Bounty – 2014 – Adorable coming of age film

I won’t bore you again with how difficult it is to write reviews on shorts. But then again, I just did, didn’t I? The truth is that even if this is a 22 minute film it still has a lot of content. Many short movies have a scene or two in them and that’s all it is to it. Everything is very compressed and a lot of this has to happen in a short amount of time. I never get that feeling here. It’s better paced that many of the feature films I see every week. The story may not be vast but it’s still enough for it to work.

Tako, is a black kid. He’s adopted by a lesbian couple and raised accordingly. Some of the other kids call him bounty, because he’s brown on the outside and white on the inside. Tako hates it and wants to blend in with the other kids. He claims that his father is a well known artist, a rapper called “dirty man”. That’s not true of course but it gives the other kids something else to pick on him for. They need to show him how to behave “proper”.

I think the film tries to teach us right and wrong and I think it does a fine job doing it. There are morals in the story which should appeal to all of those who preaches about finding your “inner peace”. It’s not about what other think of you. What’s important is what you think of yourself, if you’re true to your “inner peace”. I think there’s a lot of kids out there trying to be someone that they’re not just to impressed their friends. But I say that real friends encourage you to find yourself and accept you for who you are, not anything you pretend to be.

As I said, it’s 22 minutes but it’s rich when it comes to emotions and I really liked the morals of it. This film is needed. Everyone should see it!

7/10

The Gays – 2014 – an exercise in poor taste!

If the tagline ”an exercise in poor taste” weren’t taken by John Waters Pink Flamingos already it would have suited this film just fine! I say that with the best of intentions since I like this film very much. If you’re low or have a troublesome mind this will surely cheer you right up. I don’t think there’s a single serious moment to be found anywhere.

Still, it might be the most political incorrect film I ever saw. It’s not as revolting as Sprski Film for instance, but this is a comedy after all. I think there’s just about every prejudice towards gay men you can think of to be found here. This may not appeal to everyone but I really liked the humor of it. I guess you might be offended if you are gay yourself and think that the film is displaying serious thoughts on gay relationships. I don’t think that’s the case but I do think it mirrors some of the anti-gay homophobic movements out there.

There’s not a whole lot of plot to tell here. The most of the film is made like skits with a conversation in a bar to glue things together. The acting is quite solid and I was a bit surprised by that. It’s still like the characters are caricatures of themselves but it's made in a nice way. There really wouldn’t be any other way of doing it. It works just fine and it’s immensely entertaining!

Even though there’s not much of a plot, there are still characters to take into consideration. We get to follow a family who, shall we say, has a very different view of relationships and sexuality. It makes no difference if it's homo- or heterosexual really. It would be equally twisted. In short, they teach their children that they always should take advantage of their friends’ rectums and never turn down an opportunity to perform oral sex on handsome men. There’s much more to it of course but I won’t give away it all. You’ll have to make do with those small samples.

The imagery is also quite explicit. Taking the topic in consideration it could have gone further in some cases, but not without making it pornographic. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing pornographic about this film, but if it were, it would have been a gay porn comedy! I’m glad it isn’t just that though as I usually don’t enjoy gay sex in films, pornographic or not. But there is some full frontal nudity and there are a few penises to be seen. They’re mostly none erected but might be semi erected on a couple of occasions. If you have a problem with that, maybe you should not see this film. But on the other hand, if you’re offended by this movie maybe you should see it!

8/10