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March 26, 2010

Blood, Bigotry and Bad Touching - Nicolas Roeg and Theresa Russel Progeny Protégé 'Dream Boy' Opens

Floating uneasily between ghost story and gay tragedy, “Dream Boy” marvels as young love flowers on a dunghill of homophobia, incest and religious repression. The material may be florid, but its execution is sensitive as Nathan (Stephan Bender), the new kid on the school bus, locks eyes with Roy (Max Roeg), the silky-haired driver and farm boy next door. Algebra homework leads to a snuggle in the cemetery, and it’s not long before the natives are compelled to intervene.

Set amid the lush farmlands of Louisiana — which the cinematographer, Sarah Levy, paints with a faintly menacing sheen — “Dream Boy” is pretty to look at but dismayingly obvious, as in the shot of a wall-mounted crucifix gazing sorrowfully down on an incestuous struggle. Adapting Jim Grimsley’s novel, James Bolton directs his small cast (including Thomas Jay Ryan and Diana Scarwid as Nathan’s parents) through wooden dialogue and the didactic proddings of Richard Buckner’s guitar score. But his early flirtation scenes are extremely effective, teasing out the tremors of infatuation with considerable help from Mr. Roeg, who, as the son of Nicolas Roeg and Theresa Russell, has inherited his mother’s sly, predatory sensuality.

Whether wedged, panting, on a cramped bus seat or groping furtively in a tiny pup tent, the two leads effortlessly capture the recklessness of first love and especially its inarticulateness, when sometimes a desperate gasp of “touch me” is the best we can manage. JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

“Dream Boy” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Blood, bigotry and bad touching.

Opens on Friday in Manhattan

Directed by James Bolton

1 hour 30 minutes

Posted via web from DOGMEAT

Classic Film POSTER GALLERY

UbuWeb Sound - Jim Roche

Mark Savage track is the shiznit! UbuWeb - 365 Days Project (2003)

Mark Savage - Do You Think I'm Sexy

Ted writes:
Oh man! The Mark Savage track is the shiznit! I mean, it sounds like a cross between Mark E. Smith and the lead singer of the Residents, all jazzed up with the ego and scattershot hormones of a high school nutjob. Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic! (and doesn't that sound a little bit like Frank Zappa introducing him?)

Robert writes:
Mark Savage seems to have a 'certain something' going for him. I'm not sure if I'm detecting an ability for him to work an audience, or just "ham-ability". He sounds a little like Chuck Barris on crank, for crying out loud. perhaps, if the game show network plans on reviving 'the joker's wild', they can seek this guy out.

Posted via web from DOGMEAT