I picked up the DVD copy of "Drift" yesterday not knowing a thing about this latest entry into the gay genre. As a gay man, I constantly get frustrated by how homosexuals are not always presented as normal, but rather promiscuous and uncaring.
Fortunately there have been some amazing exceptions to this rule lately - most notably "Big Eden" and "The Broken Hearts Club". "Drift" has now created a NEW sub-genre for gay films; I'm just not sure what that would be.
Ryan (R.T. Lee) is a Canadian-Asian living in L.A. with his boyfriend of three years Joel (Greyson Payne). Ryan is a screenwriter who loves the horror genre. At a party the two meet the young virginal Leo (Jonathon Roessler) who is also a horror screenwriter. The two have this connection which would make them instant friends, and on the couples' third-year anniversary, Ryan leaves Joel.
This is where "Drift" lives up to it's title and ends up duplicating much better independent films of the previous decade. That break-up becomes a starting point (it occurs about 20 minutes into the film) - and each of the next three twenty-minute segments starts over with that same scene and progresses quite differently (very reminiscent of the movie "Go" or "Sliding Doors").
Each subsequent sequence has different relationship results utilizing the same characters. Worst, however, is with each scene, the characters (specifically Ryan) becomes more intolerable and causes one's own brain to start "drifting" towards anything else in the room.
NOTE: Potential spoiler below... Please do NOT read if you don't want to know how this film ends...
Ryan spews out lines like "A lot of it's in my head" and "turns out to be my own illusion". Had these lines been uttered a lot sooner, this film could have played out like an enjoyable version of "Pulp Fiction" (where the characters chat and overanalyze); but instead sends gay cinema back two steps - not for it's lack of trying, but rather for it's lack of sympathy towards the gay characters... ... especially since they keep talking about how "romantic" serial killers and suicide is. NOT the type of stereotype I feel is necessary in this day and age!
Fortunately there have been some amazing exceptions to this rule lately - most notably "Big Eden" and "The Broken Hearts Club". "Drift" has now created a NEW sub-genre for gay films; I'm just not sure what that would be.
Ryan (R.T. Lee) is a Canadian-Asian living in L.A. with his boyfriend of three years Joel (Greyson Payne). Ryan is a screenwriter who loves the horror genre. At a party the two meet the young virginal Leo (Jonathon Roessler) who is also a horror screenwriter. The two have this connection which would make them instant friends, and on the couples' third-year anniversary, Ryan leaves Joel.
This is where "Drift" lives up to it's title and ends up duplicating much better independent films of the previous decade. That break-up becomes a starting point (it occurs about 20 minutes into the film) - and each of the next three twenty-minute segments starts over with that same scene and progresses quite differently (very reminiscent of the movie "Go" or "Sliding Doors").
Each subsequent sequence has different relationship results utilizing the same characters. Worst, however, is with each scene, the characters (specifically Ryan) becomes more intolerable and causes one's own brain to start "drifting" towards anything else in the room.
NOTE: Potential spoiler below... Please do NOT read if you don't want to know how this film ends...
Ryan spews out lines like "A lot of it's in my head" and "turns out to be my own illusion". Had these lines been uttered a lot sooner, this film could have played out like an enjoyable version of "Pulp Fiction" (where the characters chat and overanalyze); but instead sends gay cinema back two steps - not for it's lack of trying, but rather for it's lack of sympathy towards the gay characters... ... especially since they keep talking about how "romantic" serial killers and suicide is. NOT the type of stereotype I feel is necessary in this day and age!