It would be reductive to call I Want Your Love "pornography." But then it would be ignoring the elephant in the room not to mention that this film, about a depressed hipster and his group of friends and lovers connecting as he decides to move to a responsible life in Ohio, features as much sex--actual, non-simulated, graphic, full-on sex, featuring come shots and all--many porn titles on the market. It's possible that director Travis Mathews intends the unfiltered rawness of all of that sex to serve as a metaphor for the emotional intimacy he is going for (and it sometimes achieves that quite movingly in quieter, contemplative moments), but for this writer, each and every time the sex got graphic, I was yanked from the story and pulled into the real world, considering the actors and how they managed to make this film. Any film that calls more attention to itself than it does to its storytelling may be doing something interesting--but it ultimately misses the mark as narrative.
I Want Your Love screens at Outfest on Friday, July 13 at 9:45 p.m. Go to Outfest.org for tickets.
Watch the teaser trailer below
I WANT YOUR LOVE -teaser from Travis Mathews on Vimeo.
