Like some relationships ( or is it just me? ) , S Is for Sexy gets the sex out of the way early, then lets people get to know each other. These seven shorts, five of whose titles begin with the letter 'S' ( as does 'shorts' ) , take you around the Western world in 20 gays ( more or less ) , with stops in London, Paris, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Germany and the Netherlands.
If sex is all you're interested in—in which case you should just watch a porno—you can quit after 'Serene Hunter,' which has more fucking in a few brief scenes than the other six combined ( not that some of them aren't sexy ) . The final short, 'Shahram & Abbas,' isn't even about gay men, just faux gays; however, these two bookends are the best films in the set. ( There are no bad ones. )
'Serene Hunter' is like a feature compressed into 13 minutes. It begins leisurely enough in music video fashion, as Luc ( Eric Debets ) cruises the Seine without a bateau mouche. He's commitment-phobic until he meets and moves in with Sebastien ( Jonathan Stringat ) , but he admits the person he's come closest to loving in his life is Jon ( writer-director Jason Bushman ) , an American who visits Paris every summer. Sure enough, along comes Jon for his annual visit...
'Solace,' directed by Michaline Babich, is one of at least three shorts in the collection that involve computer hookups. Pretty young Hugo ( Joey Tuccio ) is invited out to Beverly Hills by mysterious, older Brett ( Richard Courtney ) . Things develop slowly and the ending's a bit of a head-scratcher but an air of possible danger provides momentum that's otherwise lacking.
On the other hand, the danger in 'Scarred' comes out of left field, after a photographer connects model Rafi with her client, Joe, and it seems to work out. Rafi has a long scar on his right cheek and is used to being stared at and even rejected because of the scar.
There's a different twist on discrimination in Rick Hammerly's 'Signage, 'in which the writer-director plays Lex, who fears being shunned in bars because he's in his 40s. One night he meets Jonathan ( Jason Wittig ) , who is half his age and deaf. They have problems hooking up but not for the reasons you—or they—might expect.
'Mr_Right_22,' by Reza Rameri, is totally German but the dialogue is in English and the story universal. Adam ( Phillipp Denzel ) comes to a bar to meet 'Dave,' who will not only be his first computer hookup but his 'maiden voyage' in gay waters—if 'Dave' shows up. It's a long wait and Adam imagines the worst, between sympathetic interludes with waiter Luc Feit.
'41 Seconds' is a quickie that lasts only about six times as long as its title. It barely even qualifies as a sketch, as two straight friends argue about who's the better kisser. They don't exactly resolve the question but their attempt to is fun to watch—and pretty hot.
'Shahram & Abbas' is the longest short, clocking in at just over half an hour. Two Iranians—strangers to each other—land in the Netherlands seeking asylum. Shahram suggests to Abbas, who has a wife back home, they pose as boyfriends because everyone knows they hang gays in Iran. While they wait for a ruling, Shahram is attracted to an African woman, and an Iranian man who may really be gay is attracted to Abbas. It's not the queerest thing you've ever seen but it's a sweet dark comedy that shows Shahram and Abbas is not Farsi for Chuck and Larry.
Several of these shorts could be expanded into big-budget features, but you can see them first in unplugged, unpadded form. To me, that's sexy!
