Black Sheep Boy:Decodings

Rating:
Summary: Three Short Art Films
Review: "Black Sheep Boy" is the first of three short films by Michael Wallin on this Water Bearer Films DVD. All three films present images with voiceovers. There are no extras.

"Black Sheep Boy" (37 minutes, color) presents a number of attractive young men briefly (some more than once) in various states of dress both outdoors and indoors and also presents scenes of two or three modern dancers acting out relationship issues. The voiceover moves generally from observations on boys toward a director's perspective of wanting to limit the behavior of actors and models to keep them mysterious and undemanding. There are lots of jump cuts, nudity, posturings, bare feet, and interesting observations. This was the most visually engaging of the three films; one has to have the discipline to pay attention to the sound track, which is where the real story is told. Low 4 Stars.

The second film, "Decodings" (15 minutes; black & white) assembles historical footage (1940s and 1950s) with a voiceover that encourages one to consider how to be an individual in a mass society. Low 3 Stars.

The third film, "Place between Our Bodies" (33 minutes; color), shows the emergence of a man from an urban porn-centered milieu to idyllic scenes with them man in a positive relationship with a nice guy. There is some nudity and some hand-held shots of vintage pornography. 3 Stars.

Rating:
Summary: Three Short Art Films
Review: "Black Sheep Boy" is the first of three short films by Michael Wallin on this Water Bearer Films DVD. All three films present images with voiceovers. There are no extras.

"Black Sheep Boy" (37 minutes, color) presents a number of attractive young men briefly (some more than once) in various states of dress both outdoors and indoors and also presents scenes of two or three modern dancers acting out relationship issues. The voiceover moves generally from observations on boys toward a director's perspective of wanting to limit the behavior of actors and models to keep them mysterious and undemanding. There are lots of jump cuts, nudity, posturings, bare feet, and interesting observations. This was the most visually engaging of the three films; one has to have the discipline to pay attention to the sound track, which is where the real story is told. Low 4 Stars.

The second film, "Decodings" (15 minutes; black & white) assembles historical footage (1940s and 1950s) with a voiceover that encourages one to consider how to be an individual in a mass society. Low 3 Stars.

The third film, "Place between Our Bodies" (33 minutes; color), shows the emergence of a man from an urban porn-centered milieu to idyllic scenes with them man in a positive relationship with a nice guy. There is some nudity and some hand-held shots of vintage pornography. 3 Stars.

Rating:
Summary: Very impressive
Review: Considered one of the best gay shorts of 1995, Black Sheep Boy presents a narrative from a man who finds himself attracted to male youths. As he describes and contemplates the nature of his passion, boys in their late teens and early twenties pose and perform skits to visually display the commentary. Also included on the tape is Decoding, a short surreal film which addresses the issue of identity by utilizing clips and stills from the 40's and 50's. If you want my opinion on it, Michael Wallin, who directed both, is without a doubt talented, appears to be a modern day mixture of Ingmar Bergman and Luis Bunuel; although highly erotic, these are very poetic and artistic films which manage to honestly cut into the human psyche. I haven't been so impressed by a collection of shorts for a long time.