From This Week In Texas
OpenCam
By Duane Simolke
Oct 4, 2006
While chat rooms might feel like familiar territory for
many gay men, thrillers aren't familiar territory for many gay movies.
In fact, thrillers often feature gay villains and gay stereotypes.
OpenCam might include a gay villain considering that the entire cast
seems gay but it also rises above stereotypes.
After giving up on a lasting relationship, Manny (Andreau Thomas)
spends much of his time trolling a chat room for gay men in Washington,
D.C. That distraction often keeps him from his artwork, and from his
best friend, Maurice (Ben Green). Maurice obviously wants their
friendship to go further, and his emotional openness sometimes gets a
bit scary.
An attempted robbery causes Manny and Maurice to cross paths with
Hamilton (Amir Darvish), a detective who later asks Manny to help him
solve a series of murders. The murders not only involve the chat room
Manny cruises but also involve people he knows. As it turns out,
several of Manny's acquaintances seem suspicious.
Amir Darvish creates an intriguing hero - seductive, dangerous, and
concerned. However, Andreau Thomas is the star, giving Manny enough
faults to make at least one of his acquaintances want to kill him but
enough charm to make audience care what happens to him.
Writer/director Robert Gaston keeps taunting viewers by making certain
characters seem like the obvious culprit but then planting doubts about
the killer's true identity. Gaston moderates the pacing by focusing on
the relationships between the characters, while interspersing scenes of
danger. He also makes good use of shadows and light, especially in
scenes where a character on the Web cam obviously receives an
unexpected guest.
Sex and nudity play an important role in the film, but the emotional
conflicts and the growing sense of danger make it even more engaging. A
little bit of humor even sneaks in now and then, usually from sarcasm,
but also from some playfully romantic scenes between Hamilton and
Manny. The soundtrack features an enjoyable mixture of dance music and
alternative rock, with artists such as Warren Cuccurullo (a lead
guitarist for Frank Zappa, Missing Persons, and Duran Duran) and 2005
Outmusic Award Nominees Keyth Lawrence and the Purple Circle.
Without giving away any of the ending, something apparently happens
between two of the characters that doesn't quite show up in the film's
concluding scenes. Maybe it's implied and I just didn't catch it, but
it seemed distractingly missing. That is my only complaint about the
entire movie, though. OpenCam is sexy and suspenseful.
Read more about this movie at www.opencammovie.com
Buy the movie at Wolfe Video.
Duane Simolke, author, Degranon: A Science Fiction Adventure; editor
and co-author of the fund-raiser The Acorn Gathering: Writers Uniting
Against Cancer.
DuaneSimolke.Com
© This Week In Texas
|
