Not sure what to make of this, though I will immediately say that I have never seen so much sex and nudity without actually seeing much of anything. Quite the feat given it's a film about the pornographic industry, sort of like a poor man's Boogie Nights. I had no idea this was based upon a true story, more or less, before watching it and thus was more than a little startled at a sudden and unexpected event. My little sit down to watch a film about the porn industry turned into a real life murder mystery, though there wasn't much mystery to it. There's no denying it is an interesting watch, like it or not, and I'm not sure, as I implied earlier, if I did or didn't. There are some well known names in this film, so it's clear that the intentions here were to make a quality product. In some ways they have, but it's a distasteful subject matter hard to overcome. The multi-talented James Franco is here in yet another gay role. I kind of like his sexual ambiguity, but this is not one of his better performances, though some of it does ring true. The real performance of interest comes from Christian Slater as a porn producer, as is Franco, and he gives a really accurate portrayal as a guy a bit slimy, sleazy, lustful, yet somehow underneath all of that, perhaps not such a terrible person after all. Alicia Silverstone has a small role, but she is delightful and beautiful. At the center of this are two young hot men, one on his way to gay porn fame, the other with some creds already and the entire plot is wrapped these two. They are played by the hotties, Garrett Clayton in the film's central role and Keegan Allen as his competition in this sordid world. Both are a mixed bag, particularly Clayton. He rings true for the first third or so, but when the heavy dramatics turn up, he's not quite up to the task though he does have the film's closing scene and it's a good one. To be fair, he also has the film's most complex character. Sweet and likeable at first and then something slowly quite different. My guess is most will find it either interesting such as myself or awful due to the subject matter and nudity, though with no revealing parts exposed as this is uptight America regarding male nudity. It was cheaply made and it shows, but like it or not, it is not an ineffective film. Some cool music too.
