ge·ron·to·phil·ia
\jə-ˌrän-tō-ˈfil-ē-ə\
noun
Sexual preference for the elderly.
Queercore filmmaker Bruce LaBruce has tackled all manner of taboo subjects during his mostly underground career, from prostitution to pornography to necrophilia (twice, as a matter of fact). So it is no surprise that his latest film, Gerontophilia, pushes more boundaries with its subject of a young man lusting after a much older man. What is surprising is just how conventional (relatively speaking) it ends up being.
Sexy Canadian newcomer Pier-Gabriel Lajoie plays Lake, a budding gay gerontophile who becomes an orderly in a nursing home, a dream job for him as it provides him with plenty of wrinkled eye candy to fantasize about. There he meets the charming former actor Melvin (Walter Borden) and the two soon develop a close and, ultimately, intimate relationship. Expectedly, all are not accepting of this May-next December romance and the odd couple take off on a road trip that also serves as a sort of honeymoon for the unlikely lovers.
Unlike LaBruce's previous films, Gerontophilia is not sexually explicit, nor does it look like it was filmed in friend's basements and abandoned buildings. On the other hand, it does feature some questionable acting (save for Borden) and a touch of LaBruce's obsession with revolutionary dogma (the SCUM Manifesto gets a mention), so it's not too much of a departure for him. Hardly a "romantic comedy" as it is being advertised as or the "gay Harold and Maude" it aspires to be, Gerontophilia starts off promising with its unordinary premise but fails to dig deep into any real emotions or motivations these characters must have.
MD Rating: C+
Gerontophilia is now available on DVD and VOD:
Review by Kirby Holt, creator and editor of Movie Dearest, The QuOD: The Queer Online Database and the Out Movie Guide.
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