Shiner

Director(s): Christian Calson
Writer(s): Christian Calson
Producer(s): Christian Calson, Carl Strecker, Jon Teboe, Jaymes Thompson, Pyongson Yim
Starring: Scott Stepp, Derris Nile, David Zelina

Shiner is a story of three pairs of people that blur the lines of violence and sex. Danny and Tony are two amateur fighters who get their kicks from tormenting others. While they seem like common, everyday bullies during the day, at night they share a secret fetish. Danny gets off when he is beaten by Tony and Tony gets a thrill from beating up Danny. Linda and Reg are a hot steamy straight couple that can't get enough of each other. When Linda starts to let her aggression out in the bedroom during sex, their relationship feels an overwhelming pressure. Tim is an amateur boxer who has a set routine for training. For the last four years he has knowingly been stalked by Bob, a shy parking lot attendant always looking to catch Tim in the shower or locker room. Tim grapples with his feelings for Bob while still coming to terms with his need to be stalked.

The best way I can describe this movie is "Fight Club" meets "Love Actually". These three stories somehow loosely intersect to create a semi-community of violence-based sexually charged men and women. Now what this films lacks is the emotional drive and plot development of "Fight Club" and the clever intertwining of stories that "Love Actually" offers. While the production value is rather amateur, the filmmaker does make a valiant effort of using light and cinematography to differentiate the three sub plots. The green haze in the scenes with Tim and Bob paint an eery feeling of jealousy and lust. The blue tint to scenes between Danny and Tony create an overwhelming essence of testosterone while evoking a level of secrecy. The washed out bright yellow filter of Linda and Reg create an intimate space that produces a sense of trust and love.

Now what the filmmaker does that bothers me is that he seems to have studied from the "Yours Emotionally!" school of film where everything in the first few minutes is shot in extreme close-up. While yes, things shot in extreme close-up are rather cool to look at as individual clips or photos, they rarely work in a narrative spliced together. The first scene should be establishing and we should get more from a character's full body mannerisms than from the enormous monologue-esque prologue or the quick banter about inane subjects that pertain nothing to character development or plot. Thus. . . Shiner is yet another grad school thesis film focusing on a subject matter that has yet to be fully expanded in cinema and queer cinema.