Homosexual Review

Distributor: Toby Ross / BDF (Big Dik Factory) Edition Details: Standard Streaming Movie Specs: Genres: Gay, Documentary Run Time: 74 minutes Rated: XXX Release Year: 2013 Director: Toby Ross Written by: uncredited Cast: Brett Collins (as Brent Collins), Michael Sloan, Joe Rubin, Stacy Bridges, Delbert Samuel Jones, Hunter Conan (as Hunter Machiavelli), Adrian Sugar, Angus La Nod, Johnny Cortez, Michael Angelo (as Michael Angelo and Michaelangelo), John Biederman, Darryl Cole, Blake Ahoy, Fernando Lama, Kyle Riggs, Pierre Zachary, Gene Floyd, Uraiah Wald, John Sanchez, Michael Stanley, Michael Delasky, Toby Ross, Rachel Cable, Danny Fox, Johnny Carvajal, Brian Chankin Release Specs: Audio: English Stereo Subtitles: none Video: Full Frame, 1.33:1 Video Format: NTSC Format: Streaming Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): N/A Number of discs: N/A

Homosexual is a documentary, of sorts, on being homosexual by director Toby Ross. This reviewer isn't sure how much of Homosexual is a true documentary and how much is a scripted movie since parts of the movie certainly come across as scripted and staged. Homosexual also has a huge problem with not being sure exactly what the documentary wants to be about and the end result is the movie feels like several different small projects were glued together.

The first segment of the movie is a “roundtable” conversation on being gay with hosts Brent Collins and Michael Sloan with participants Joe Rubin, a filmmaker, Stacy Bridges, publisher of GRAB Magazine, Hunter Machiavelli, a construction worker, Darryl Cole, a stockbroker, and John Sanchez, a talent agent. Each participant leads a different type of gay lifestyle, although it is unclear whether some of the participants are actors. Joe Rubin and Stacy Bridges are who they say they are, however, Hunter Machiavelli is better known as Hunter Conan, who was an exclusive star for Drake Rock, but it is unknown if he was a construction worker at the time Homosexual was made.

The second segment has Joe Rubin, who started directing films for Toby Ross at 19, talking about his filmmaking; mostly focusing on the “In the Darkness Softly...” segment of Like a Moth to a Flame with behind the scenes footage of the shoot and a portion that was ultimately cut from the final movie. This segment would have been an excellent extra for Like a Moth to a Flame, however, the tone is very different than the first segment so it seems out of place in Homosexual.

The third segment, which has yet another tone to it, has Toby Ross reminiscing about Steven Toushin's Bijou Theatre and San Francisco of old and the gay lifestyle scene that was there. Like with Joe Rubin's segment, Toby Ross' segment isn't bad, however, it seems out of place in Homosexual given the lead segment of the movie. Ultimately, this segment doesn't mesh with either of the previous two segments.

At this point, the fourth segment, takes on yet another direction and gives us photographer Delbert Samuel Jones and has him talking about his photography along with a look at some of the shoots that he did. Again, this is a well-done segment but it doesn't match in tone at all with any of the preceding segments and feels like it should have been a stand-alone short documentary.

The final segment of the documentary features John Sanchez and Delbert Samuel Jones together being interviewed by Toby Ross. To fit in with the original segment one would think that Brent Collins and Michael Sloan would have handled the interview, not Toby Ross. The styling of this segment, like all the previous segments, is very different in tone and again it doesn't mesh with any of the previous segments at all.

Intermixed with the segments are the sex scenes. The sex scenes in the documentary are semi-softcore. The sex scenes feature erect cocks and masturbation but don't feature any actual graphic hardcore sex. The sex scenes sometimes take the pretense of being a scenario being played out and other times may enter as a photo shoot. Some of the scenes fit in well to the segment they are attached to; others not so much.

Ultimately, none of the pieces of Homosexual mesh together well at all and as a whole, the movie feels very schizophrenic. All of the pieces individually, however, are well done and enjoyable. While this reviewer wants to give Homosexual a higher rating because of the individual pieces, he can't since when viewed together as a whole Homosexual just doesn't work.

The edition of Homosexual screened is the streaming-only edition available on TobyRoss.com. Toby Ross and BDF (Big Dik Factory) have done an acceptable job with their streaming-only edition of Homosexual. It is not clear to this reviewer if Homosexual was shot on video or shot digitally. Homosexual is presented in the Academy aspect ratio of 1.33:1 pillarboxed to the anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1. The video quality for Homosexual is good with no noticeable defects and good colors. There is a TobyRoss.com bug in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen throughout the movie.

Homosexual is presented with an English monaural audio track. The audio for the movie is problematic. The audio plays on the left channel only and there are points where the audio is not in sync with the video. The dialog in the movie is clear and can be understood at all times.

Toby Ross and BDF haven't included any extras for their streaming-only release of Homosexual.

Homosexual is a documentary from Toby Ross on various aspects of being gay. The documentary has four different unique segments that don't ever mesh well together and honestly feel like four different unfinished projects were glued together to turn them into one project. All of the individual segments are interesting but in their current form are hard to recommend. Toby Ross and BDF (Big Dik Factory) have done an acceptable job with their streaming-only edition of Homosexual on TobyRoss.com with good video but poor audio.

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