Circuit (2001)

I saw this movie with a title "Party Boys". For me, it was NOT about some circuit in L.A., or wherever. It reminded me of the feelings I had - in my party times - every weekend - in the middle of Europe - far away of the gay paradises of the west. This is why I dare to call this portrait more general. Forget about drugs, forget about time and place... the thing that remains is that next-day's "why?" and "nothing more?". All that love-is-in-the-air (that is just the text of the song, not what is present in the atmosphere), all that boys-good-in-bed (that are so bad actually in their imitating of the porn, thinking that THIS IS a sex), all that care-about-your-body that disguises the lack of purpose of the void corpse, all that rainbow-colourfulness (that is the dictate of one color actually - even if different every weekend).Being myself...??? Come on! I loved and still love the parties, music, dancing, nice guys, feeling of something happening - but I don't wanna see just ones side, to get drunk by this "pure happiness"... After one gets drunk, the hangover comes... I like gay culture (subculture, pseudo-culture, whatever), the ideas of colours, unconstrained love, freedom, enjoying of life - but what there really is - is far from this ideal. Uniformity, sex as a sport (who experienced nothing else, will not understand), vogue, must-have-fun must-smile must-laugh for any price... Maybe this is what the director wanted to say.Maybe it's not true about your L.A. circuit - but there's more to feel than to see.

Well… almost. At its best, "Circuit" reminds one of the scope,wit, and compelling nature of PT Anderson's "Boogie Nights" and"Magnolia", or even Robert Altman's "Nashville", and one suspectsthat had the director had more money, a better cast and crew, andmaybe the help of a script doctor, this film could have been asgreat as those films. Despite uneven performances, dialog, andplotting, "Circuit" does a good job of conveying the ambivalenceinherent it the contemporary American circuit scene. Yes, thescene can seem both exciting and shallow at the same time…dangerous and alluring, soulless and sexy, liberating anddestructive. There's no contradiction in conveying that, exceptingthe very real contradictions in life about all things that have mixedbenefits and drawbacks. It's a sign of the filmmakers maturity thatthey can show both sides of the many issues with a good deal ofcomplexity. The biggest drawback, for me anyway, was the film'smelodramatic and contrived ending, murder plot and all. Still, myboyfriend an I were always entertained, staying up till 3 a.m. tofinish this reasonably well-done effort.

I guess you had to be there, and I was. Most people will not have enough or the wrong kind of baggage to understand this movie. Its a chronicle of a lifestyle, and if you are on the outside looking in half of it will zoom right over your head. Go see it for yourself and try not to listen to others. The music alone is worth the six bucks and Tony Moran doesn't let a minute pass without some bumper music. A visual feast - thats entertainment !!!

Judging from the other comments on IMDb, I fear that I've seenanother film, because whatever it was *I* saw called "Circuit"starring Jonathan Wade-Drahos wasn't anywhere near as "compelling," "objective" or "fascinating" as the film these otherpeople saw. This film has one of the worst scripts I've seen in*ages*: none of the characters is interesting, you can see the plottwists coming a mile away (and often scenes go on two minutespast the time you've figured out what is important about themoment), and the storyline gets wildly melodramatic. If they haddecided to play these over-the-top moments for laughs, it wouldhave been a great film. Now, it's deadly earnest, and deadlyperiod.The film is also incredibly pedantic and judgmental. Supposedlythe circuit is supposed to be something amazing and fulfilling tothese characters (a number of them say so throughout the film),but we never get to see anything that might indicate that. Instead,all we see is desperation, venality and tragedy. It's like acatechism class--anyone who takes drugs (even once!) MUST bepunished somehow!!!! I will give credit that as a director, Dirk Shafer has gotten a bit morevisual than with his previous film "Man of the Year," and there aresome decent bits considering the low budget he had to work with. But it can't compensate for the major problems mentioned above.