SYNOPSICS
Luster (2002) is a English movie. Everett Lewis has directed this movie. Justin Herwick,B. Wyatt,Shane Powers,Pamela Gidley are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2002. Luster (2002) is considered one of the best Comedy,Drama movie in India and around the world.
Luster is a refreshingly funny and sexy look at unrequited love. Jackson, a cute, lanky, blue-haired poet who works in a record store, is at the center of Everett Lewis' twisted black LA comedy. He's got a crush on the sexy young blonde, Billy, who he met at an orgy the other night. But Billy's not into him, he's in love with Sonny, a musician into S&M. Even though Billy doesn't want Jackson, two other guys do: Derek, a clean-cut record store customer, and Sam, the supposedly straight record store owner. Into this mix is thrown Jed, Jackson's hunky cousin, which leads Jackson to seriously contemplate the technicalities of incest. Before he can do anything about it, though, Jed is seduced by Jackson's lesbian artist friend. What's a boy to do?
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Luster (2002) Reviews
See it if you must
Luster is a coming of age story about a group of 20 & 30 somethings in L.A. in the midst of an odyssey into their teens. And they are soooo cool & punk rock. They've got that really rebellious "I'm REAL punk rock & I'm not a poseur & you ARE & the rest of the world sux" thing from high school still going pretty strong. Everyone in LA is infatuated with the lead character Jackson, even the "guy next door" who stalks him at work. I'm not sure why, since I was eventually hoping someone would smack Jackson upside the head & shut him up. Amongst the film's problems are too many story lines & subplots fighting for attention, none of which seem to blend or create a sense of relevance to Jackson's life or a cohesive central theme. The worst of these is an S & M subplot that seems terribly contrived, misplaced, & rings totally false with the rest of the film's "realism." There are a couple of funny moments, like the photographer & the interaction with her "subject." And of course there are a couple of full frontals from a really good looking guy, which help this situation along slightly. But worse of all, I never felt for a minute why Jackson was lusting for these guys & guys were lusting for him. There's no sexual chemistry in this movie between anyone. NADA. Just a bunch of obnoxious & pretentious brats pretending to deal with "real life" & "art." Yuck. Plenty of better queer films out there. See it if you must.
hit the marker many gay based films miss
Luster is more a movie about a guy who happens to be gay ,not a GAY movie. Jackson is an amazing character for this film because like this film although he is strange he is believable and thats how the whole film is dramatic enough to be a movie but not so much that you find no common ground. The relationship between characters is amazing and As a gay guy i can honestly admit i have "fallen in love" a million times before learning the person's last name like how Jackson is crazy over billy who he knows nothing about. That impulse for a connection is totally believable and the film makes you look at the characters and go i have a friend like that or more importantly "i am like that"
"Lack"Luster is more like it
Just in case...****Possible Spoilers*** I respect independent filmmakers and the fact they continue to produce despite limited funds and little recognition. I also respect the amount of work that goes into such a production. I know everyone involved from top to bottom worked hard on this film. So the question lingering in my mind is this... Considering the time, effort and obstacles... why didn't they at least have a good script? LUSTER is just another in a long line of films to emerge from the "new gay cinema" that started in the early '90's. And like all the rest - it sucks. Bad script, bad acting and low production values. First the script. Coppola once commented about the dilemma of every filmmaker. He said all filmmakers aspire to something greater. But at the same time they don't want to be seen as pretentious. This script may aspire, but in the end it is pretentious. The film centers on a young man who knows nothing of love but falls in love every 10 minutes. And the biggest problem is that by the end of the film he still knows nothing of love. The character doesn't grow or learn so what we're left with is a series of events that culminates into nothing. Then there's the dialog. Does anyone over 16 actually use the term "buzz kill" anymore. While the writing tries to be authentic to the world it's trying to emulate, it fails to actually capture that world. Also, there's a scene in the beginning that is SO reminiscent of a similar scene in "High Fidelity" it's embarrassing to watch. Then there's the acting. With so many starving actors in Hollywood, how hard is it to find decent actors? Apparently harder than we all thought. None of the performers seem prepared to act on film. Most of the time I felt like I was watching an acting exercise by students who were less than prepared. But blame for the poor performances can be spread around. It's the director's responsibility to pull good performances from his talent and here he drops the ball. And finally the production standards. There's really no excuse no matter what the budget to have shots that are out of focus, yet that happens several times in this film. And there are the scenes in the office building that take place in almost complete darkness. Apparently they wanted to capture the cityscape outside the window but were either unable or incapable of lighting the interior to compensate for the color temperature. So what we get are several scenes in silhouette that are hard to watch. Like I said in the beginning, I respect independent filmmakers but the hardships they face cannot be used to forgive bad scripts with lousy dialog, inadequate talent, poor directing and a failure to meet minimum production standards. Despite good intentions, LUSTER is just another bad independent film that fails to live up to the promise of the movement.
worth watching for a queer audience
LUSTER is a winsome, engaging look back at a time in the early 1990s when queer nonchalance began to overtake gay pride for the first time. Something like an early Gregg Araki film (although less angry and more light-hearted), LUSTER is a funny, sexy, and a generally fast-moving look at the early Nineties from the not-too-distant perspective of the early Twenty-first century. It's hardly a classic, and hardly the kind of film that will stay with a person as the years go by, but the film's entirely adorable actors and characters help make this sweet and sexy film very much a worthwhile experience. At least it seems that way for a gay audience looking for something beyond the usual post-Queer milquetoast like IN AND OUT or WILL AND GRACE..
good flick
The film had the edginess and campiness of a Greg Araki film, with some moments cinematography and character development reminiscent of Gus Van Sant. The characters were sexy, quirky and fun to watch. The story was engaging. The production quality (lighting and sound) was lacking a bit, but not too bad. Hopefully we will see more of Justin Herwick, who played the lead role. He reminded me of River Phoneix. Supporting actor Jonah Blechman (who played Billy) was adorable and his character added some punch to the film. Those who like a mix of raunchiness and reality with the esoteric and attempts to "be deep" will enjoy the film. I definitely did.