Nicely produced, in a straight-to-video kind of way, this rather standard coming-of-age story at least has decent performances and an easy, relaxed style that makes it vaguely watchable ... even though it's also utterly unchallenging. Jared (Spears) is a fresh-faced 19-year-old who leaves Georgia for L.A. In a youth hostel, he meets one nice gay guy (Jacobson) and gets a job as a caretaker for a blind old woman (Craigg), still very glamorous after a career as a starlet. Her son (Tyler), meanwhile, falls for Jared, even though he's about 15 years older and already has a boyfriend (Shyne). Jared has to learn some Tough Life Lessons before moving on.

Yeah whatever. It's all simplistic and somewhat awkward, kind of like watching a porn film without the explicit sex (although a couple of sequences are very steamy); everyone sits around talking, like they're waiting to do something else. The actors are fine, nothing special, although Spears is a bit too vacant and innocent for words. The story's clearly autobiographical, as Jared carries his video camera everywhere, but there's very little humour or passion in the film as events creep along to the predictable finale. And if you don't buy into the whole "journey into homosexuality" theme, you're in big trouble!

adult themes and situations, nudity, language, drugs

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9.Apr.01 llgff

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