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Much of Boy Culture is spent showing guys taking off their shirts, cruising each other, commenting on each others “size” and/or sexual prowess, making out, laying on top of each other, etc. Even with some minor side trips and subplots, the whole thing is little more than a big gay tease.

The film's minimal amount of dialogue is often no more substantial in content than what one typically hears in gay adult films. It's like the small talk in between graphic sex scenes. In fact, if all of the many “love” scenes in Boy Culture were instead explicit and graphic, the film would still seem entirely at home with itself.

Potentially interesting dramatic situations do continually present themselves, but no sooner do they appear than they quickly evaporate into nothingness.

Young club-boy Joey OD's on drugs but simply falls asleep. X is the only white guest at a black wedding, but it's never mentioned. Andrew comes out to both his entire family and all his old acquaintances at his ex-fiancés' wedding with absolutely no consequence except on-the-spot approval from all.

Every money issue that could possibly arise (all of the film's characters have fabulously easy lifestyles) is immediately taken care of with injected plot devices such as X's magical stock portfolio that pays for everything.

If this film were true to its basic “boy-meets-boy”, “boy-loses-boy”, “boy-wins-boy” Hollywood roots, there would at least be some drama, some tension, some conflict, some arguing, some something between X and Andrew. Were this any other romance, someone would at least get slapped, run away, cheat, anything. In this film, no one so much as slams a door.

Boy Culture does a number of things well. It is well directed visually with fresh camera angles and clever edits throughout. It has a playful comic sense of itself and quite a few genuinely funny moments. It is a credit to all involved that Boy Culture came together looking so good in just 18 days of shooting.

All the actors in the film do a top-notch job with the material they've been given. From leads to extras, there's not a weak-link in the chain of acting talent. One could say the performances (along with a certain erotic appeal) carry this film.

Boy Culture's three, young, buff and gorgeous lead characters are played by actors with mainly television experience.

“X”, played by Derek Magyar (Commander Kelby from Star Trek's Enterprise and with appearances on Charmed, Boston Legal and JAG) is superb. Simmering, understated and with just the right touch of mystery, his character successfully conveys that inscrutable “straight-acting” quality typical of so many gay hustlers.

“Joey” is played by relative newcomer Jonathan Trent (The Dawn Patrol, The Secrets and Lies). Trent's creative and uninhibited approach to the token “femme” and ditzy, hot-to-trot boy-toy role of Joey results in a successful characterization that is both believable and eminently watchable.

Darryl Stephens plays “Andrew”, and might be familiar to viewers from his lead role on Noah's Arc. Freed from the overly posed and self-conscious acting style of TV, Stephens gets to chill-out and display more of his natural appeal in the laid back character of Andrew.

The character of hustler X's 80-year old, wealthy client “Gregory” is played by veteran television actor Patrick Bauchau. Bauchau's film credits include roles in El Amor y La Ciudad, Vampires: The Turning, and Panic Room. Through his intriguing screen presence and exceptionally mellifluous speaking voice, Bauchau manages to make Gregory into a most charming yet cryptic character.

Much of Boy Culture is backed by innocuous, techno/disco/trance music of the kind found playing at 4 am in stereotypical gay dance clubs. It seems the appropriate kind of unfelt, pumping background that would appeal to the film's one-dimensional, one-track-mind characters and the audience demographic that will identify most with its style.

Yet on the way out of the theater, this viewer couldn't help humming a different tune, Peggy Lee's “Is That All There Is?”

Boy Culture had its US premiere this month at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival.

Get more info at the official website

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