Beautiful Something

By: Amos Lassen

"BEAUTIFUL SOMETHING"
Searching for Love and More
Amos Lassen
Four gay men of different generations search for love, and much more on one cold winter's night in Philadelphia. "Beautiful Something" shows how their paths cross. Brian ( Brian Sheppard) is a 30-something-year-old writer who is at the end of his rope as he has been unable to write a single word since the successful publication of his first book of poetry. He crashes and burns with each guy he meets, but does not understand why. He seeks solace in a local bar in which he is the sole drinker until Chris comes in and immediately hits on him. Chris confesses that he has a girlfriend back home in the suburbs but t feels an urgent need to get some hot man-on-man action. Which is exactly what he gets back at Brian's apartment. However, the moment the sex is over, Chris freaks out, and leaves and Brian is left alone and wanting to know what he had done wrong.
Jim (Zack Ryan) is not afraid to break hearts - except when it comes to his forty-something lover, a renowned sculptor. It seems Drew (Colman Domingo) is more focused on his latest masterpiece than Jim. Meanwhile, Bob (John Lescault), cruises for hustlers in his white limo, searching for the thrill of lost love.
Brian wakes up his ex-roommate, Dan, who is straight, and demands that they talk about his problems. Dan and Brian once shared both emotional and physical connections and now Brian want to understand what happened between them especially since Dan tells him how real it was.
At the same time in another part of the city, Jim (Zach Ryan), a 22-year-old model is having sex on a workbench with Drew (Colman Domingo), his older lover. Drew is a successful famous artist who considers Jim his muse, but Jim just believes he is being treated as a kept boy and threatens to leave and move to New York.
When Jim rushes out of the house, he meets Brian and they get together for some very hot sex. Once again, Brian is left alone once the sex is over. Brian is now feeling really mixed-up. He is then picked up by Bob, a much older man, who has been out cruising the streets in a limousine, drinking and hoping to find sex. There are some more surprises here that I will not dare divulge but I will say that writer and director Joseph Graham gives us a sensual movie that is unsentimental and far from perfect look at gay life today. I understand that it is based on a true story and the script is excellent and the film is beautifully shot.
The film gives us a retro-timeless vision of a sexually charged gay life. While on one hand the film is "carnal and cerebral", it is also compassionate and romantic.