Leather Jacket Love Story (1998)
Kyle (Sean Tataryn) is an 18 year old aspiring poet who decides to leave his home in the Valley for more inspiring surroundings in the Silver Lake district. With his mother’s final reassuring words, “Don’t let those tops push you around…unless you want them to,” Kyle sets out to start a new life on his own.
Strikingly, this movie is filmed in black and white, complete with film grain, glitches, and cheesy music to purposely make it look like something out of the 1950s. It’s like watching old episodes of Lassie, except with full frontal nudity. There are a few anachronisms that break this illusion, such as modern cars and cell phones, but nonetheless it makes for an interesting stylistic choice.
Kyle spends his time cruising the gay village and sitting in coffee shops, encountering all sorts of interesting characters. The owner of the coffee shop is a real life drag queen by the name of Mink Stole, who makes wise cracks about Kyle’s coffee of choice. As Kyle sits down to work, a troupe of three drag queens flirtatiously offers to critique Kyle’s poetry works in progress.
Suddenly, Kyle is dumbstruck as the ruggedly handsome 29 year old Mike (Christopher Bradley) walks in and sits down for lunch with a friend. Kyle can’t take his eyes off this mysterious man in the leather jacket. Meanwhile Mike’s buddy points out that he is getting seriously cruised, and although Mike is not normally into “chicken” he still expresses a mutual interest in the gawking boy, giving him his number.
Kyle returns to the coffee shop in the evening to hear a poetry reading: the drag queen troupe has put in a submission, followed by an older gentleman reciting his poem “Tired Sphincter Boy”. Lucky enough Kyle bumps into Mike for a second time and they hook up. Though Kyle wants to take things slow, Mike’s aggressive nature has him pounding the boy until the wee hours of the morning. Lucky for us, the viewers, we get to see just about everything!
For the remainder of the movie, Kyle fights to keep Mike’s interest, against the fact that the two have very little in common. While Mike is already trading numbers with new prospects, he gets increasingly aggressive with Kyle in bed. But Kyle teaches the man a lesson in tenderness, both in the sack and from the realm of poetry.
Leather Jacket Love Story is not a must-see movie by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s still something fun, sexy, and entertaining to occupy an evening.
Knocked Up (2007)
Why on earth would we review such an obvious breeder movie?! Well actually, although this comedy centers on an accidental pregnancy, it’s still cute and entertaining to see the straight boys continuing to step up the homoerotic nature of their male bonding and camaraderie.
What I liked about this movie is that it was really frank and honest in its discussion about sexuality and the battle of the sexes. The characters openly talk about things like masturbation, their penises and vaginas, and made a number of fun gay cracks about one another (I couldn’t stop laughing about “butt-fuckingham palace”). Somehow this made the story and characters extremely easy to relate to.
The main male character, Ben Stone (Seth Rogen), is what one would call a slacker, a lowlife, and a pig. He is a chubby, hairy redhead guy with a big afro and five o’clock shadow. He lives with an odd collection of male friends – some dorky, some really hot - and they spend their days smoking pot and developing a website that catalogs female nudity in Hollywood movies. Meanwhile Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl), an attractive blonde who shares a house with her sister Debbie (Leslie Mann), her subdued brother-in-law Pete (Paul Rudd) and their kids, is moving up in her career as she is promoted to being an on-camera hostess on E-Talk News.
Ben and Alison meet at a bar one night, as Alison is out celebrating her promotion with her sister. Ben impresses her with his daring, but he chokes when it comes to leveraging his smooth introduction. Ben’s friends won’t let it go however, and the two end up talking again as they get drunker and drunker together. Ben is shell-shocked by the fact that Alison invites him home with her to have sex. A misunderstanding has Ben purposely leaving off his condom without Alison’s knowledge.
The next morning the two of them go for breakfast and realize just how wrong they are for one another. But after a few months, Alison discovers she is pregnant and tracks down Ben once again to break the news to him. Ben thinks she is calling him because she is coming back for seconds, and he starts dry humping with his buddies as he arranges a get-together with her. Ben meets her for dinner and the two have a hilarious argument in the middle of a classy restaurant about the misunderstanding with the condom. Ben is angry at first, but deep down he is a good guy and promises to help her with the pregnancy and with raising the child.
As the two spend more and more time together, they begin to realize there might just be a spark there after all. But Ben seems more interested in hanging out with Pete than anything else, and Alison begins to see her relationship with Ben heading toward a parallel with her sister’s dysfunctional marriage.
Despite the serious overtones, this movie manages to be laugh-out-loud funny at virtually every junction. Ben is an adorable bear with a college-boy sense of humor, and his roommates are a constant source of comic relief as they run around naked in the middle of an earthquake or contract pink-eye from farting on each other’s pillows.
It’s the sort of movie that will appeal to the younger generation, but also carries a valuable message about growing up and accepting responsibility…in a breeder sort of way.

Spin the Bottle (2000)
Five friends reunite at the cabin at the lake where they spent many summers together during their childhood, but it’s not all fond memories that come back to them. Ted is nervous about this reunion because of something horrible he did to Jonah during the 8th grade – Ted and his fiancée Bev even debate skipping out on the whole thing, but their female friend Alex catches them and insists they stay.
Alex shows herself to be an interesting character – feminist, vegetarian, and shameless slut – as she puts the moves on Ted knowing full well of his engagement to Bev. Ted has her pinned as an attention seeker and yet plays right into her ploy, skinny dipping in the lake with her while Bev takes a nap.
Eventually Rachel shows up – a somewhat dopey girl with outward emotional problems over her break up with her former boyfriend “Sledge”. Bev has no choice but to offer a sympathetic ear, but Jonah’s arrival quickly takes Rachel’s mind off her ex problems.
They all remember Jonah as the shy and reserved zit-faced youth, but he surprises everyone with his stunning good looks and humble confidence. The guys and the girls split off into groups as the five of them go for a hike. Alex and Rachel hang behind to take in the view of Jonah’s behind, while Bev makes a weak argument for Ted’s case.
Later that evening they discover an old bottle of spirits, and after a few rounds they relapse to their childhood game of spin-the-bottle. At first the kisses remain hetero, but Bev has some pretty harsh words for Alex after the two women must kiss. A few more spins and Ted and Jonah must share a kiss. This is too much for Ted, who follows through but not-so-politely decides to call it quits immediately afterward. But this mixing up of desires is far from over. Before the end of the night, Jonah will have had sex with both Bev and Ted individually, to prove a point that they’re not ready for a commitment to one another…or perhaps it’s just his way of getting revenge on Ted for the 8th grade.
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