Todd Verow has created a niche of films that test the borders of creativity. He shocks, uses his camera (and himself as an actor), and creates stories that come close to the forbidden in cinematic art. Born in Bangor, Maine in 1966 he attended the Rhode Island School of Design, Brown University, and the American Film Institute. He has been called a veteran of New Queer Cinema. His films are many and include Vacationland, Frisk, Little Shots of Happiness, The Boy with the Sun in His Eyes, Between Something & Nothing, and the Addiction Trilogy: Little Shots of Happiness, Shucking the Curve, and The Trouble with Perpetual Déjà vu. Together with his creative partner James Derek Dwyer he formed Bangor Films in 1995. In more recent years his numerous productions on digital video and he is hailed by many as the once and future king of DV.
The reader should be informed that this film ANONYMOUS, dating back to 2004, contains full frontal nudity and frank and graphic sexual encounters. If these are problems for the viewer then the film will not appeal. But what makes Verow's work substantial is that his use of nudity and graphic encounters serves the purpose of the story and how it could have been made without it difficult to imagine.
The story is as follows: When Todd (played by director Todd Verow) tires of his steady relationship and uninspired office job in a movie theater, he looks for a way to return to the sexually charged atmosphere of days gone by. Figuring it had worked before, Todd seeks out wanton, anonymous sex online and inside the stalls of public restrooms. Though it serves as a temporary fix, Todd's boyfriend catches him in the act, promptly cuts Todd out of his life, and permanently throws him out of their apartment. Forced to live in his office, Todd's compulsion for anonymous sex continues to grow and threatens to jeopardize his job and his life.
Much of the camera work is dark and choppy and that adds a sense of danger to the film. As the old term 'form follows function' goes so goes this film. It is daring, at times frightening, and at all times fascinating. Todd Verow's work may not be for every viewer, but then not all of modern art is for every connoisseur. It is rank and bold and disturbing and important.
Grady Harp
