REVIEWS & WRITE-UPS
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  The boys are cute. The girls are cute. And it is refreshing to see both in the mix, sexual and otherwise, in Everett Lewis' rough-hewn but likable "Luster," a portrait of queer artists in contemporary Los Angeles.

The film's first image is a tangle of naked bodies post-orgy, and the entwined limbs are a metaphor for the enmeshed lives that make up the story that follows. Jackson (Justin Herwick), a 20ish poet and zine writer with a punk 'do and demeanor, is at a crossroads in his life. Weary of anonymous sex and waking up in a post-drug haze, but jaded about ever finding love, he struggles to put thoughts into poems while working a job at best friend Sam's alternative record store, No Life. There, Jackson tools around on a skateboard, disses the admiring gaze of a nice guy with a huge crush on him and berates customers for their interest in Madonna when they should be listening to cutting-edge bands like LWG (Lesbians with Guns).

Rarely has this kind of milieu been depicted in a gay movie. The characters are all artists first, and their gay/lesbian/bi/straight/in-between orientations are an integrated aspect of their identities. Sam (Shane Powers), a talented painter (that's actually Lewis' work we see in Sam's painting of a falling man) and one of the most winning characters, has known Jackson since high school and still carries a torch for him. Jackson is too self-centered to notice, or maybe he's too afraid. Sam's romantic conflict has directly impacted his art; he's abandoned painting in favor of running the store, to Jackson's derision. Another employee, Alyssa (Susanna Melvoin), is a lesbian and a photographer, but seems to go more ga-ga as she shoots erotic pictures of bare-chested Jed (b. Wyatt, a veteran of Lewis's other films), the supposedly straight cousin of Jackson's from Iowa who mysteriously turns up in L.A.

That Jackson seems to have no real memory of this cousin is one of the problematic plot points. A caring relationship between Sam and his florist mother is shown but never explored. These holes owe in part to the film's obvious low budget, but most viewers are not likely to fuss about weak plot and character development when "Luster" offers full-frontal nudity of two of its stars (though all the actual sex takes place offscreen).

Jackson lusts after a cutie named Billy (Jonah Blechman), whom he met at a party. But when Billy surfaces, he's a bloody mess who is on the receiving end of a sadistic relationship with a closeted musician named Sonny Spike (Willie Garson). Intrigued by Jackson's zine of poems, Sonny enlists his help on a new album. But rather than explore the interesting artist/commerce conflict he hints at, writer/director Lewis goes for a gratuitous scene in which Sonny humiliates and beats Billy in a bathroom. Billy (uncharacteristically and unlikely, given the physical differences between the two men) also inflicts torture on Jed in a scene that serves only to make the viewer -- and Jackson -- realize Billy's looks are all he has going for him.

Despite these missteps, Lewis is ultimately after Jackson's coming of age as an artist and a full person who can recognize and embrace love. Although Lewis resorts to a melodramatic device to get Jackson to this stage, at least the film has a point beyond its soft-core veneer.

"Luster," which played at many international gay/lesbian film festivals in 2002, backs up its hip artist cred with a soundtrack that features seminal queer bands including Pansy Division, Third Grade Teacher, Nerdy Girl, No No Boy, Band of Outsiders and many others. The voiceover poetry (the work of gay poet Dennis Cooper) often sounds pretentious, but Cooper's erotic paean to David Cassidy rises above some of his other Poetry-with-a-capital-P musings.

This is Lewis' fourth feature, and he's made stylistic progress since "The Natural History of Parking Lots," in 1990 and "An Ambush of Ghosts" (which featured Anne Heche in a small role) in 1993. His more recent "Skin and Bone" was similarly street-themed in its raunchy depiction of hustlers in L.A. With "Luster," Lewis paints a believable picture of a modern-day queer California in which artists struggle, sexual boundaries blur and people sometimes grow wiser.

-- Loren King - www.planetout.com		  

October 17, 2003
 

MOVIE REVIEW
A fumbling search for love in postmodern gay L.A.
 
By Kevin Thomas, Times Staff Writer

Everett Lewis' "Luster" lives up to its title as a fresh, bittersweet look at the pursuit of love among a creative group of L.A. young people. It is an unusual film in that most all its people are gay but virtually no one seems homosexual in any stereotypical way in regard to mannerisms, attitudes or preoccupations. Sexual orientation seems a purely incidental matter, scarcely worth thinking or talking about. The irony, however, is that had it occurred to any of them to look at one another as relationship material, the results would not have been so dire.
These are all attractive, appealing people. Lewis, who made his 1990 debut with the memorable "The Natural History of Parking Lots," has cast in the leading role Justin Herwick as Jackson, a lanky guy with blue hair who skateboards around the record store expressing strong views on the customers' tastes while working part time for the kindly Sam (Shane Powers), who has a maturity about him that contrasts with Jackson and their friends, although he clearly is not much older. Jackson is intense, as one would expect of an aspiring poet.
   
 Knowing what love is and recognizing it is Lewis' abiding concern in this film. After a boozy, druggy orgy, Jackson awakens to conclude that he has fallen in love with Billy (Jonah Blechman), who only wants to be friends. Out of the blue, Jackson's Iowa cousin Jed (B. Wyatt), seemingly naive but definitely uninhibited, visits. Meanwhile, Jackson becomes the object of love at first sight on the part of a record store customer, Derek (Sean Thibodeau), who strikes Jackson as too square. Among Jackson's pals are a chic lesbian couple (Susannah Melvoin and Pamela Gidley), and they are not left out of the action, nor is a creepy, decadent rock star (Willie Garson) for whom Jackson writes lyrics and to whom Billy is attracted.

"Luster" has a charming, skittish quality, and Lewis finds pathos and humor in his characters' often painful search for love. There are moments in which the actors seem a bit self-conscious, yet this low-budget picture is a calling card for pretty much everyone in front of the camera.

"Luster's" finale comes out of left field, although it becomes more credible as it sinks in. Rounding out the film's pleasures is its rousing score, featuring a long list of queer rockers.

MPAA rating: Unrated.
Times guidelines: Some sex, nudity, language, drugs. Not for children.
Justin Herwick ... Jackson
Shane Powers ... Sam
B. Wyatt ... Jed
Jonah Blechman ... Billy
Sean Thibodeau ... Derek
A TLA Releasing presentation of a Film Research Unit production in association with Form A, 2042 Films. Writer-director-editor Everett Lewis. Producer Robert Shulevitz. Cinematographer Humberto De Luna. Original score Michael Leon. Costumes Mimi Maxmen. Art director Alex Brewer-Disarufino. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

 
VOL. 25 NO. 48 October 17 - 23, 2003
 

With this homegrown story about the human origns of art and the blurry boundaries between infatuation and the real thing, witer-director Everett Lewis (THE NATURAL HISTORY OF PARKING LOTS) offers a stiff-shot antidote to the vogue for innocuous media queers. Jackson (Justin Herwick) L.A. punk-boy poet who wears his smart-mouthed cynicism like a shield. There's a nice guy who likes him, but Jackson, who's beginning to tire of the white-noise distractions offered by sex, drugs and rock n' roll, fancies an S/M party boy named Billy. Meanwhile, Jacksons long time buddy Sam (Shane Powers) is coming around to his own buried feelings, just as the appearance of Jackson's hunky cousin from Iowa spurs a chain of events that will, in a manner of speaking, straighten everyone out. The aesthetic is old-school indie, from the grainy film stock and blithely cockeyed camera work to the murky sound and bar-band soundtrack. The message - love is what matters - is old fashioned romantic; in the end Luster is a conventional tale about unconventional people, with a lively, from-the-heart script (peppered with poems by Dennis Cooper) and terrific natural performances that, like the film itself, are cumulatively affecting.

review by: Hazel-Dawn Dumpert, LA WEEKLY

  


 

Everett Lewis has managed to retain his punky, indie edge since his 1990 debut, "The Natural History of Parking Lots." Is it by artistic choice or an inability to successfully pitch a Renée Zellweger vehicle to the Hollywood studio heads? I'm betting on the former, judging from a sequence early on in his latest film, "Luster," in which a geeky, skinny guy is haranguing the blue-haired record store employee/zine writer protagonist, Jackson (Justin Herwick), for Madonna records. "Why would you possibly wanna listen to Madonna?" Jackson asks. "Why don't you listen to something good like Smear, Pansy Division, or LWG?" Not making a dent in the unimpressed, obnoxious customer, he boots the guy out. When he's not costing his employer/best friend, Sam (Shane Powers), customers, Jackson manages to attract the occasional cutie, like clean-cut Derek (Sean Thibodeau), who falls for him at first sight. Nonplussed by this "too normal" guy, Jackson finds a more pleasant, edgy surprise waiting at home in his shower: a sexy naked cousin, Jed (B. Wyatt). Later, at a bookstore, just as he ponders whether incest is an issue, Jackson tries to pick up another boy, Billy (Jonah Blechman). The plot thickens and twists arise when Billy turns up bloody and battered and Jackson is hired as lyricist for closet-case rocker Sonny Spike (Willie Garson). Fans of early '90s New Queer Cinema will appreciate Lewis' deadpan, quirky aesthetic and use of queercore tunes. There are lighter moments and attitudes on display than in Everett's previous works, including a funny bit of friction between lesbian lovers Alyssa (Pamela Gidley) and Sandra (Susannah Melvoin). There are also splotches of darkness and romantic depth, enough to surprise and add dramatic weight. Performance-wise, Herwick plays his character ambivalently and passively, admittedly making it difficult to connect with him, not to mention appreciate why Derek would fall for him. But Blechman, who famously kissed Leonardo DiCaprio in "This Boy's Life," stands out as a lost soul, a beautiful young mess. He's great at playing screwy little gay boys. Judging from "Luster," if Lewis continues to mature as a filmmaker, it could well be Zellweger who comes calling.
                            --Lawrence Ferber - Frontiers Magazine

  
 

 


Lustrously Independent
"Luster"
by Randy Shulman
Published on 08/15/2002

The first shot of Luster, which plays this Friday, August 16 [2002] as part of the Reel Affirmations Xtra series, depicts a mass of artfully entwined nude bodies -- both male and female -- in grainy black and white. It soon becomes apparent that we’re looking at the aftermath of an orgy. And it’s about as artsy as this spellbinding indie film about unrequited love and longing amongst a group of mildly punkish gay friends gets. And that’s a good thing.

Writer-director Everett Lewis’s film is not without style, but it is surprisingly entrenched in convention, down to a literal “Hollywood ending.” Most of the character trajectories are predictable -- particularly that of record-store owner Sam (affectingly played by Shane Powers), who has a long-suffering unrequited love for the movie’s blue-spike-haired poet protagonist, Jackson (Justin Herwick, beguiling and charming despite his efforts to be snarly and disaffected).

But the movie works despite its flaws -- including a fumbled lesbian subplot that is a gratuitous nod to include women in the mix -- casting a spell both erotically charged and genuinely sweet-natured. The best exchange in the movie occurs between Justin and a straight-laced gay boy (Sean Thibodeau) who is pathologically infatuated with the punkish skateboarder. It leads up to the movie’s most captivating moment.

At its core, Luster is about the longing that comes with love -- a longing that can be brutal in its punishment or rewarding in its gifts. “Love is so confusing,” says the hormonally-driven Jackson. “I think I’m in love with twenty new people a day.” Director Lewis also attempts to dovetail themes of artistic inspiration into the work, but the results are somewhat stilted and narratively limp.

Lewis is unflinching -- but remarkably tasteful -- in his depiction of sex (which runs the gamut from tender and gentle to sleazy and sado-masochistic). And there is hardly a male cast member who doesn’t show off the full-frontal goods at one point or another. But Luster is a far cry from softcore porn. It’s just damn good independent filmmaking.

LUSTER SHINES. iN Magazine Los Angeles - IN MAGAZINE: LOS ANGELES


Posted: Tue., Jun. 25, 2002
Luster 
A Film Research Unit production in association with Form A, 2042 Films.
Produced by Robert Shulevitz.
Directed, screenplay by Everett Lewis.
Jackson - Justin Herwick
Sam - Shane Powers
Jed - b. Wyatt
Alyssa - Pamela Gidley
Sandra - Susanna Melvoin
Billy - Jonah Blechman
Derek - Sean Thibodeau
Sonny Spike - Willie Garson
------------------------------------------------------------------------
By DENNIS HARVEY
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A less snarky trip through L.A. gay/punk terrain hitherto identified with Gregg Araki, Everett Lewis' micro-budgeted indie "Luster" is an ensemble seriocomedy that's initially loose to a fault, but gradually wins one over with its shaggy charm -- and by the close has grown more ambitious, and poignant, than initial reels lead you to expect. Tale of a blue-haired skateboarder's dizzying weekend adventures in hapless pursuit of love poses a tough commercial sell that might have been more easily placed during the New Queer Cinema moment (e.g. "My Private Idaho," "Go Fish," etc.) 10 years ago. Still, pic deserves a look from enterprising distribbers both at home and abroad.

Waking up in the morning aftermath of an ill-remembered orgy, aspiring poet Jackson (Justin Herwick) feels rudderless and out-of-control, in need of a grounding romance. Showing up for work -- late as usual -- at the record store owned by hetero best bud Sam (Shane Powers), he incongruously bewitches preppie-looking customer Derek (Sean Thibodeau), who professes love at first sight. Yet this golden opportunity holds little immediate appeal for Jackson. He wants somebody edgier, like current crush object Billy (Jonah Blechman), a boyish enigma who turns out to be a serious masochist.

Offering further, poorly timed distraction during this period of soul-searching is the arrival of Iowa cousin Jed (b. Wyatt), a corn-fed hunk alarmingly willing to embody any and all fantasies for whomever he attracts. Jed is shanghaied out to the desert for a nude photo shoot by Jackson's lesbian pal Alyssa (Pamela Gidley), much to the distress of her lover Sandra (Susanna Melvoin). Meanwhile, Jackson is hired on the basis of his zine writing to pen lyrics for closeted rockstar Sonny Spike (Willie Garson). This big break turns sour, however, when it emerges that Sonny and Billy have a considerable prior history.
While dialogue could be sharper, and situations a tad more ingenious, script gradually assumes a compelling shape as various characters' intersecting arcs become clearer. Impudent but generally sweet-natured script flirts with more dangerous, rather creepy content when Jed endures an (offscreen) rape and the full perversity of Sonny and Billy's relationship is revealed. Yet these jarring notes are balanced out by a surprisingly warm, bittersweet subsequent development. Another proves tragically heartfelt (if a tad murky in psychological setup), and finish is a wish fulfillment that's just desperate enough in motivation to make its romanticism credible as a blind leap.

Despite production's very modest scale, Lewis, whose black-and-white debut effort "The Natural History of Parking Lots" showed at Sundance 12 years ago, juggles a quite ambitious mix of tonal, character and narrative left-turns here, and it's much to his credit that the results -- while somewhat uneven -- really do pull together as "Luster" proceeds.
A couple overstated support turns aside, perfs are very good. Pace is sharp, colorful yet realistic design aspects ditto; solid soundtrack is driven by tracks from Pansy Division and other queer-friendly punk bands.

Camera (color, 16mm), Humberto DeLuna; editor, Lewis; original music, Michael Leon; music supervisors, Garret Scullin, Mark Kreistl; art director, Alex Brewer Disarufino; costume designer, Mimi Maxman; sound, Erica Santa Maria; sound designer, Richard Evans; associate producer, Garret Scullin; casting, Nicole Arbusto, Joy Dickson. Reviewed at San Francisco Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, June 15, 2002. (Also in New York, Sydney and Toronto Gay & Lesbian Film Festivals.) Running time: 90 MIN.
© 2002 Reed Business Information  © 2002 Variety, Inc.


"I lie in a bed post-drugged sex..." proclaims Jackson, a young blue-haired poet, as the camera lovingly glides across an intimately positioned tangle of beautiful bodies. This cutting edge black comedy, an ensemble piece about captures the mood of alternative Los Angeles. A sex charged tale of unrequited love, Luster chronicles the lives of poets, record store clerks, painters, rock stars, and journalists, following these erratic individuals through a variety of settings, from orgies to book signings to long drives in the Hollywood
hills.
At the center of this group is Jackson (Justin Herwick), a hopeless romantic who is chasing a young blonde indie-rock boy named Billy (Jonah Blechman), while also coping with his incestuous desire for his hunky cousin Jed (B. Wyatt). Then there is Derek, a clean-cut, handsome young brunette who meets Jackson in a record store and believes in love at first sight. Throw into the mix Sam, a failed painter who is Jackson's best friend with a secret crush, and Alyssa, a lesbian who likes to ponder Foucault's theory on sexuality and who lasciviously cavorts with Jed while her girlfriend is out for the afternoon, and you get a sexy confection indeed. While Luster may seem exploitative to some, few will be able to escape the film's undeniably debauching charm. Reminiscent of the work of writer/director Gregg Araki (The Living End), Luster has a very wry sense of humor and offers an earnest depiction of confused romantics searching for love in the kinkiest of places.

- Tampa International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
 


Luster is a hip, irreverent and refreshingly funny take on today’s queerboy world of lust, sex and unrequited love. Queercore-loving Jackson (Justin Herwick) is a lanky, blue-haired record store employee and poet who wakes up one post-orgy morning groggy from the excesses of the night before. He finds himself in a real romantic mess; he’s fallen in love with the seriously cute Billy (who he met at the orgy). The only problem is Billy (Jonah Blechman) just wants to be friends and is himself punch drunk in love with Sonny (Willie Garson from “Sex and the City”), a seriously masochistic musician. So where’s a fag who wants to be in love to turn? There’s his hunky cousin Jed (B. Wyatt), who is visiting, and while lustful dreams invade his mind, there’s always that damn incest thing. He could always have Derek, a clean-cut customer who obviously likes him, but that might be too vanilla. His best bud and boss, Sam (Shane Powers), might not be so straight after all – but that’s a little intense. With raging hormones and a confused sense of romanticism, the skate-boarding Jackson finds that getting fucked while in love (with the one who’s fucking you) is not such a simple matter! Set in a seemingly all-queer L.A., Luster is a wildly entertaining ride through clashing worlds of the heart and libido.--Ray Murray, from the Philadelphia Gay & Lesbian film festival catalogue
 
 Jackson (Justin Herwick) is a mess. It’s not the blue hair and the wildly mismatched clothes that pass for cutting-edge among his clique of artsy down-and-outers in Los Angeles; it’s his whole attitude about life. “I think I’m in love with 20 people a day,” he confesses. Rampant hormones and confused romanticism are clouding his judgment. Can’t he tell that his best friend Sam (Shane Powers), a failed artist-turned- record store owner, is crazy in love with him? And what’s up with hunky cousin Jed from the Midwest (B. Wyatt), who unexpectedly appears naked in Jackson’s shower and proceeds to carry on with Jackson’s lesbian friend Alyssa (Pamela Gidley)—is Jed straight or bi or what, and would it be incest if Jackson did it with him? Meanwhile, Jackson’s current obsession, pretty-boy Billy (Jonah Blechman), turns out to have some unexpected and very heavy baggage. At least Jackson’s career as a poet (his words are supplied by renegade novelist Dennis Cooper) is on the upswing, especially when burned-out, big-name rock star Sonny Spike (Willie Garson) turns to him for lyrics. But Spike has a very nasty secret. Filled with youthful angst and wry humor (Warning: this movie contains gratuitous Madonna-bashing), LUSTER captures the mood of alternative L.A. “post-Kurt and pre-Millennium” with a storyline that sprawls and loops back on itself like the spaghetti bowl of the L.A. freeways.
- festival description from San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, June 2002


Reminiscent of the remarkable indie break-out films of the '90s New Queer Cinema, Everett Lewis' LUSTER explodes on screen with a hip, sexy Gen X cast. Sam owns a record store where Derek's always shopping. Both are in love with Jackson, the blue-haired poet who occasionally shows up to work there. Jackson's a bit distracted, what with falling for Billy, a vision in leather pants he met at an orgy. But while Billy puts off Jackson in favor of closeted rock star Sonny, Jackson's hunky cousin Jed comes to visit - and before Jackson can make his mind up about what constitutes incest, Jed's already being seduced by Jackson's lesbian pal Alyssa. This delightfully quirky roundelay is just part of the polymorphously perverse L.A. landscape that Lewis (SKIN & BONE, NATURAL HISTORY OF PARKING LOTS) has so exquisitely captured. Poetry notebooks, snarky 'zines and indie record stores never seemed quite so sexy.
- festival description from Outfest Los Angeles, July 2002


           - festival description from Mardis Gras Film Festival 2002, Sydney, Australia

 

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