What’s the old saw about war? That it’s long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror? Tweaked a little, the line serves pretty well as a description of writer-director Camille Vidal-Naquet’s story of a gay prostitute’s (Félix Maritaud) journey of…well, journey, anyway. All that’s required is the addition of “and/or emotion” at the end. Some of the boredom is of the ordinary variety: when you’re in retail, whether you’re peddling high-end purses or low-end sex, there’s a great deal of time spent waiting for the right customer to come along. (In perhaps his weakest directorial decision, Vidal-Nacquet attempts to cover the dullness through the energetic use of his camera.) But some is of a more exotic sort: that of decadence. Whether our dirty angel Leo is smoking crack in a tangle of fellow addicts, dancing shirtless under the strobe lights in the club, or satisfying horny johns, there’s a melancholy monotony about his actions. This is not an exciting life for Leo. Nor is it particularly awful. It’s just life, lived in the moment because there’s not much possibility of a future. Then there are the moments of terror. What do you know, not everyone who hires Leo respects his dignity as a human being. (Sometimes, the only way to overcome the boredom of decadence is with a little old-fashioned brutality.) But Leo’s real interest — or perhaps it’s better to say Vidal-Naquet’s — is in those moments of emotion. Throughout, his great virtue as a lover-for-hire is his pliability: unlike his fellow hustler/best friend Ahd — who insists he’s strictly gay for pay — Leo will mix kissing in with the sucking and screwing. It isn’t until Ahd takes up with a sugar daddy that he discovers his willingness to please as well as pleasure is born out of a longing he has never named, the denial of which has left him...suffice it to say, there’s a reason for the title. (2018) — Matthew Lickona
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