Toby Ross Movies by Porn O’Phile

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Reviewed are BOWSER MAKES A MOVIE, GET A LIFE, STRAIGHT BOYS GAY BOYS AND THE GAMES THEY PLAY , FATHER KNOWS , and LIVE FOR SEX DIE FOR LOVE, all (HornbillFilms.com)

Everyone but me already knew about director Toby Ross, right? All I knew was that he directed 1980's DO ME EVIL, a re-release of which I tagged "MUST SEE.” You can buy twenty-seven of his hardcore features HERE. Well, it turns out, as you knew and I didn't, that he also makes softcore features with fresh, satirical yet compassionate visions of urban scenery (mostly Chicago) and 21st century people (gay and otherwise). He very kindly sent me five examples this week. Their acting and filmcraft improve remarkably with each movie and each year.

2005's BOWSER MAKES A MOVIE (HornbillFilms.com) is an ambitious, often ebullient one-damned-thing-leads-to-another comedy about a feckless collegiate job-dropper who sticks to but one thing: his desire to become a porn director. Here director Toby Ross is also ambitious beyond his budget and some of his players' capabilities, but he sticks right in there too, and won me with his sheer determination. The scene of the shooting of the porn movie makes up for all sins. See a trailer and stills and hear music!!!! HERE. Buy the movie HERE.

2006's GET A LIFE (HornbillFilms.com) Here, the narrator lives in a raving gay "underworld," mostly of older men, but focuses on young, "average-looking" Jamie, whose insistent therapist draws out of him the confession, “I want a straight lover who is gay just for me.” Unfortunately, Jamie falls for a big-eyed, engaged specimen who prefers "trolls," which Jamie won't be for years. Jamie is put in the depressing situation of being the buddy of the man he wants, and a friend of one of the men he fears becoming. This sorrow leaves Jamie living a life of fantasy among friends and at work. We get to be in a few of his fantasies, and in his increasingly un-fantastic real life. He learns early and often that men betray, but just in time that some do not, and he has a life after all. See a synopsis and stills HERE. Buy the movie HERE.

2007's STRAIGHT BOYS GAY BOYS AND THE GAMES THEY PLAY (HornbillFilms.com) consists of five shorts on this obsessive theme. It's presumably considered softcore because although some guys jack, we don't see them cum. (1) A middle-class lad wearing an odd, weighted cockring masturbates while a straight girl on the phone teases him into the mood to get it off with her gay male accomplice, who's streaking across town to get there. (2) A gay redhead (Joe Rubin, who appears in several of these movies and co-directed the final one) gets even for a lifetime of humiliation by making a broke straight dude do silly sexual things. (3) An ex-Marine bragging about how sexually free he is gets manipulated into jacking off on camera, as long as it's understood that it makes him "bi" instead of "queer." (4) A slim shavehead's solo is explained in narration to be somehow a "conquest" of a "poor UPS driver." (5) A young Matthew Broderick type calls a cute, straight plumber who gets messy making repairs and uses the shower to clean up. Through steamy shower-stall glass, they watch each other masturbate. Buy it HERE.

2007's FATHER KNOWS (HornbillFilms.com) is another kettle of fish altogether. Initially lighthearted, this episodic, endearing story of a young man's maturing (one of the major themes of American literature) gradually turns serious as people (family, friends, lovers) whom the hero/narrator trusts and thinks he understands betray or surprise him (to him, at first, surprise and betrayal are the same thing--sound familiar?). It's also the story of half a dozen other people whose progress through life is interleaved with his. It ends with the questions, "Are we happy?" and "Who's happy anyway? Are you?" I think you will be happy that you have seen this quietly remarkable movie. See photos and a synopsis HERE. Buy it HERE.

2008's LIVE FOR SEX DIE FOR LOVE, co-directed with one Joe Rubin, is a thoroughly-accomplished, multi-leveled mood-piece about a sex-club, its owner, its workers, their clients, and their clients' families. It leaves no sentimental stone standing. I cannot improve upon the description of it which you will find HERE, where you are also lucky enough to be able to buy this intense, original, yet richly evocative, richly-realized work. All I can add is that its urban blight LOOKS gritty and great, too.

RETURN TO THE CAFFE CINO is a big., thick book packed with 22 plays, 37 brief memoirs, and 51 photos from the Greenwich Village storefront coffeehouse which was THE BIRTHPLACE OF OFF-OFF BROADWAY AND OF GAY THEATRE. For the HARDCOVER edition, go HERE for the PAPERBACK edition, go HERE.

SEE ME ON VIDEO along with many other living legends of underground theatre HERE. Go down to the segment marked THE CAFFE CINO (00:11:45) and click on WATCH SEGMENT. If you are then curious to know yet more about the Caffe Cino, you may find the Contents Page to fifty-four picture pages about it HERE.

Check back next week for more Sinema by Porn O'Phile reviews.

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