Released | Jan 01st, 1988 |
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Running Time | 80 |
Director | Stephen Lucas |
Company | In Hand Choices |
Cast | Johnathon Newman, Billy London, Anthony Romero, Paul Clinton, John Nicholson, Christopher Scott, Shawn Williams, Ronnie Lee |
Critical Rating | AAA 1/2 |
Genre | Gay and Bi |
Some videos work purely on star power; some rely on superslick photography and glitzy packaging. Others, with nothing that particularly distinguishes them on first sight, succeed spectacularly because of something you just can't put your finger on. For lack of a better word, call it chemistry.
That's the case with this simple coming-out story about a young guy named Johnathon. Just out of school, with a fiancé and a job with Dad awaiting him, he's unaccountably depressed. Maybe it's that fantasy man who haunts his dreams, the one who beats off naked in the shower. Maybe it's those two guys he sees on the beach, who seem closer than friends. Maybe there's something Johnathan has to face up to.
Stephen Lucas, ordinarily a so-so director, here seems to have been inspired by his cast and subject matter. The young but regular-looking cast seems to have been genuinely inspired by each other. The sexual action, in scene after scene, has the heady excitement of the Real Thing, a deeply felt enthusiasm and authenticity of the sort that can't be faked. The camera is always in the right place, the pacing feels just right.
Hard Choices fulfills the true and highest function of gayporn. It stimulates the erotic imagination, keys the viewer's nostalgia, captures the thrill of sexual discovery, and touches memorably on the sheer sweetness of sex.