Skin Flick [1999] [DVD]

This film manages to be sexy, offensive and laugh-out-loud funny in equal measure, and is probably the only film I have seen that pulls this off (except other films by Bruce LaBruce ... ). It is very non-PC, with some very funny scenes and some you balk at, particularly the references to Nazi insignia. I wish these weren't there, because the fascination some of the characters feel for this ideology is repellent. The rest of the obnoxious behaviour passes in context, although it is certainly challenging, particularly the way certain scenes have a very erotic charge when you feel by rights they shouldn't. The editing looks cheap but is somehow made all the more potent by that. And of course the scenes of violence or coercion are not well acted, no doubt intentionally, so it comes across as staged, which allows us to see it as sexy. All the sex scenes are extraordinarily charged, in fact, ranging from totally acceptable fantasies with the plumber to the unacceptably bullying and coercive. Although the film is not intended to be taken too seriously, it certainly raises questions about our erotic responses and has far more effect than a lot of porn, even though you don't actually see all that much. This effect prevents us from getting too sanctimonious about sex: desire is dangerous and cannot be reduced to PC notions. As long as it's just a fantasy it's OK, I think - this is the bottom line for me, otherwise you start giving in to censorship, prudishness and hypocrisy ... Talking of bottom lines, I loved the repeated zoom on the plumber's rear end visible above sagging trousers - so cheap, so brilliant! And typical of the editing style ... And Steve Masters and Eden Miller are the ultimate erotic fantasy together, or Masters and Bastian; these actors really know how to do sex right, and their facial expressions and moves are so unbelievably dirty! With its abrasive soundtrack and colourful use of language and verbal abuse, it's a film I can't help really liking in large part, even though I hate the Nazi references.

Bad acting and a little strange in general, and one of the actors also has a very annoying way of speaking, but all in all the movie is surprisingly good.
The skinheads are all rather good-looking. The sex is not explicit, but some scenes are still hot (note the scene with the gun).
Contains some violence and Nazi imagery, but if you are reading reviews for this item, you probably don't mind stuff like that.
Anyways; not a classic, but very enjoyable. There should be a lot more movies like this. Recommended if gay skinheads getting it on is your cup of tea.

`Skin Flick` is another of Canada`s own (and proud of him!) Bruce LaBruce`s low-budget, high interest films, unpredictable and funny-savage at the same time. The movie, apparently a less hardcore, less gritty version of LaBruce`s own `Skin Gang` (but still quite tough!) is about skinheads (and, indeed, several of LaBruce`s other films feature skinheads or punks) and their conflicted love-and-loathing for themselves and for each other as well as for `non-skins`. There are rough tensions, violence, and even murder; the lattermost occurs when two non-skinhead gay (racially mixed) male lovers get the upper hand, `turning the tables` on their assailants who have been bashing them (and, with racist verbal abuse, raping the black one), but this is all part of the film`s quirky entertainment along its way (especially since, despite his traumatic rape, the black boy continues, at the film`s very end, libidinously to oggle skinhead boyflesh passing him along the sidewalk!).

The film`s action can be difficult to follow at some points as the camera changes views quickly, especially in the scuffle that results in the murder where it can be hard to tell who does what to whom. It is recommendable to read the synopsis of the film with a substantial (but really too misconceivedly negative) review by Jos Arroyo, as they appear on the B.F.I.`s (British Film Institute`s) WWW site, either before seeing the film (if one does not mind having the action `given away` beforehand) or afterwards (to clear up questions that might occur while having watched it).

The guys in the cast are physically attractive each in his own way and they most surely know how to look good buck-naked to copulate with considerable vigour and flair, the rough and cheap film-making not compromising any of that, one may rest assured.