Open Cam (2005)

User Rating:

4.2/10   

Director:

Robert Gaston

Writer:

Robert Gaston (writer)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

The Internet's not just for sex anymore...

Plot:

A DC-based gay sex website becomes home for a serial killer with a flair for exhibitionism. The life...

Plot Keywords:

Gay | Explicit Sex | Erotic | Washington D.C. | Nudity

Cast

Andreau Thomas	...	Manny Yates
Amir Darvish	...	Hamilton
Ben Green	...	Maurice
J. Matthew Miller	...	Conrad
Christian Jones	...	Chris
Reiner Prochaska	...	Pierce
John Geoffrion	...	Bill
Ryan Thrasher	...	Trevor
Vincent Bradberry	...	John
Josh Limbaugh	...	Log Cabin Republican
Cecil E. Baldwin	...	Felix
Steven Faurak	...	Larry
Farrel Lever	...	Bobby Gunn
Wesley Anthony Della Volla	...	Adam
Jesse Davidson	...	Fighting Thug

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Australia:R (2007)

Filming Locations:

Washington, District of Columbia, USA

Company:

Gaston Pictures

Movie Connections:

References "The Roy Rogers Show" (1951)

Soundtrack:

Upside Down

Time for American Edgy Films to Come of Age

'OPEN CAM' could have been so much more than it is. Writer/director Robert Gaston takes a few risks with this latest entry into the gay cinema foray, adding a story that avoids the usual topics that stereotype gay men. He assembled a cast of young actors whose best attributes are physical appearance rather than technical training, and then covers the dialogue with incessant background music that makes the viewer strain for the conversations - and much worse, he hides behind the mores of restraint that prevents US films from achieving what European films do well.

The story revolves around a recently jilted young artist Manny (Andreau Thomas) who when not in front of the easel spends his time on the Internet dating on a sleazy chat line, keeping his physical encounters anonymous to avoid personal disappointment. On the Internet chat line (using 'open camera') some murders are captured and a detective Hamilton (Amir Darvish) takes over the investigation - a detective who also happens to be gay and acts out with just about anyone it seems. When Manny's friends (or ex tricks) begin to fall victim to the serial killer on the Internet, Hamilton moves in with Manny to protect him, and it is in this living situation (a very physical arrangement) that the serial killer is finally caught on camera and in person. How the episodes of loss of friends and re-establishment of trust and love replacing just lust brings the story to a bit of a disappointing end.

The cast (Andreau Thomas, Amir Darvish, Ben Green, J. Matthew Miller, Christian Jones, et al) are a good-looking group of men. There are a lot of sensual scenes, but unlike European films the men who are supposed to be nude for a reason are shot to protect them from full frontal exposure - and that seems so very ludicrous and insulting given the theme of the film. American cinema has a long way to go: even movies of heightened physicality in straight films have little problem showing every detail of the female body yet either blur or out-of-focus shoot or drape male bodies as though there were some secret that MUST remain off camera. Time to grow up - and where better to start than in films such as OPEN CAM. 'Tis pity....Grady Harp