The breakdown of a problemed man in Peter Mackie Burns and Mark O'Halloran's RIALTO

One's forties is a difficult time to come out of the closet. This is hardly your coming-of-age period, after all, particularly when you've already got a life, a wife, kids, career, house and all the rest. In the case of a fellow named Colm, the leading character in RIALTO, we don't even know if he has ever realized until now that he had strong homosexual leanings. 

Colm's angry, abusive and controlling dad has recently died, leaving him maybe grief-stricken, more likely just hugely confused. His mom's bereft and needy, and Colm has now gone so far into himself that he can barely communicate with his wife or with his nearly-grown son. Only his daughter seems still close to the guy.

As well directed by Peter Mackie Burns (shown at right) with a very fine screenplay by Mark O'Halloran (Viva), Rialto places you inside the falling-apart life of Colm in such a strong and true manner that, as much as you might want him to make other choices along the way, nothing he does registers as unbelievable. Stupid maybe, but so clearly caused by anger, uncertainty and fear that you cannot help but empathize, even as you cringe. Oh, and did I mention that our "hero" is about to face unemployment, having been made redundant to his job?

As played exceedingly well by Tom Vaughan-Lawlor (above, of Maze), Colm has recently found himself semi-stalking a pretty young man named Jay (Tom Glynn-Carney, shown above and below, right, of Tolkien). Though their first assignation is rather a disaster, Colm is smitten, while Jay appears to see something perhaps kinder and needier than he has found in some other clients (Jay's a part-time prostitute, you see, raising money to help take care of his girlfriend and newborn baby).

Jay offers Colm what he wants and needs -- jacking off and undressing for him, and finally giving him a good, hard ass-fucking -- yet it's clear that he cannot and will not be able to commit to Colm. (The sex scenes are graphic but not full-frontal, and there's a lovely, tender scene of Jay caring for his infant baby midway along.) Meanwhile, Colm's behavior grows more unhinged until we wonder what could finally be in store.

Because we really don't know much about Colm's background, other than dad, his death, and Colm's distancing from his wife and son, we're not in any position to figure him out on much of a psychological level. 

For some this might detract from the film's enjoyment, and god knows filmmakers Burns and O'Halloran are clearly folk who do not believe in happy endings, nor maybe even happy middles. 

Yet in terms to providing a look at a grown man's breakdown -- mental, emotional, sexual -- Rialto works quite well. From Breaking Glass Pictures and running 90 minutes, the film had its Virtual Theatrical Release last month and will hit VOD & DVD today, Tuesday, October 20 -- available via Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, Vudu, Fandango, Xbox and InDemand.

DVDebut--French porn star François Sagat goes a bit legit in Christophe Honoré's MAN AT BATH

Not having seen any of French porn star François Sagat's earlier work, I came to MAN AT BATH (Homme au bain) as a complete novice where M. Sagat is concerned. And, yes, he is indeed something. Possessing a body seemingly sculpted by an artist like Rodin and an ever-ready cock that we see in action, both hard and soft, this muscular man with beard and shaved head seems initially off-putting and a little scary. Until we see him dancing as he cleans house. Awwww... he's a pussycat!

Well, he's actually both of the above in Christophe Honoré's interesting little trifle in which François plays Emmanuel, the lover and roommate of Omar, who is off from the Paris banlieue to New York City. But before he goes, Emmanuel wants sex and so blows Omar a bit before forcibly fucking him. Not nice. And now the two must separate, and so the filmmaker follows both of them: Omar in NYC, where he hooks up with actress Chiara Mastroianni, playing herself, and the semi-hunky young kid she meets after a Q&A at a screening of her new film; Emmanuel, with the various tricks and friends, old and new, he hooks up with while Omar is out of town.

And that's pretty much it. The men are very attractive and easily able and willing to shed their clothes. Ms Mastroianni (below) is her usual alternately spacey and energetic self and has given over to her friend M. Honoré's movie with abandon. She does keep her clothes on, however, as does Kate Moran, who plays an old friend of Emmanuel (though Ms Moran does shows us her ass in a posterior competition with M. Sagat).

Sagat is actually rather OK in the various modes we see him: upstairs in the apartment of one of the johns he services, getting a rather pompous lecture on art and abuse; coupling with boys of all sorts, in all ways; and walking the city looking for funds and fun.

The movie was made back in 2010, but don't worry: A body this amazing and sex this varied doesn't date too badly. If M. Honoré is perhaps slumming here, let's let that pass, as he is also giving (some of us, at least) a pretty good time.

I should also mention the sweet but a little too spoiled kid Rabah (played by Rabah Zahi, seen the year after in Our Paradise), above top, getting fellated by François. Later, when the kid doesn't listen after he is asked to set the dinner table, we observe him getting an increasingly pink-assed spanking from his mentor.

Running a short 73 minutes, Man at Bath (the title, along with the poster, top, are meant, I think, to put us in mind of a "male rendition" of the Edgar Degas painting, below, titled Woman Drying Herself (After the Bath) -- from a fairly new distributor, Canteen Outlaws -- hit the streets this past Tuesday, August 5, on DVD. Eventually, I'm sure, it will be streaming somewhere or other.