Gerontophilia
Vanguard
Director: Bruce LaBruce
Bruce LaBruce, Canada’s most shocking film director and queer zombie porn auteur, has officially mellowed. Expecting something edgy or cynical from his latest, Gerontophilia, will only have you second-guessing the sentiment as slow motion embraces between the young and the old are actually more sincere than sinister.
Lake, a young and quiet French Canadian, is trying to evaluate a secret shame. He has an overwhelming attraction to seniors, hiding a sketchbook in which he portraits erotic renditions of older citizens around him. When an opportunity arises to work in a care home, Lake cannot hesitate. When he meets Mr. Peabody, an odd soul under sedation, Lake finds a soul mate, beginning a relationship that’ll have to weather social norms.
It’s an unexpected flip for LaBruce to run with the old and living instead of the young and dead, but it’s even more bizarre that he’s created a warm romance film instead of strictly acting the provocateur. It’s a film only about living against the norm, but done in a very normal way, with rotundas of conflicted emotions cut by shoegaze. Gerontophilia isn’t the mainstream opening to the rest of LaBruce’s catalogue, it’s isolated Very sweet, but close to mild, something you couldn’t say about the rest of Bruce’s work, even if you hated it all. (Zack Kotzer)
Screens
Friday, September 13th, Scotiabank 3, 12:15pm