Groovy Gay Film Festival #2: Shank

Groovy Gay Film Festival #2: Shank

I was pleasantly surprised by the film, Shank, which is one of the best gay dramas that I've seen in a long time. However, when the movie began with a group of young thugs filming their brutal assault on a man, I did not have high hopes of enjoying myself for the next 90 minutes. But by the end of the film, I was sitting on the edge of my seat wondering if any of the fascinating characters would live happily ever after.

The emotional events in the gritty world of Shank center around 18-year-old Cal, who's a member of a violent British gang--and secretly in love with his best friend, the hunky (and frequently shirtless) Jonno. At the beginning of the film, Cal has sex in the woods with an older stranger he's met online before giving the guy a painful headbutt and driving off without him. He later jerks off at home while watching their hot forest romp on video (he films all his gay encounters with his cell phone). Add in some lines of cocaine and this is Cal's miserable life--until he meets Olivier, a sweet student from France who becomes another random victim of the gang's violence. Cal and Olivier's unlikely friendship turns everyone's life upside down, including Jonno, Nessa (the vicious gang leader who is one scary girl), and Scott (Olivier's teacher--and Cal's close acquaintance from the woods).

Shank is a fairly simple story, but writers Darren Flaxstone and Christian Martin slowly--and expertly--build the tension of their tale and even provide a few surprising twists in the final scenes that made me sit up and go, "Wow, I didn't see that coming." Their screenplay really couldn't be better, and 21-year-old director Simon Pearce has grabbed their words and gone wild with them. It's an impressive feature film debut for this extremely talented young man, who perfectly captures the explosive darkness of Cal's existence while at the same time lightening the mood a bit for the developing relationship between Cal and Olivier. I especially liked that Olivier's penchant for the color pink eventually rubs off on Cal's own wardrobe.

But major kudos must also be bestowed upon the amazing ensemble of actors who truly inhabit these troubled characters and give such vivid performances that I could easily believe that they really existed. Garry Summers (Scott), Tom Bott (Jonno), Marc Laurent (Olivier), and Alice Payne (as Nessa, one of the roughest, toughest gals I've ever seen onscreen) are all wonderful, and I found it quite refreshing that a female was the "leader of the pack." However, I have to reserve most of my praise for actor Wayne Virgo, whose portrayal of Cal is nothing less than brilliant. He makes us slowly grow to care for this young man struggling with his inner demons, and by the emotional ending, we're firmly in his corner, hoping that he'll find happiness. This film is Virgo's first professional acting role, which makes his performance even more extraordinary.

Shank may be quite graphic in its depiction of sex and violence, but its unique "coming out" story and engaging actors are what make this dark cinematic tale one worth experiencing.

http://marcharshbarger.blogspot.com/2009/10/groovy-gay-film-festival-2-shank.html