Laakbaar This movie is rated too low on IMDb. It's worth about a 7.5 It tells the true story of the murder of a gay porn producer (played by Christian Slater). There are two story lines.The first is about this porn producer and a new star (Brent Corrigan, played by Garrett Clayton). Brent stays at his place and together they have fun making some hot movies. But then they have a falling out when Brent finds out how much is being made from his films.The second is about two mentally unbalanced losers (Joe and Harlow) who hang around at the edges of the porn industry. They want to make a film with Brent, but decide that they have to kill the porn producer because he's not allowing Brent to use his trademarked porn name.I loved how this film dealt so naturally and explicitly with gay sexuality and with the gay porn and escorting aspects. The sex scenes were depicted with relish, but without genitalia. (After all, this is an American movie.) The depiction of stereotypical porn situations and dialogue and was hilarious. At times the real world in the main movie seemed disturbingly too close to the porn version of reality. These characters were so immersed in porn that they were leading porn lives.Part of me wishes that the director (Justin Kelly) had focused on creating just a feel-good movie about the gay porn industry, about gay escorting and about gay sexuality in California. This alone would have been a great film (or hell even better -- a Netflix series). He could have developed various interesting characters and just drawn the viewer into this sexy world.Kelly partly succeed in doing that in this film. But I had problems with some of it. Where were the drugs, for example? No drugs at all?? The dysfunctionality of the characters was also a major theme. I wish there had been some normal gay men in the film, because yes we still need to show that in a film like this.I thought the porn director and Brent parts were well played by Slater and Clayton. However, although Clayton is a stunningly handsome man, in this movie he didn't really generate the same erotic heat as a sleazy 18 year old porn star. The movie would have made more sense if they had found someone who can do that.I liked how the porn producer was torn between desire and greed when it came to Brent. He wanted Brent's love, of course. He wanted Brent to want him. Or at least to pretend that he wanted him. He was an older porn-producing lech, but there were a few perceptive lines in there about his motivation and he came across as a sympathetic character.The dysfunction of the Joe and Harlow characters got in the way for me. I found some of their scenes to be difficult and awkward to watch. Perhaps that was the point (because after all they were psychos). After just watching the film, I feel I still don't have a good understanding about the underlying forces that drove them to murder. Maybe the problem is with the basic plot. The murder was so senseless. Tbh, I think the movie would have been better without Franco (because...c'mon).This is the second movie I've seen this year in which the difficult relationship between porn producer and actor was central. (The other was Tickled.) These movies also have something to say about porn itself, how it can take over people's lives and ruin them.

timw-254-400540 When you watch a movie like this, you expect it to be terrible, and it is. But on top of that, this film goes through great lengths to make Brent Corrigan look like he's an innocent lamb who had nothing to do with Stephen's death. In reality, we all know he was an integral part of the plan to murder his ex boss. Not only did he try to blackmail him by using his age, which they played down in this movie, but he thought he could get away with killing his boss by having two other guys do the dirty work and burning the place down. In the movie, he plays innocent as if he had no idea. The movie suggests that he only implied it, when in reality you know for sure it was a lot more than that. This is a guy who used a fake ID and then tried to make himself a victim (by the way he won a lot of money in his lawsuit... bc he made porn while under age... because he used a fake ID to do so). This is a guy who had absolutely the most incentive to get rid of his boss and get out of his contract. The movie even paints his boss as quite a rapist right before his death, so you won't feel anything for him. As if these porn stars had no choice but to hang out with this rich guy. I'm not condoning how rich old men act, but you have to be stupid to think that rich old men, no matter what their orientation, don't diddle younger people. I don't like them either, so I stay away from them.Brent is one of the worst people to walk our planet and this movie paints him as some sort of hero. He even got Alicia Silverstone to play his mom. We know the producers brought her in as bait for the gay audience. Her turn in Clueless will forever give her a gay fan base. Don't get me wrong, I love her too, but I wish she had no part in this horrible movie.

gradyharp Writer/director Justin Kelly created this script with co-author D. Madison Savage based on an article about a porn star and murder. The film has merit but slides into tedium by resorting to gay stereotypes despite the character roles being portrayed by a fine set of actors.The tale is the career of Sean Paul Lockhart (aka Brent Corrigan and Fox Ryder) played by the talented Garrett Clayton who at age 17 began making gay pornography with Los Angeles filmmaker Stephen/aka Bryan Kocis (Christian Slater) using the name Brent Corrigan. The films were very successful financially and "Brent' (claiming he was 18 years old) became lovers with Stephen, the owner and director of Cobra Video. Brent became famous, wanted more money, left Stephen who had an exclusive contract with Brent, only to discover he could not perform using the name Brent Corrigan as that name was the property of Cobra Video. Brent reveals he was only 17 years old when working and filming with Stephen. This news threatened Stephen's livelihood and presented Brent with the opportunity to join another set of filmmakers - Joe/Joseph Kerekes (James Franco) and his other star Harlow/Harlow Cuadra (Keegan Allen). Stephen's attempt to halt Brent's making films with Joe and Harlow ended in a murder that became famous in the California courts. To say more would be a spoiler.In addition to Christian Slater, James Franco, Garrett Clayton and Keegan Allen, the cast includes small but key roles by Alicia Silverstone and Molly Ringwald. The filming of the porn scenes is convincing without excessive exposure and the manner in which the director moves between the two lover couples balances the story well. Little is written about the porn video market and this film opens some insights into that industry.

Helen Damnation This is sort of a real life comment type of review, as I knew both Harlow and Joe before they were both convicted.I had an affiliate sales porn blog, and Harlow and Joe's porn company and their corresponding porn site (BoyBatter.co/) were big money-makers. They focused on military, hyper-masculine types of young men, and their fans couldn't get enough.They focused on bareback porn, which means of course "without condoms", pioneers of the industry at the time. Now bareback porn has become almost the standard in most markets, as it seems to sell better than safe sex videos.After arrest and before conviction, Harlow called me often always to reiterate that he wasn't guilty, and I supported him in my own naive way. (The collect telephone calls from prison/jail were outrageously expensive, and I asked him not to call me unless it was something urgent.) But my question is why is Bryan Kocis, who was the actual owner of Cobra Video, (hence the title of the movie) named and referred to in the film as Stephen? Was there a prenuptial type of agreement with Bryan's family to completely avoid using his real name?I'm going to watch the film tonight, and will update this, if possible, after viewing it.