Gerontophilia

Within every sexual culture you'll find inter-generational coupling, usually middle-aged-to-elderly men (along with some cougars) having relationships with much younger women or men, based on power and/or money. But within the gay male culture, it's even rarer to find a young person who is genuinely attracted, physically and spiritually, to someone one or two generations ahead of them, which "Gerontophilia" (love of old people) handles quite well.

Bruce La Bruce is a well-known (infamous, perhaps?) gay filmmaker known for his anti-establishment films, generally about rebels within the LGBT communities, using amateur actors and full-on nudity. Shocking they can be, dull at times even, but with this new film, he seems to have gone mainstream in the best way -- a story which can be easily followed and admired.

Lake (Pier Gabriel Lajoie), 18, needs a summer job. His nurse mother, Marie (Marie-H�l�ne Thibault) gets him a part-time gig at her retirement home in Ontario, Canada. It is there, watching the decent elderly unfairly drugged with psychotropic meds, that he begins to realize his attraction to older people, especially one mixed-race 80-year-old, Mr. Peabody (Walter Border). He takes it upon himself to liberate the old man, who desires to get to a beach for a last look.

Oddly, and this is where La Bruce makes strong points, the only nudity is with lively Mr. Peabody, full frontal, and none with his admirer, Luke, with whom he has satisfying sex.

It's not for the squeamish, and yet it's full of life and humor, with observations about what dreary lives too -- many of our elderly have it -- kept out of sight of family and society, drifting into senility and uselessness. None of these points are politically administered to us, but it's there for us to notice.

The acting is spot-on and the two leads, as well as the balance of the cast, are fully-involved in this tale. It's been admirably shot and edited, and will entertain in its 82-minute length.

"Gerontophilia"
DVD
Not Rated | 82 min.
strandreleasing.com/films/gerontophilia