MQFF REVIEW: Gerontophilia (2013, Dir. Bruce LaBruce)

"Pretty" has never been an adjective I'd expect to apply to Bruce LaBruce's work. What's more, I'm guessing "pretty" is never an adjective Bruce LaBruce would have ever had expected to apply to Bruce LaBruce's work. And yet, with Gerontophilia, like Gregg Araki before him, LaBruce has scrubbed up his rough aesthetic, shallowed his focus and overcranked his camera (or whatever one does nowadays to pull a slow motion shot on digital) to create what would, in a happier world, represent a crossover hit.

But I'm not quite sure that the mainstream is ready to swallow a love story between and 18 year old boy and an 80 year old man. Not just yet.

That's pretty much the run of Gerontophilia. Lake (Pier-Gabriel Lajoie) is a regular lad. Nothing really sets him apart, except for his innocent good looks and his fetish for older men. With the help of his mother, he picks up a job at a nursing home, then picks up one of the residents, a dapper octogenarian named Mr. Peabody (Walter Borden).

Anyone who's an old hand at coming out knows that if you treat the revelation as a complete non-event you'll usually barely raise an eyelid. Gerontophilia is successful precisely because LaBruce uses that precise tactic. As a director, LaBruce is exceptionally efficient in overstepping normalcy to deliver Lake's unfamiliar sexual identity with unblinking frankness. Rather than treating his attraction as deviancy, LaBruce just conflates it with the general uncertainty that comes with any pubescent identity building, in this case Lake's budding homosexuality. LaBruce doesn't leave any time for his audience to tut-tut, he just throws them in with some cracking personality, some stunning photography and a hell of a lot of good humour. It works a treat.

Gerontophilia should have people watching LaBruce's next move. He's proved he's got more in him that many would have expected, primarily on the visual front but also as an actor's director. The performance he's pulled from first-timer Lajoie is remarkably nuanced and moves in a way that is entirely unexpected. He's also done well not to squash the perk of Borden, who gives one of the most enjoyably affable turns of the festival.

This is a far cry from Hustler White, L.A. Zombie or, well, any of LaBruce's previous work, yet it still feels true to the director's world. And that's its charm. Like Lake's sexual attraction, its easily assimilated into one's experience. Challenging but palatable all at once.

★★★★

Trailer:

Gerontophilia screened as part of the 2014 Melbourne Queer Film Festival.