Good Boys
(2004/Israel/Gay)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C Extras: D Feature: C+
Writer/Director
Yair Hochner weaves a tale of young male prostitution in Tel Aviv in Good Boys (2004/Israel) as two rent
boys, Tal and Meni, start to become interested in each other. We have seen this story before of two loners
with low self esteem finding each other in the oldest profession in the world,
but I give him credit for trying to show a side of Israel and these young men we
might not see otherwise.
Unfortunately,
it goes nowhere and though some of the concepts are brutal (one guy tells
another he is going to make him into “his bitch” and the target keeps asking
the guy if he sees him as human), it never delves into any of the serious
issues, surrendering to plotting that ends this in 75 minutes. Too bad he did not try to focus, or this
could have been longer and worked. We’ll
see what he does next.
The
letterboxed 1.78 X 1 image was shot on digital video (not likely HD) and has
trouble with haziness in dark/nighttime scenes.
Some shots were not easy to get (the intimate ones) so it tries to look
good to its credit. However, the Dolby
Digital 2.0 sound is barley stereo and the location audio is lite and often has
echo bounce. There are no extras.
- Nicholas Sheffo
