The Pretty Boys

I am a big fan of independent movies in general, and of Everett Lewis's films in particular. Without the demands of production companies judging how marketable every film made is, and how much money it will make for them, the director of an independent film can follow his/her dreamand really represent creative ideas in their original form. I understand that the actors who play in these films love working on them because of the freedom they have to create.The Pretty Boys is a film about the hell of drug addiction. If ever there was a hell on earth, short of a war zone, addiction is it. So many people who fall victim to addiction are very sensitive souls, too sensitive for their own good sometimes, and without any ideas of how to deal with seeing things in the world that others don't experience or care about.I have always liked the quirky character representations in Lewis's films and their is no shortage here. I imagine that there really are people in LA and other places in the music business ,that are really are like the characters represented here. Drugs give a person a very false view of their own world, and tend to make the world a very small place with a very inflated ego to accompany it. Any wonder that so many of them collapse and overdose.In Lewis' films people really do talk like they do in real life, and express feelings directly without much fanfare. In this film, Lewis has been able to assemble a cast of characters that look and act like real people living out their lives as they really do, and using the vocabulary to coinside with their feelings.One treat of Lewis' films has been a little junk to ogle. Would like to have seen that in this film as well, but sometimes suggesting it and not actually showing it, is interesting as well. Looking forward to see what lewis comes up with next.

The Pretty Boys is a (fictitious) rock band from ca. 1973. This is probably more 1969 than 1973, but who's counting? Every cliche is avoided or exploded, and every body is painfully gorgeous to see. At its center is an acknowledged, crazy genius lyricist who takes the music his lover has composed, and delivers Dionysus on an LP platter like Aphrodite on a clam shell. A Jewish rock and roll journalist helps frame the intellectual pretensions of their creativity.This is the best movie about the sex-drugs-R&R era I have ever seen, lacking only real nudity to earn 5 stars.Among the astonishing elements: (Spoiler alert) the placid attitude toward two murderous lesbians who seek to procure dead male rock stars (or their precious bodily fluids) for some magic rite they are planning. I thought this was turning into a serial killer movie. Recovering from being poisoned, a young man says, "You tried to kill me, right"? as though he were saying, "You wanted to go out on a date, right?"

I enjoyed the beach scenes with Troy. Nicely done. Troy was what I think of when I generalize about SoCal surfers. Laid back and happy. The ending with Donovan and Troy worked for me. I loved it.Those two together were a contrast to the drug infused world Donovan was navigating around.A good attempt at an indie film.

I lived through the earlier 70's rock era and thought this would be an interesting film. I was wrong. It seemed more to be set in the late 60's, but the main problem with the movie is it started out slow and got worse. I wasn't able to deduce any kind of plot or story, and the main character was not believable, and not attractive. The only bright spot in this film is Donovan, played by Bryce Blais. He was the better actor, and by far the hottest guy in this mess of a movie. That's why I gave it 2 stars instead of 1.

This DVD was def an impulse buy, I thought the premise of it taking place in the seventies was interesting, & the cover models/actors looked fine, but I honestly couldn't get through it without hitting the "FF" on the remote. Boring, contrived, not too well acted, and no attention to the era/genre detail make this a DVD I'll shelve for a long time before I let it resurface & be replayed.

Interesting tour of the lives of these folks and the music which was their lives....and the drugs...and the sex.A weird trip to say the least.Lots of hot eye candy.

Plot line was ambiguous and acting was second rate . Overall entertaining enough to not turn it off, but just barely.

I got half way through this movie and had to stop , just could not take it any longer, stupid and twisted, no story or plot at all, and the only way I watched it that far was because the guys were pretty hot, that's all. Wish it had some kind of story with it.

I was not sure about this film having first confused it with  Pretty Boy [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC ]. Centred around the character "Pagan" played by Dale Dymkoski, who is a hedonistic front man for a popular indie rock band.Concerned only with his own gratification, he is well aware of the power he exerts over others. Many of whom are both intrigued and deluded by the misnomer of "pagan", unaware of the truth behind that carefully constructed facade. Behind him is a well oiled commercial reality, which is more concerned with the money than they are the man. For this reason they supply his cravings, providing a steady flow of drugs and good-looking fans.Along comes Donavon (Bryce Blais - who is also known for  Is It Just Me? [DVD ]) who is well aware of the man behind the character, and is quite content to exploit the situation for his own purpose. Whilst far more sincere and likeable when compared to Pagan, he is far from innocent. Together they must deal with the death of a fellow band member, initially kept from Pagan who must complete his album, a kidnapping and two depraved fans.Bryce Blais is quite surprising as a relatively unknown actor, who carries a large part of this film. He is certainly someone to watch in the future, although my fear is that he will struggle somewhat like Steve Sandvoss  Latter Days , until someone recognises his talent and makes a place for him.The music used in the film is really good, with some having been written by Dale Dymkoski himself.All in all, it was a pleasant surprise filled with beautiful people, and well written. Pretty Boy [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSCIs It Just Me? [DVDLatter Days

Pretty Boys... sooooo Boring!!!! Please don't even Intellectualize this movie, all I can say is YAWN! I wouldn't say it's GLAM ROCK, It's more like Glitter, Gay, & Gone... as in Drugs!!! It's such a turn off with those Polyester Chicks, they're Cheap & Freakin' Desperate! It's just Wrong!

"The Pretty Boys" is the eponymous and fictitious glam rock band which the film depicts, with a lead singer named "Pagan" (played by Dale Dymkosky who is also among the songwriters whose music is heard, and who also is the associate producer of the movie). This one is the most smoothly produced motion picture that director (and writer) Everett Lewis has made so far (collaborating this time with producer Robert Shulevitz), to say from having viewed most of Lewis` gay indie films. The males of the cast, nearly all of them, are such gorgeously gay sexual beings that they certainly deserve the camera`s love feast capturing them on film, whether by turns dressed, shirtless, nude, or nearly naked (though not quite with genitals full frontally in view).Craig (played by handsome Eric Gorlow, who, unlike some of the other young men in the band, never has the opportunity to shed his clothes for the viewer`s delectation) is the lead guitarist of the group, who has composed the music to the final song and has recorded his track for the recording thereof which is in preparation. That song requires that Pagan, the band`s lyricist, write the words for it, but he is suffering from an artistic fallow spell, the source of the band`s woes in completing their recording. The major problem is that Craig, just after recording his own track, has died of a drug overdose; Craig is Pagan`s long-time boyfriend and the band and its record company fear that informing Pagan of his lover Craig`s death will traumatise him too greatly to do his part to finish the album, even though Pagan already is taking up sexually with Donovan (or "Dondo" as he is nicknamed, played by the pleasingly muscled and irresistably sensuous Byrce Blais), whom the record company has taken on to assist in completing the project; other guys also share Dondo`s highly valued sexual intimacies, without resentment. Pagan`s sexual infatuation with Donovan helps to distract Pagan`s attention from Craig, who has just died from a drug overdoes. Pagan sees apparitions of Craig at important moments of the film, thus he assumes, for that reason and others, that Craig still lives.The depiction of the decadence of 1973 Southern California rock culture is just about complete. There is a sub-plot about two young women, at least one of whom has consorted with Jimi (obviously a reference to Jimi Hendrix), causing his death, both also having participated in the infamous Charles Manson "Family"; a former girlfriend of Jimi, named Monica (whom Lezlie Rose Williams portrays) helps to thwart the other two women`s varying degree if demonic intention. The one with the stronger "goth" interest in necrophilia, having an hankering for dead male rock and music industry figures, thus finds that, fortunately for the men, her schemes come undone; Donovan and Pagan, whom she tries, so luridly, to entice to drug fatally, both survive. The most important woman in the cast is Vangela (acted by Erin Muir), who is the go-between for The Pretty Boys with their record company, who has taken on Donovan to help her to cope with arranging natters for the band and its record company.Another subsidiary element concerns a second band, "Devil Surfers", consisting of hard-rocking beach dudes, whose career is still at an early stage; Donovan has been enjoying a strongly sexual friendship with Troy (played by nice-looking Cameron Jackson-Bass), one of that group`s members. Eventually, when The Pretty Boys disband, Donovan convinces Pagan, who has taken a liking to Devil Surfers` music as he hears it on an audiocassette demo recording, to take on Devil Surfers as his back-up group. The film ends as, obviously, Pagan will be obliged to share with Troy the devastatingly sexy Donovan, Troy being in the new group (along with the other members, not seen in the film, who have constituted Devil Surfers) which Pagan now will front.The drollest character is an utterly fatuous rock journalist (played by Josh Beren) with ego and arrogance alike of absurdly gargantuan proportions. The critic tries to push his putative weight around, brags with preposterous exaggeration of the impact of his writing, and falls idiotically for every mumphy-minded expression of artistic angst and of fuzzy-minded would-be aesthetics that Pagan, the band`s lead singer (and lyricist), verbally tosses his way during the journalist`s various interviews of, and interactions with, Pagan. Another character in the band itself is the piano player, Billy, the one Pretty Boy (or, perhaps, instrumental back-up studio musician) whom one sees in the movie who, really, is not very "pretty", though he is beefy and macho (his part acted by Vince de Palma, himself a musician, who is among the film`s songwriters); he is seen a couple of times in the recording studio laying down his track, playing a Steinway grand piano, for the group`s last album.The film is a real charmer, even if, on later viewings, its longueurs (some slow pacing) seemed more noticeable. Get it. See it. Then see it yet again!

I am still not sure about this movie, it had it's good points but it had more bad points. I would only recommend this move to a real movie person.