BEAUTIFUL SOMETHING: Joseph Graham's lovely tale of a night of need and longing

"This is one of the best gay movies I've ever seen," my spouse declared, wide-eyed and, I think, hugely surprised by his own reaction, as the end credits of BEAUTIFUL SOMETHING began to roll. TrustMovies agrees with that assessment. Even though he's seen a lot more GLBT films than has his spouse, this new film from writer/director Joseph Graham -- very sexual and very hot, but also thoughtful and moving, utterly specific and absolutely genuine -- looks into the lives of six young men and one older one in late-night Philadelphia and finds a ton of need and longing, as well as a symphony of love, sex and art (the last both visual and verbal).

This is quite an accomplishment and it makes the movie one of the few gay films I've seen in the past several years that rises above its genre to become a movie about gays that I think could reach a much wider audience. This is due to its fine specificity and how it deals with feelings -- of loss and need, of identity and meaning -- with which so many of us struggle.

The struggle in this film is beautifully rendered by its accomplished cast, only one of whom I've seen previously but all of whom I shall remember. And not simply because of their physical beauty, which is on full display, but due more to how they bring their struggle to angry, sad, sometimes amusing, and alternately appealing and appalling life.

The acting here is sometimes almost shockingly naked -- and not simply for lack of clothing. You really feel for these guys. Chief among them is a young man named Brian (a splendid Brian Sheppard, above), still aching from a breakup with his best friend and deepest lover, Dan (Grant Lancaster).  The need in this young man is so strong and ferocious that it takes him to extremes both sexual and emotional.

Likewise the somewhat "kept" boy named Jim (Zach Ryan, above), involved with a famous artist (played by the visual knockout Colman Domingo, below) who seems to care about his "trophy" but also may be using the more-than-compliant young man for mere (but also pretty damned good) sex.

Into this mix arrives Bob (John Lescault, below, right), a wealthy older man who cruises the area in his limo, looking for his own kind of satisfaction. Add to the group a fellow named Chris (David Melissaratos), whom Brian picks up at a local bar, and who is deeply insecure about his sexual orientation, and a sexy, out-of-the-blue guy on a bike (Matthew Rios), with a more than minor interest in our Brian.

The small-time dance these guys engage in -- haltingly or with an indiscriminate push -- and their several connections, meaningful or minor, are so full of life, emotion and truth that by the end of the night, we feel we've experienced something major and surprisingly rich. Mr. Graham knows how to engulf us in both the sensual and the intellectual, and his cast member manages to seem real and genuine at both these tasks, and at each and every moment.  Even the poetry that Brian is finally able to write makes something artful and beautiful out of his longing and need.

From Ariztical Entertainment and running 97 minutes, Beautiful Something opens theatrically in New York City at the Cinema Village and in Los Angeles at the Arena Cinema this Friday, May 6, in advance of its digital and cable VOD release on Tuesday, May 17. 

DVDebut: Female desperation gets a workout in Iram Haq's haunting, disturbing I AM YOURS

She's pretty, she's voluptuous, she's smart, she may even be talented (she wants to act), but above all she's needy, and it's that last one that controls her life. "She," a young woman named Mina, of Pakistani heritage now living in Norway, is played by Amrita Acharia, (shown at right and below) in what may be the role of her career -- destined to be seen by few, I'm afraid, as the film in which her performance is the centerpiece, is going straight-to-DVD-and-streaming via Film Movement. Still despite having no theatrical screenings, and hence no critical "push," her film is at least now viewable by American audiences. It title, I AM YOURS, (Jeg er din) could double as Mina's watchwords: from what we see of her choice of men, she'll glom on to literally any fellow who seems to like her.

The writer/director, Iram Haq (shown above, right, with her leading actors: that's Ola Rapace in the center) is of Pakistani heritage, I am guessing, for she details Mina's family life with a smart combination of caring and annoyance (the initial scene with Mina's mother is enough to drive the girl and us viewers up the wall).  How tradition binds us so strongly and terribly, making it difficult to exist in a different, more modern culture, is well-drawn here.

Mina has a six-year-old son (above, being twirled: a lovely and very believable performance from newcomer Prince Singh) from a former relationship. The father, a successful architect, is clearly a responsible fellow, and one of the weaknesses of the film is that it slights Mina's history in ways we would like to know more about. Her mother insists Mina lost this guy due to her flirtatiousness, but mom is not necessarily to be believed. So all we have to rely on is Mina's desperately needy behavior, and so most of the "blame" for her ever more precarious position seem to fall on her own shoulders. She's a little girl who is now a mother and yet she herself must grow up. (Therapy is in order here, and since the location is Norway, one would imagine it can and would be provided by the state.)

Still, that pull between the eastern tradition of family culture against life in a modern Western state must be extremely difficult to bear, and the movie, without insisting too much, makes this situation clear. (There is also a nod to feminism and women's place -- again, without undue push.)

As a psychological character study within a particular time and place, I Am Yours succeeds best. From the looks of things, there does not seem to be much hope for this but I suspect you'll be rooting, against the odds, that Mina will eventually be able to realize and declare, I am mine.  In any case, the movie, worth seeing and mulling, will be available to own (or, in some cases, rent) on DVD and digital platforms come this Tuesday, November 11. And as is often the case, the film should appear soon after on Netflix Streaming.