Circuit
2001 · Movie · 130 min. · United States
Dirk Shafer's "Circuit" is an extremely disturbing and powerful film. Everything that one could hate about gay life in America stars in this movie. Jonathan Webster, a college-educated gay man living & working as a police officer in a small Illinois town, realizes that he has no future there, and so moves to Los Angeles. John is muscular, athletic, and stunningly attractive, and soon becomes socially popular in the West Hollywood world where youth & beauty mean everything. He is slowly seduced by the colored lights and glitter into the vacuous world of the circuit party, where young, beautiful gay men waste their lives flailing in a stupor of drugs, alcohol, promiscuous & unsafe sex, and sleazy electronic techno-pop disco music. John's increasing substance abuse eventually erodes his judgment and strains his friendships. This movie frankly confronts many issues that gay men won't or can't address: the gay cult of youth worship, body fascism and negative body image, rampant drug & alcohol abuse, the internalized anti-gay bigotry and the concomittant corrosion of self-esteem that fuels the whole ugly mess, and the business people who have a vested interest in making sure that none of it changes.
Direction Dirk Shafer
Cast Jonathan Wade-Drahos · Andre Khabbazi · Brian Lane Green · Kiersten Warren · Daniel Kucan · Jim J. Bullock · Darryl Stephens · Bruce Vilanch · Randal Kleiser · Paul Lekakis · William Katt · Nancy Allen · Stanton Schnepp · Michael Bailey Smith · Brian Beacock
Soundtrack Tony Moran
Screenplay Gregory Hinton · Dirk Shafer
Cinematography Joaquin Sedillo
Original title Circuit
5.2
22 votes (FilmAffinity)
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