Gay skinheads at Dallas Video Fest
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| UNLIKELY PALS: Skahead (Stovall, left) and Rolf. |
This 19-minute short doesn’t shy away from dialogue that includes "faggot" and "nigger." "Hustler WP" takes a "names will never hurt me" approach while following two Chelsea boys who are trying to score some Ecstasy for a night at The Roxy.
Rolf (Tony Lupinacci) and Skahead (Paul Oakley Stovall) are seemingly mismatched friends. White skinhead Rolf wears a swastika on his arm, and Skahead is a big, bald black dude in neo-Nazi suspenders and Doc Martins. Instead of getting bogged down by philosophies associated with their Aryan drag, Rolf and Skahead are what made George Jefferson and Archie Bunker so damn cute.
And "Hustler WP" is cute — especially with a soundtrack of ska, reggae and Larry Tee ditties, as well as a cameo by Sophia Lamar as Assumpta, the trashy tranny drug-dealer.
On Saturday, The Dallas Video Festival screens "Hustler WP" as part of their Shorts After Dark program. It’s the type of short made by first-time filmmakers. Although Craig Cobb wrote, produced, directed and edited "Hustler WP" in 2006, Casper Andreas takes an associate producer credit: Andreas gave us "Slutty Summer" and "A Four Letter Word."
| Grade: | B- |
Screens Nov. 8 at 10 p.m. at the Angelika Film Center. Shorts After Dark program includes "New Business," "The New Position," "My Mom Smokes Weed" and "3 Stories About Evil."
THE ‘BOYS’ ARE BACK
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The DVD of "The Boys in the Band" (Paramount, $26.98) comes out on Tuesday, and it’s aged better than I thought. It’s not a great movie, but it’s impossible to turn away from.
Directed by William Friedkin ("The Exorcist," "Cruising"), "Boys" is an intense study about self-hating Manhattan gays. Some of the acting performances are electrifying — like Cliff Gorman as the flaming "Connie Casserole" Emory. Produced by Dominick Dunne, this 40-year-old story about gay life is an interesting artifact to study in the Obama presidential age.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition November 7, 2008.