I first saw this film at Inside Out in Toronto. It was amazingly sexy, if not often nasty. I enjoyed the frequent nudity by young, angelic Dimitri Durdaine throughout the film (to date, his only credit here on IMDb.) The story was shocking. I wasn't quite sure what motivated Vassili, the slightly older male prostitute killer to kill some of his clients, besides perhaps an unbelievably short temper after receiving mild insults from clients unhappy with his age. If there were other reasons motivating him to kill, the script never mentioned them.
The film is polished and beautiful to watch. At its core, it seems to be a sexy exploration of intergenerational relationships between gay men and the violent consequences of exploitation. The affair between Vassili and Angelo is one such relationship - a 33 year old hustler and a 19 year old hustler. You combine that with the older male johns going after the young hustlers, not to mention the older former john of Vassili named Victor and his much younger/30-something live-in lover, and the intergenerational theme becomes obvious. Vassili's relationship with young Angelo (Durdaine) is the only tender and loving coupling on display. Vassili's violence is perhaps the symbolic end result of all this exploitation and fleeting lust. How else can an ageing hustler react to all this crap except to lash out with violence against those who no longer want him the way they used to? If you watch this simply as a lovely exploration of youthful beauty (and there is a lot of it on display) and the violent consequences of exploitation, you will enjoy it.
Again, Durdaine is stunning in this, no more than 19 or 20, the perfect twink, and he spends most of the movie naked, including a strangely erotic scene in which a kind and older (yet again) gay male doctor shoves a camera tube up Durdaine's ass during a health examination in order to probe the young lad's inner rectum, ostensibly to search for damage from a possible rape. Instead, he finds his insides as 'smooth as silk' to look at. Not only do we get to probe every inch of Durdaine's exterior, we also get a peek inside him as well. Thankfully, Stephane Rideau, still cute as hell, also shows everything off, but far less than Durdaine.
In truth, the movie spends as much time exploiting its subjects as it does lamenting that exploitation and the consequences of it (as evidenced through the metaphor of violence.) In that sense, the film doesn't judge the old for lusting after the young; in fact, it revels in it. All in all, this is one sexy, dirty little adventure with A-quality male nudity on display throughout, as well as a titillating story about the consequences of exploitation.
5 out of 10 for the story, but 10 out of 10 for the eye candy.
The film is polished and beautiful to watch. At its core, it seems to be a sexy exploration of intergenerational relationships between gay men and the violent consequences of exploitation. The affair between Vassili and Angelo is one such relationship - a 33 year old hustler and a 19 year old hustler. You combine that with the older male johns going after the young hustlers, not to mention the older former john of Vassili named Victor and his much younger/30-something live-in lover, and the intergenerational theme becomes obvious. Vassili's relationship with young Angelo (Durdaine) is the only tender and loving coupling on display. Vassili's violence is perhaps the symbolic end result of all this exploitation and fleeting lust. How else can an ageing hustler react to all this crap except to lash out with violence against those who no longer want him the way they used to? If you watch this simply as a lovely exploration of youthful beauty (and there is a lot of it on display) and the violent consequences of exploitation, you will enjoy it.
Again, Durdaine is stunning in this, no more than 19 or 20, the perfect twink, and he spends most of the movie naked, including a strangely erotic scene in which a kind and older (yet again) gay male doctor shoves a camera tube up Durdaine's ass during a health examination in order to probe the young lad's inner rectum, ostensibly to search for damage from a possible rape. Instead, he finds his insides as 'smooth as silk' to look at. Not only do we get to probe every inch of Durdaine's exterior, we also get a peek inside him as well. Thankfully, Stephane Rideau, still cute as hell, also shows everything off, but far less than Durdaine.
In truth, the movie spends as much time exploiting its subjects as it does lamenting that exploitation and the consequences of it (as evidenced through the metaphor of violence.) In that sense, the film doesn't judge the old for lusting after the young; in fact, it revels in it. All in all, this is one sexy, dirty little adventure with A-quality male nudity on display throughout, as well as a titillating story about the consequences of exploitation.
5 out of 10 for the story, but 10 out of 10 for the eye candy.