(2013, 26 min)
Country: U. S.
Director: Michael J. Saul
Studio: Small Box Films
Language: English
SYNOPSIS: Visions of a past relationship leave Matthew (Heath Daniels) broken and isolated until an intimate encounter at a porn arcade opens a peephole to unexpected possibilities.
REVIEW:
Writer/director/producer/actor Heath Daniels and prolific short filmmaker Michael J. Saul scored waves of laughter with their 2010 short comedy Go Go Reject. They returned to the festival circuit in 2013 with an equally accomplished short that is wildly different in tone, but still pulls at the heartstrings.
Adults Only follows a sullen photographer named Matthew (played by Heath Daniels, who also wrote and produced). Haunted by memories of a lost love, Matthew is in desperate need of a distraction. One night, on his way home from a gig, something grabs his attention: two men leaving a porn arcade.
Matthew follows the men to a secluded alley and photographs their passionate tryst from the shadows, unable to take his eyes off their primal connection. The following night, he returns and enters the arcade. Pushing through the curtain, he is ushered into a fluorescent maze of hallways leading to private booths. Cracked doors and skillfully placed peepholes offer a voyeuristic view of intense and private exchanges.
Matthew thinks he is only there to watch. But his view of reality is shaken when he meets an intense and handsome stranger and finds himself in an intimate exchange of his own.
With little-to-no dialog and a voyeuristic camera that perfectly compliments the subject matter, Adults Only is an engaging experimental short. It's also impressively uplifting. For a film that revolves around anonymous sex in a seedy club, the film has a lot of heart. We're thrilled to offer this exceptional short. We can't wait to see what Daniels and Saul bring us next!
-- Robert O'Neill, TLA Video (http://www.TLAVideo.com)
