Life with Movies and Maxxxxx

TLA Releasing has been keeping themselves (and ME!) busy with yet another home vid release. "Boy Culture" (dir. Q. Allen Brocka, US, 2006, 88 mins.). This will has been my third viewing of the film, which I have generally LIKED overall, yet I had some hesitation about seeing it again so recently after it's theatrical release this past Spring. All that to explain why I am technically late in posting comments about the DVD release on the DAY AFTER it hit the stores! (Sorry, Lewis!)

My earlier comments on the film itself can be found here,from the 2006 SF LGBT Film Festival and a small comment here (the Spring theatrical release). Upon my third viewing, I do not have that much to add to the film itself, as the experience is easily transferable from big screen to home video. The performances are perhaps more suited to a smaller screen, as the narration was not as intrusive on this viewing. That, or I have begun to tune it out and concentrate more on the visuals and performers on screen. Patrick Bauchau still knocks out a great performance, and there are subtleties to Jonathan Trent's party boy "Joey" that I hadn't fully appreciated before. The video transfer is perfectly fine in anamorphic 1.77:1 widescreen, with no loss in shadows nor are there blinding whites. The sound transfer is particularly well done, as it keeps a well recorded Dolby Digital 2.0 in fair balance. (However, the soundtrack on the menu screens is blaring!) There are also English subtitles available.

The disc contains a hardy number of extras. The screen specific commentary with writer/director Q. Allen Brocka and producer/writer Phillip Pierce is actually sort of nice as they speak about production aspects and keep away from describing 'character intentions' etc., which I find to be rather redundant. And Q. Allen Brocka doesn't shy away from giving a little dirt on what happened around the set, which is ALWAYS appreciated!

There are five interviews: Writer/Director Q. Allen Brocka and actors Patrick Bauchau, Derek Magyar, Darryl Stephens and Jonathon Trent. These interviews do not shed any more particular light on the production, as questions "Describe your character" are fairly mundane, particularly since one has most probably just watched the film! However, Patrick Bauchau does reminisce about working in the French New Wave and Jonathon Trent displays a good deal of intelligence and talent in his comments regarding his character, "Joey" who could be described as the teenage-party boy of the cast. Derek Magyar ("X") takes it quite seriously and, dare I say, seems cautious in his replies. Where as Darryl Stephens ("Andrew") becomes nearly jaded when he begins to speak about this production versus his work on "Noah's Arc" and "Another Gay Movie", which does lend a bit of revelation and gossip to his interview.

There is also a Tribeca Film Festival reel, which is primarily the Q&A after its screening there. As Q&A's go, it is OK, though the Interview sections actually cover the same ground and with higher production quality. The Tribeca Q&A was videoed from the back of the house, apparently, and the sound is not all that great.

There are two deleted scenes, neither of which really add anything, ergo, they were deleted, and a selection of trailers for TLA Releasing.

Overall, it is a pretty nice little package for a pretty good little film dealing with lots of different ways that the 'boy culture' addresses love...