I Want Your Love (2012)

The following is the review of the feature length of the film. I published my thoughts of the 2010 short of this feature film earlier today.

I watched the full feature of Mathews’ 2012 I Want Your Love for a total of 3 times.  I watched the first 2 times alone (on my laptop, no less) much earlier this year. When it’s enlisted in this year Q!Fest i planned to skip it (leaning on Mathew’s In Their Room London instead). But my plan was cancelled that last sunday and i came way too early for L’Inconnu Du Lac, so instead of walking around aimlessly i thought there’s no harm in watching the film again. And just maybe the third time a charm, or maybe watching it in a roomful of guys made a totally different, slightly awkward, but different nevertheless.

I Want Your Love, focus on Jesse, the same character in the short. Jesse is going to move back to his parents’ house in his hometown in Colombus, Ohio. The film opened with him having a drink with his circle of friends who insist on throwing him a party before his departure from San Fransisco. Jesse is doubtful about his decision that was made for him, he’s broke and not at the point where he thought he’d be in his thirties. He did not find what he was looking for in San Fransisco and his career as a performance artist did not really took off. He has casual encounters, despite still hung up on his ex-boyfriend Ben while at the same time he idolize his neighbor who is a fellow art performer Keith. But even then he still don’t know what he’s trying to find in these relationships. In the mean time, Wayne, Jesse’s best friends who’s throwing him the farewell party is having second thoughts about asking his boyfriend to move in with him.

The film, is basically a mumblecore indie, with naturalistic performance and observational view on contemporary gay culture. Intriguing at best, despite its (many) flaws. Mathews employed his strength in focusing on moments that are so intimate they made the viewer as voyeur to the characters on screen. Like the short, the feature is produced by the Naked Sword team, delivering the same realism of sexual encounters, the amount of it may become borderline excessive and slightly overindulgent, but i like the way it was portrayed by Mathews: messy, not overtly romanticized, sometimes it was awkward, sometimes it invites giggles, it can be passionate, and downright dirty (no, it is not as polished as porn, despite the amount of phallic appendages, etc) . But unlike its short form, some of the graphic sexual content contributes to the narrative, depicting the strain or the passion of the characters and the relationship they had. One of the example was what happened between Wayne and his boyfriend Ferrin, who had sex several times, each with a different mood that their characters’ developed.

I definitely enjoyed seeing I Want Your Love that third time. Even though i am not sure if I really get’ Mathews entire aesthetic and objectives, his work still intriguing enough for me to keep his name in my radar. Despite some pretentious hipsterdom that dominates the characters and flawed narrative, I Want Your Love is an intriguing observational piece. It’s an interesting film to see if you enjoy the new Queer Cinema (as in the likes of Haigh or Sachs), but if explicit sex disturb you, it’d be wise to stay away.

I WANT YOUR LOVE (2010)

GENRE Short, LGBT
DIRECTOR Travis Mathews | PRODUCER Jack J. Shamama, Michael Keith, Christopher Nana | WRITER Travis Mathews | MUSIC Eddie Foronda | CINEMATOGRAPHER Michael Keith, Travis Mathews | EDITOR Travis Mathews | COUNTRY United States | RUNNING TIME 71 minutes | RELEASE April 12, 2012 (Fringe Film Festival)
STARRING Jesse Metzger, Brontez Purnell, Ben Jasper, Keith McDonald, Jorge Rodolfo, Ferrin Solano, Wayne Bumb

Stills are partially from IMDb | Official Site | Trailer

This movie was screened as a part of Q! Film Festival in Jakarta.