The Boy Next Door (I) (2008) User Reviews

Brutal

[LeaDork · 8/10 · 24 May 2011]

The filming and camera angles were mesmerizing and made this short film that bit more fascinating. The story is one that holds many morals and shows a choice someone can make. In this it regards a male prostitute turning down work because he knows there's a child near by.

It's a truly touching bit of film, and all the actors are perfect and have utter conviction, although the child in my mind should have been younger with his script seemingly immature. Yet this works, it brings it a brutal honesty.

It is compelling from the start, and all the action is filmed mainly in one room, and this brings to it a sense of the claustrophobia all the characters must be feeling about different aspects of their life.

It was truly very enjoyable, and well worth watching.

Touching

[preppy-3 · 7/10 · 13 December 2014]

Short about male escort Mark (Michael Ellison) who suffers from anxiety attacks. He goes to a clients hotel room...but runs out of his pills. His client has to leave for a while and Michael runs into his clients 10 year old son Justin (Truman Chambers) who believes there's a monster under his bed. Mark tries to get rid of the kid but then realizes that this might be what he needs.

Kind of vague but ultimately touching little short. The ending is a little too pat but it is a (sort of) uplifting one. The acting is great by Ellison and especially Chambers. The whole film takes place in a hotel room and the corridor outside which actually helps the film. An interesting little gay short.

Short portrait of a call-boy in a crisis

[Havan_IronOak · 6/10 · 2 May 2013]

It's never explained why this young man has turned to prostitution but it's heavily suggested that a drug habit is involved. What pain the drugs are masking is left to the imagination. As with many short films, this one poses many unanswered questions about motivations and back-story but this film is successful in getting you to care somewhat for the characters.

It's an apt snapshot but not much more. It suggests that the director has potential but it will require a more fully developed story-line to tell for sure. The young kid and the prostitute were bot well cast but the other man seemed too young to be the father of a kid that age.

I felt a short bit of disappointment at the end in the denouement. I expected the film to come to a better conclusion than the walking away scene that we get.

Coping with monsters

[pjvastine · 10/10 · 2 September 2016]

Provoking short, I think brilliantly written, directed, filmed and acted. Im understanding the challenges, yet I'm not reading in any reviews or plot summaries, the story behind the pills and anxiety. The prostitute was molested and now has crippling anxiety and the son is dealing with monsters under his bed, i.e. father molested or is molesting him. Hustler and boy identify the common thread, and the cycle ends for both. Monsters gone, pills no longer needed, healing begins. If you notice, the son watches his father and hears him say to the prostitute, I don't pay you to play with my son, I pay you for me...then aggressively forces himself on the hustler...son identifies at that exact moment and doesn't say a word and behaves not as if it was normal, you can see he knows its a violation, but yet, it's been done to him. So, he empathizes with the hustler, hustler affirms he just dealt with the monster, for them both. They now heal. Possible I'm over complicating the story..?

useful

[Kirpianuscus · 3 September 2017]

one of films useful for the feeling after the last credits. a simple story. touching, almost a sentimental sketch, a sort of life lesson , giving a message who, if you do not ignore the last scene, could be too sentimental. but it remains a real useful film about solitude and about fears and about the perspective of a child about the universe of his father. so, a great film out of the ordinary meaning of "great". because the state of the viewer after the end of this short film is the only significant thing .

Shock value over substance as usual

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 11 November 2015]

It's pretty much always the same with these gay-themed short films. They go for lack of realism, bad story lines, shock value, sex, violence, homophobia etc., but it almost never happens that they manage to elaborate convincingly on only a single one of these aspects. This one here makes no difference unfortunately. "The Boy Next Door" was made 7 years ago, runs for 14 minutes and the writer and director is Gregor Schmidinger, actually a German filmmaker. It's a bit surprising as this is his first work and an American production with English language. Him being a rookie really is the only mitigating factor here though. No surprise, he hasn't gotten beyond gay-themed short films and hasn't made a movie in 3 years now. I see no real talent here. Same goes for the actors. I am not surprised at all that none of the trio really seems to have a prospering career right now. A mediocre work from start to finish and I don#t recommend.