Film Perfection

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

I think this film is suffering in the votes for two reasons: 1.) It includes many scenes of explicit drug use and gay sex (seriously, some are barely shy of hardcore pornography). 2.) People are approaching it as a documentary, which it is not.... exactly. You need only read Andrew Haigh's notes on the film's website to understand that he is purposefully blurring the lines between documentary and narrative by using a cast of real London rent boys, playing themselves, in a fictional, if not entirely scripted, drama. In my opinion the result was extremely successful. I found Peter Pittaros incredibly winning (it took all of fifteen minutes for me to fall entirely in love with him) and the supporting cast complex, realistic and often devastating. The scenes in which groups of them hung out doing drugs, dancing, goofing around and sharing (likely nonfictional) war stories spoke volumes to me about their histories as well as their trajectories. In fact I came to feel that the film was really about everyone but Pete, whose sheer positivity and drive to succeed makes it so you never really worry about him. I think Haigh did something clever by giving us a rock of a protagonist to cling to as we explored the sadness, emptiness and insecurity displayed by Kai and the supporting cast. And as someone who has been on both sides of the loves-too- much, loves-too-little divide, Pete and Kai's relationship rung incredibly true to me and was all the more powerful for the way Haigh presented it more often through looks and actions than words.

No, not a biopic of Peter Andre, but a would-be expose of an age-old subculture about which relatively little is known or documented: male prostitution. Subtitled 'A Year in the life of a Rent Boy', Greek Pete sets out its stall from the start, as 24 year-old Greek-Cypriot Peter Pittaros strips off for director Andrew Haigh's unblinking lenses - for a price, of course. With his ever-present mantra of "I just want to make as much money as possible", Pittaros, aka Gaydar's 'londonboypete', exemplifies a new generation of self-assured male sex worker (the sort London is apparently awash with right now) for whom pleasure is business.As Lou Reed sung of Joe Dallesandro, the original male hustler-turned-movie star, "Little Joe never once gave it away, everybody had to pay and pay." Pete and his fellow sex-capitalists make the London Stock Exchange look like a high street Oxfam. Even this film is just another business opportunity for Pittaros for whom the acquisition of capitol equals success and happiness. "At the end of the day you're a product. And it's like any product: the more publicity it has, obviously the more people are going to come and buy it." In scene after scene we observe this independent contractor turn himself into an itemised bill of goods: "I'm 5ft 11, athletic-looking, about nine inches thick, uncut, really good at role play, really horny all the time." This mutually agreed element of fantasy ("always up for it")extends to the film itself, a strange smudging of fact and fiction in which the cast are genuine escorts and the scenarios are purportedly authentic, but the actual presentations are staged. Through improvised conversations and re-enactments suggested by the escorts themselves, we see Pete and the Twinks hilariously discuss their Johns ("It was like a flap hanging at the bottom of a deflated beach ball"), go clubbing, participate in photo shoots, share Christmas dinner ("you've got a popper in the peas") and have gay sex, sometimes with each other. Unlike Dallesandro's married hustler in Paul Morrissey's similarly-themed 'Flesh' - "We're not queers... nobody's straight (or gay) ... you just do what you have to do" - there are no ambiguous sexualities here.If those ear-opening conversations between Pete, 'Hotblonde84' and 'Tightass91' are real and revealing, the sex scenes, though highly explicit, probably aren't, as evinced by all those semi-erect penises. It is far easier to contrive shots of anal intercourse (especially from behind) than those involving, say, fellatio, which tellingly, isn't as in your face here.As with Morrissey's Flesh, a narrative of sorts has been lightly imposed on the rough 'n' ready proceedings, centring on the problems inherent in having a coked-up boyfriend who also happens to be trade, along with the build-up to the real-life 'International Escort of the Year' show (or 'The Hookies') held in Los Angeles, for which Pete has been shortlisted from 40,000 rent boys. (Yes, the competition's certainly on the stiff side.) The outcome of that situation may be predictable, but the film's climax is even more so: despite his victory, Pete is left as empty inside as ever.Greek Pete has been widely hailed as non-exploitative, non-sensational and non-judgemental. And it's certainly admirably frank, illuminating a parallel world many would rather pretend didn't exist. But with its narrative devices, certain stylised edits and none-too-subtle hints about the soul-destroying nature of the job, just how neutral or impartial can it really be? Despite itself, this can't help trading in the same melancholic clichés as more glossy, conventional dramas about male prostitution, such as 'Midnight Cowboy', 'Mysterious Skin', and 'My Own Private Idaho.' Scenes such as Pittaros psyching himself up in the mirror, like a horny Travis Bickle ("You're just a dirty slut, aren't you… you absolutely love it, don't you"), or touchingly confiding in an ersatz-father figure of a client (after revealing his own Cypriot father wouldn't be able to handle his coming out), belong more in Hollywood than in a warts 'n' all verite.In all the confusion between what's real and what isn't, the film ultimately slips up, with Pete stating that he's been in the business for two-and-a half-years, though previously in the film he says he's only been at it for six months. (It's hard to bury discrepancies in a 75 minute picture.) And which begs the question: just how real is 'Greek Pete' anyway, on screen or off? Since Haigh's film was released, Pittaros has apparently left the escorting business. Which is probably for the best, as the overriding image we're left with is that of a rather shallow young man, operating in a depressingly dreary, soulless and risky environment about which we glean no real insights. And that probably wasn't what Haigh was trying to achieve.

Greek Pete-A docudrama (apparently its different to documentary) about the life of a rent boy in London. *** my first review ***Hey all IMDb users, I saw this in Bristol, Watershed and like it a lot. It is very different to anything that I've ever seen and was excited to find out that its from a home grown film-maker. WOW! We do have talent. OK, OK I am not being sarcastic, seems like all independent films and film-makers comes from U.S.A and good ol blighty us, prefers to make reality TV shows. Back to Greek Pete. It must be a very different & difficult for Pete and fiends to choose what they want to do, a world that a lot of us will never comprehend. We try our best to understand and not quick to judge. All they want is to make a better life for themselves, don't we all. Give them a chance

This is one of the worst things I ve ever seen. It tells you nothing about male prostitution. the characters are so vacuous as to be completely uninteresting, they have nothing of any interest or intelligence to say. There's no insight into the motivations of the clients. A bunch of rent boys hang out in a flat, take some drugs, have a bit of sex with one another. the Greek Pete of the title wins an award for dead battery of the year in Los Angeles and comes back to London. Thats about it. It is a disgrace something as appalling as this did the rounds not just of the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival but has been inflicted on screens across the UK. Don t bother wasting one hour plus of your life on this. Please. Don't.