Guy 101

Guy 101 (2006)

04 Jun 2006 • Short, Drama • 0h 9m
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A man talks about an user he met in an internet chat room (guy 101) who told him a story about when he picked up a hitchhiker and ended up taking him back to his place for casual sex.This animated film takes an encounter on the internet and makes it into a "real" thing as it tells a story of a sexual encounter that a gay man had with a hitchhiker. In its concept it is perfectly fine and indeed the idea of blending the real world and the internet together to tell a story is actually pretty clever. However here the problems come in once it tries to move beyond the idea stage and deliver upon it. The thing that hits you the most after watching it is that the story seems to lack the "message" or point that I was looking for it to have. This isn't helped by the fact that the story it does tell seems to be built on and leading to nothing more than reinforcing gay stereotypes. Now I'm not sure if the story told here is true or not (it may well be) but it doesn't do anything else other than serve as ticking the usual boxes about homosexuality.So in essence the story is about a man (handlebar moustache etc), a random stranger, violent casual sex, all bundled up as a "good" thing within the life of guy-101. I was looking for the "point" to this from the maker's view but that never came and I was left wondering what the purpose had been. In other areas, Gouldstone is actually pretty good and I did like the animation. He does well to merge the visuals of the internet into the telling of the story so that the fact that it was told to him over a chatroom remains a constant factor in the film. It is a shame that the animation is not better but again the idea itself deserves credit.Overall then this is a clever film on paper and it is a shame that it never seems to deliver on that potential. The story is interesting but ultimately just leaves you with a collection of gay clichés and not anything more than that.

Ian W. Gouldstone
Writer

Starring

Language: English
Awards: Won 1 BAFTA Award1 win total
Country: United States
Metacritic Score:
DVD Release Date:
Box Office Total:

7.3

IMDb (72 votes)
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