This latest film from Swiss director Lionel Baier also features a reserved yet deeply haunting score created from the music of Sergej Rachmaninov.

The basic plot of Garcon Stupide is this: Loic, a young 20-ish gay man in provincial Switzerland, works a meaningless job in a chocolate factory by day, while at night, regularly sows his wild oats in the random nothingness of anonymous sexual encounters. Whether he’s tricking for money or fun, Loic remains emotionally detached from his trysts, until an older man named Lionel answers his online personal ad and the two meet.

The man looks past the boy’s obvious youthful attraction and demands a “real” relationship before having sex. This catches Loic completely off guard. The simple-minded boy, surprised that he could be so interesting to such an intelligent man, finds himself strangely drawn to Lionel, and keeps returning to him, even though their relationship remains sexless. Through their friendship Loic discovers a hitherto unknown inner resolve for self-evolution.

But the uneducated and rather clueless Loic is clumsy at self-betterment, and keeps messing things up along the way. When he meets a hot young soccer star, he quickly becomes obsessed. When that doesn’t pan out, he awkwardly jumps to his next “career move”: using his own mobile camera phone to try and become a professional artistic photographer. In his quest to prove to both himself and to Lionel that he’s not just a shallow nobody, he disrupts all his normal relationships and routines at work, with his parents, and with his patient, loyal girl-friend/roommate.

The film’s message, as relayed through Lionel’s continuous, suggestive “know thyself” type questions to Loic, is that connecting with someone deeply and platonically can be more meaningful, more important, and even more exciting than just having hot casual sex. One could say Lionel represents Loic’s own inner adult conscience trying to come into being and exert influence as he struggles to grow up.

In Garçon Stupide, Swiss director Lionel Baier draws considerably from his background as a documentary filmmaker. The relationship between the young, aimless Loic and the older, more centered Lionel is depicted entirely as a series of “man-on-the-street” type interview shots (or phone calls). They are always framed from the point-of-view of Lionel. Thus we never see Lionel; we only hear his voice. The camera stays on Loic as he looks directly into it for his conversations with Lionel.

It must be noted that Baier is clearly enamored with his young star Pierre Chatagny. He even seems to have constructed the well-meaning (if not overly idealistic) story in honor of him. Can it be just coincidence that both director “Lionel” Baier and Garçon Stupide movie character “Lionel” share the same first name?