Men's Mix 1: Gay Shorts Collection

This collection of short gay films was half entertaining. The first few films were cute, one was actually very good. The remaining films were borderline terrible including one that absolutely stank.

The first story is "Burls", a cute tale narrated by Mark Hammill about a young pre-teen boy (who eerily resembles a young Jodie Foster) growing up in the 1960's, his eyes opening up after seeing a group of drag queens walking down the street, or "boys dressed up as girls" (hence the title "Burls"). We then follow his identity awakening as he tries on his mother's clothes and make-up, fantasizes about the hot young male working at the pet store and a run-in with what appears to be two revolting pedophiles (one in a gym locker room, the other in a car). This short was actually cute save for the rather abrupt ending.

The second story is "Touched" which is the best short film in the collection. It is about a middle-aged male who picks up a younger male in a night club, only to discover that the younger male has a different agenda. There are a lot of emotions in this one short, particularly concerning the middle-aged male. His agenda is to just "touch" someone out of loneliness, to be with someone, if only for an encounter. What happens when the two men reach out to each other is very powerful.

The third story is "10 Pesos" which really isn't "gay" at all (except for one scene involving an old man and a john). It's basically a short film that follows the path of a peso bill that travels through different hands and situations, starting in a night club and ending up in the street. The ending is actually quite stupid and I'm not even sure what the director was aiming for with all the money blowing around in the air.

The fourth story is "Safe Journey", and this is where the collection starts to go downhill. It is about a young man who gets beaten up on the street and seeks refuge in the home of a blind Asian man. The Asian man is seen at the beginning praying and reading braille, when by chance the young man who shows up in his house has some sort of connection to his prayers. There is supposed to be some sort of spiritual (though non-sexual) connection between the two via Buddhism or some Chinese God, but it's actually quite laughable really.

The fifth story is "Shaving The Castro", a rather boring documentary short on a barbershop that was established in San Francisco's Castro district in the 1940's with a clientèle of children and families, and how time has changed since then as the community is now predominantly gay.

The sixth story is "Gaydar", an absolutely horrid abomination concocted by someone who obviously never got past Judy Garland and every other gay stereotype known to man. For those of you not in the know, "Gaydar" is a term often referred to in the gay community as a gift to detect those who are gay and those who are not. The short itself is about a completely obnoxious gay office worker who discovers a "Gaydar gun" at a yard sale run by none other than Jim J. Bullock (in yet another grating and poorly-acted performance), who decides to take the gun to work and use it on a co-worker of whom he has the hots for.

Unfortunately, this short just wasn't funny. Not only did the stereotypes get old REAL fast, but the characters were obnoxious, unsympathetic and screechingly vile, particularly the main character. And if that wasn't bad enough, Charles Nelson Reilly showing up in a completely embarrassing cameo as the main character's uncle was the absolute worst. What, wasn't Rip Taylor available? All the gay men are portrayed as big screaming queens, and the African-American co-worker had her sass down pat, right down to the "Mmmmmm-hmmmm!" and "Oh no you dz'int!". This short should have been scrapped as it brings down the entire collection. It is neither funny nor witty.

The seventh and final short is "Masturbation", a tongue-in-cheek satire on 1940's sexual health info-reels on masturbation techniques, including how-to tips on home-made devices carved out of cucumbers and sponges (let your imagination fill you in). The acting although intentionally cheesy mirrors that of a bad porno, and the short itself isn't all that funny either.

So basically the first two shorts are worth watching, but the rest are pretty bad. I'm not sure if this is worth the rental fee, but there's worse things to do on a night when there's nothing else to do.

The very, very bad one is the one that some people like best. It's called "Gaydar" and it's about--and possibly by and for--screeching queens who think it's funny to torment a pet cat (over and over) until it hisses (over and over) and finally runs away (That's not the central story, by the way, but it's what I remember). I don't deny such people's right to exist and make movies--I just don't enjoy their company. (The cat torture is what bothered me, by the way, and the relentless unfunniness of everything that happened--not the fact that they were screeching queens, whom I usually like.) I fast-forwarded through the last third of that piece of garbage to see if it got any better, and it didn't.

But the other six movies on this DVD are gems, the most consistently good and diverse collection of short gay films I've come across in a while.

Sure, "Touched" is a middle-aged gay man's fantasy that would never happen in a million years, but it's surprisingly fresh and lovely anyway, sweet, sad, and genuinely touching. What some have called the "stiff" performance of the lead actor just seemed to me like the way a real person, not an actor, might really be in such a situation.

Near the other end of the age spectrum is "Burl's," in which the lead actor looks so young it made me a little uncomfortable. He's supposed to be in middle school, but he doesn't look any older than about nine. I assume, though, that he really must be older than he looked, and the story is original and delightful, particularly his encounter with the guys in drag.

I even enjoyed "10 Pesos" a lot; some other viewers evidently found it boring and irrelevant, but I liked it. It's clever and fast-paced, and the closing credits are the best I think I've ever seen, extraordinarily creative and as much fun to watch as the film itself.

"Masturbation" is a little predictable, and not particularly original in parodying 1950s school hygiene films, but it is funny, the only one of these films that had me laughing out loud more than once.

"Safe Journey" is similar to "Touched" in its bittersweet bringing together of an apparently mismatched younger and older man, but there's enough originality in both films that they don't seem at all like clones.

My only complaint about "Shaving the Castro," an extremely short documentary about a barber shop, is that it was over much too soon. Saying that about any movie is a serious compliment.

I noticed that several of these films identify themselves as film-school projects, at least two from USC. Sometimes when reviewers want to put down a movie they'll say it seems like a film school project, but if these short films are typical, the kids are doing better work than the guys who run Hollywood.