Duffer

There is no denying that this is both well made and intense but like David Lynch's Eraserhead that doesn't make it any easier to watch. Episodes of intense homoerotic masochism with 'victim' voiceover do not make for cheery viewing especially when as well done as this. Duffer's time spent with an older sadistic male is interspersed with time spent with a jolly prostitute who provides him with more traditional pleasures and trips to the riverside by Hammersmith Bridge. One bright spot is that our extremely damaged young man also takes trips to the riverside at Richmond and for those that know the area this was very early 1970 and well before tourists found the area. The grey deserted riverscape and towpath looks stunning and the side streets amazingly raw and ultimately ready for redevelopment. Almost unrecognisable to the casual viewer, the Richmond riverside of my youth is brought back as one bright spot in a very difficult film, the thematic origins of which I really would not like to know.