Down Low

Down Low is an outrageous comedy about one wild night, it is raunchy, over the top but also funny yet inappropriate at the same time. It is interesting to see and hear all the jokes that are made within the leads. The story is about an unlikely friendship between a repressed middle-aged gay man and a young masseur, who ends up being his guide/counsellor/friend. Sadly the film tris to achieve a lot but sadly doesn't really go anywhere.

Gary is a divorced man, whose wife left him bitterly after he came out gay. Ready to live life to the fullest, Gary hires a masseur/sex worker to give him a hand job and maybe something more. When the hired Cameron (Gage) learns that Gary has only recently come out and has never had sex with a man, he nixes the hand job and decides that he will make sure Gary lives his full life and has a proper sexual experience with another guy using one of the many gaydating apps. Despite Cameron's insistence, Gary doesn't create a profile on the app, so Cameron creates a profile on their behalf, assigning them the roles of “lad” and “dad.” The quest to find a third man for a threesome begins.  The date arrives within minutes, but things go horribly wrong as the two start arguing and accidentally push him out of the window, killing him. The two attempt to figure out what to do with the body and how to clean it up. Cameron magically has the idea of contacting a crime scene cleaner from the Dark Web. Things start going wrong even with this guy, who uses dead bodies for his weird fantasies. Next thing you know is they start smoking drugs. Gary decides he doesn't want to give this a the dead body and the man then attacks Cameron. In a rage, Gary hits him hard killing him. Eventually Gary and Cameron give them both a proper burial. We are also told that Gary has. Brain tumor and only has about a month to live. Cameron and Gary eventually have sex thereby giving Gary his wish.

The chemistry between Gary and Cameron is on par. The way they both speak in a fast tone through each scene, including planning for body burying etc is also quite good. Sadly, I felt that the makers were not really sure what is the kind of film they want to make. It starts of as a screwball comedy, but then somewhere it shifts into deep character building of his protagonists focusing on Gary and Cameron's hart of gold and possibility of them as a couple. It tries to do both, but the screwball part tires itself out incredibly fast, and the romance is far too underdeveloped for the audience to ultimately care about them, even if Cameron knows Gary will be dead in about a month. At its core, Down Low is about generational differences that inform the coming-out process, repression as a means of achieving an elusive idea of “goodness,” and what fully embracing yourself looks like. Had the film just focused on that without taking it very seriously; it would have been good fun to watch. The film also has a couple of musical sequences which are surprisingly done well. I am not sure of we needed the last 15 minutes of how when Gary dies, Cameron abducts his body to give him th burial that he always wanted rather than his ex-wife deciding for him. And thats what I mean, when I say, the film is never truly sure of what it wants to be. Despite all that, the film is funny, it's a dark comedy. It could be have been trimmed butt hanks to some good acting and direction, we as audience do not get bored.  The film would have been a refreshing change of routine for queer coming-out experiences, had it focused just on that. (6.5/10)