True Love (Gay Shorts Collection)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C Shorts: C+
Michael J. Saul offers a compilation of various aspects of
Gay life in True Love, a 2004 compilation of works that attempts to
highlight the ups and downs of such self-discovery. The shorts are as follows:
A Christmas Story – Trying to imitate old
home movie film, this silent short has a young boy enjoying his sister’s
holiday gift more than she does. It’s
mixed at best.
Going Gay – A father criticizes his son
when he is caught experimenting with another young boy physically, but can the
boys be honest with each other about it, or will one suddenly try to “go butch”
and bring things to an early end? If
so, why?
History – When a college student and
his uncle get together, the return of the repressed takes on a new meaning from
their pasts.
Sunday – An older couple has to face
the rest of their future and some questions have gone unanswered too long.
He Was Perfect – An encounter in the bathroom
of a gay bar leads to an encounter where a curious young blonde man goes with
the more passive of a gay couple to be alone, but might be more vulnerable than
he realizes. One of the best shorts
here.
Staying Together – A social gathering of
gay men leads to serious discussion about relationships that tends to work more
often than not.
A Little Drama – The world is a stage in this
“Romeo” tale with mixed results.
The shorts are not bad in all, but a few could have gone
on longer and had a bit more impact.
Some of the solutions are not as simple, while others leave more to say,
but the shorts tend to be honest in general.
Most are in 1.33 X 1 aspect ratio, but a few (like He Was Perfect)
are 1.78 X 1. The sound in general is
simple Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, and since it is a recent recording, sounds
good enough. Extras include two
featurettes, a commentary track for all the shorts and the original
trailer. Though not as good as Black
Sheep Boy, reviewed elsewhere on this site, True Love is serious
about its subject matter and succeeds more often than most of the features from
the Gay New Wave.
- Nicholas Sheffo
