Change Your Image
mcjules
Reviews
Cosh Boy (1953)
A comedy for sure
This movie made when Western civilisation was going to be torn down by the outbreak of Juvenile Delinquents, and the pimply youth were building forces in the US as well, so follow Cosh Boy with "When Youth Runs Wild" (1945). The US film is not as funny as the UK one but still has all the traditional delinquent-syndrome markers.
Cosh Boy is a real hoot, especially the strange pitch of their voices or, perhaps this is the what delinquency does to the vocal cords. Making their coshes in trade classes at school was a goody, what or where was the teacher while these illegal instruments were being turned out. Suppose the old prostitutes were lucky that the boys weren't doing metal work at school or they would have been done over with knuckle dusters. Loved the 50/50 split: ten bob for you and fifteen bob for me, and the cosh wielding drongo didn't notice the shortchange.
Loved the fashion. The best was the bloke in the two-toned car coat with tied waist topped off with a Homberg hat. Sooo hip.
Head On (1998)
Not Coming Out
Ari is a young gay man who refuses to accept his homosexuality, and who instead chooses to label himself as a "whore", while demeaning himself with grubby back-alley blow jobs with grubbier partners.
The film is a 24 hour snapshot of Ari's lifestyle where he whores around binging on drugs trying to escape his ultimate life decision while rejecting his Greek parents' code of hetero-marriage, house and children and rejecting his mates who step into the "code". It seems that the only person he respects is his cousin Toula/Johnny who has the guts to be who he is.
Sean, is in love with Ari, who is offering him a real relationship is brutally rejected as a full gay relationship would mean coming out. Ari is a sad case because if the drugs don't get him he will end up an ugly old whore not wanted by many, while his supportive friends would have moved on.