Boy Culture (2006)

71% of critics liked it
(28 reviews)
69% of users liked it
(3,890 ratings)

A male prostitute who has dismissed the need for love in his life learns a lesson about affection from one of his customers in this independent comedy drama from filmmaker Q. Allan Brocka. X (Derek Magyar) is a gay hustler whose enigmatic name reflects his emotional distance from the world around… More A male prostitute who has dismissed the need for love in his life learns a lesson about affection from one of his customers in this independent comedy drama from filmmaker Q. Allan Brocka. X (Derek Magyar) is a gay hustler whose enigmatic name reflects his emotional distance from the world around him; he doesn't much believe in love, and isn't interested in sex unless he's being paid for it. X has a dozen regular customers he calls his "disciples," and shares his home with two roommates -- Andrew (Darryl Stephens), whose good looks sometimes tempt X, though he's still uncertain about his own sexual feelings, and Joey (Jonathon Trent), an uninhibited and outré teenager who openly lusts after X, to no avail. Gregory (Patrick Bauchau) is an older man who regularly hires X for companionship, but he refuses to have sex with the hustler until he's willing to acknowledge that their attraction is mutual. X isn't about to admit to any such thing, but one day Gregory shares a story with X that forces him to reconsider his thinking. Boy Culture received its North American premiere at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 28 min.
Directed By: Q. Allan Brocka
Written By: Q. Allan Brocka, Philip Pierce, Q. Allen Brocka
Genres: Drama, Gay & Lesbian, Comedy

In Theaters: Mar 23, 2007 Limited
On DVD: Aug 14, 2007
Studio: TLA Releasing

Critic Reviews

Jason Anderson, Globe and Mail
Boy Culture is an undemanding but sufficiently engaging serving of smut and sentiment. As such, it reclaims territory that queer cinema has largely ceded to TV shows like Queer as Folk, The L Word and Six Feet Under.
Tom Long, Detroit News
Despite cliches, film does click.
John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press
Benefits from some assured helming by Q. Allan Brocka and strong performances.
James Reed, Boston Globe
You know something's amiss in a movie when an omniscient narrator blathers the entire way through it.
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune
A smarter-than-average relationship drama set in Seattle's gay scene, Boy Culture boasts a winning sense of self-awareness.
David Wiegand, San Francisco Chronicle
As a character, X is rather reticent and buttoned-up. If he'd stayed that way as a narrator, a rather nice film would have been even better.
Kam Williams, EURWeb
A refreshingly realistic, homoerotic adventure featuring recognizable gay characters actually acting gay, not behaving in some sanitized fashion intended to appeal to straight audiences. The gay version of Jungle Fever!
Kam Williams, NewsBlaze
The gay version of Jungle Fever!
Kevin Williamson, Jam! Movies
Audiences outside gay cinema will, frankly, probably find it too callow to emotionally invest in. However, for those who do see it, they will likely be surprised, and entertained, by its arch insights and near-camp bearing.
David Elliott, San Diego Union-Tribune
Seattle locales, some spry lines and tiny soundings of depth still leave us in the conceptual grip of 'love' as a system of endless bartering and vanity, with impulsive copulation treated as consecration. Oh, boy.
Ted Murphy, Murphy's Movie Reviews
BOY CULTURE is a well-made, engrossing and well acted comedy-drama. [The main character] X can easily reside alongside Jon Voight's Joe Buck in MIDNIGHT COWBOY as one of the screen's more memorable hustlers.
John Hartl, Seattle Times
Brocka's direction keeps things moving, and the performances he draws from Magyar, Stephens and indie-film veteran Bauchau are always up to speed.
Gianni Truzzi, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
These self-involved studs manage to make ready, anonymous sex look rather dull.
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul), St. Paul Pioneer Press
A drab, contrived drama in which men have sex and then complain about it to us.
Gabriel Shanks, Modern Fabulousity
Brocka leaps into the small circle of leading queer filmmakers of our time, sculpting an unpredictable romance that is complex, sophisticated and thoughtful.

Read all 15 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Thomas J

A poor attempt to make a hustler seem likable. When a character is this cocky... I do not care if he has a soft emotional side.
Rachel F

It's different and not for everybody, but I thought it had a good storyline. Plus, the adorable boys that make up the cast are nice eye-candy.