam with affection but never in the movie is there sexual intimacy. If Nick was sexually abusing Sam he wouldn't be jerking off by himself in the shower (with Sam creepily watching him) when he could just have sex with Sam since he's in love with Nick. It's probably difficult for viewers to accept an older male showing affection for a younger boy if they're not related but if you follow Nick's mannerisms you see he's not sexually interested in Sam. Viewers get confused because what adult male would give up his entire life to harbor a kid that just killed his dad but that's the beauty of their relationship: He cares for Sam enough to do that.
When they first get to the motel pool, Sam ignores Nick when he says to wait for him before going in the pool. Once he's swimming under water he dives into another world, probably hoping to forget all the evil that has happened. Sam deals with trauma by creating a fantasy life with fake names and a new life in the forest with Nick, he gets upset with Nick when Nick gives his real name to the motel girl because in his new fantasy world he's created new versions of themselves.
Nick also flirts with the hotel clerk which drives Sam crazy, acting like lovelorn lover. Sam watches how Nick interacts with her, gets jealous and tells him to go ahead and fill her hole. Obviously a derogatory outburst because Sam doesn't want to share Nick's affection. Sam doesn't completely understand his desires but he knows it drives him crazy knowing someone else has Nick's attention. He deals with his psychosis by drawing a solid black circle on paper over and over as he deals with his anger.
Sam tries to dissuade the motel girl telling her Nick is practically gay and is only using her. Nick goes to repair the damage and spends time with the girl when he comes back to the room he tries to console Sam and he responds with 'Gross, don't touch me'. He may be too young and confused to understand his desires but it's obvious he's in love with Nick (fast forward to when Sam finds out Nick is dead, he excuses himself to go to the bathroom to cry over his loss).
In the morning the motel girl looks in the room and sees only one bed was slept in, she (and viewers) are led to believe again that Nick and Sam might be sexually intimate and she calls the authorities because she actually does believe Nick is probably a pedo and kidnapped Sam.
Nick and Sam flee the motel, Sam is once again happy it's only him and Nick when they leave the motel, pick up gear at a storage lot and walk through the forest to what Sam believes is his new life with Nick. When all hell breaks loose and Nick gets shot and tells Sam to run, Sam finds a reformatory camp and takes on a new persona and tries to fit in with the other kids. Sam still hasn't found out Nick is dead but when the Sheriff comes around wanting to question him he runs into the forest again hoping to hide and find Nick. They eventually catch him and that's when he learns his crush Nick is dead, he cries in the bathroom alone then comes back to the interview with his new story how it was Nick that killed his dad and set the fire.
The authorities believe the older Nick was a pedo, killed Sam's dad and set his house on fire to kidnap Sam when in reality Nick was covering for Sam's anger towards his dad for moving to another part of the state and the beatings (no other reviewer points out the mark on Sam's back most likely given to him by his dad). Nick even mentions in a reflection that if he (the dad) ever touches Sam again he'll kill him. Another way the movie confuses the viewer to wonder who actually killed the dad.
The presumably innocent Sam is sent to live with the family of the girl he was texting with when he told her he was dead. Sam is confused and starts to make out with the girl but when the girl starts to unbuckle his belt Sam freaks and tells her to get off him. It's obvious when he told the motel girl earlier in the movie that Nick was "practically gay and girls didn't get him hard" he was projecting himself, it's Sam that isn't interested in girls. Once he realizes that he runs again, sees the black cat he's been seeing throughout the movie and gets hit by a car most likely on purpose.
At this point either Sam is dead or in a coma as we see him go through what transpired at the house with his dad, it's still confusing because only Sam is in the scene when the dad first gets bludgeoned and blood splatters all over Sam's face but in another scene you see Nick holding the bat. It's also not clear who set fire to the house. The movie ends with Sam again running into the forest supposedly to his fantasy life with Nick.
I understand if a boy was being abandoned and abused by his dad why he would bond and confuse affection for intimacy with an older adult male that showed interest in him. He's substituting the lack of fatherly love with another male figure. At his age there can be confusion about desires and that's where Nick may have crossed the line, being too affectionate with Sam and not establishing boundaries. Obviously Nick loves Sam enough to cover up his crime and flee to start a new life together but it's hard to believe an adult would give up everything he has to be with this boy and not have desires for him.
You can watch this movie a few times and still not completely understand the twist and turns as it allows the viewer to make their own conclusions. What I got out of the movie is to what extent would one go to protect someone they love even if you know they might be psychotic and which of the characters is actually the most psychotic; Nick or Sam?