Call Me A Ghost (Gay Adult Short Film Review) – Can porn explore sadness?
A few months ago we reviewed explicit filmmaker Noel Alejandro’s short film Thank You, which impressed us by creating porn that felt more grounded and real than most. Now he’s back with Call Me A Ghost, which brings a touch of the supernatural to hardcore gay movies.
However, perhaps the most surprising thing is that it’s porn where the main character is sad. Mixing sadness and depression with sex isn’t unheard of in other sorts of movies – often shown as an act of desperation or the need to feel something, with the actual sex depicted as a negative thing. Things are different here, with the sex bringing connection and erotic charge. It may not ‘solve’ the main character’s melancholia, but neither is it depicted as the symptom of something bad.
The plot is relatively simple. A man is alone in his house, where his world seems solitary and he isn’t happy. Then he goes upstairs into some kind of attic space where he finds another man – a ghost – who he has sex with. Normally that’s where porn ends, but Call Me A Ghost continues as the man and the ghost talk, with the spook wanting to know more about the man and why he’s depressed, and then playing him a song that he dances to.
It’s certainly not like your usual porn, as it has moments that repeat in slightly different ways, a constant sense that you don’t fully know what’s going on, and a real filmmaker’s sense of space. It’s use of lighting and the way it frames the brightness of the outside world through windows – frames within frames – as well as its interest in showing the connections between people (or the lack thereof) demonstrate that this is something more than solely about helping people get their rocks off.
That’s not to say it isn’t extremely sexy though, as it is. The short certainly delivers what you’d expect from hardcore, sex-positive filmmaking, with extremely well filmed, real sex, between two good-looking guys. If all you want is something that will help you out while your hand does most of the work, it will aid you with that.
However, it’s worth watching all the stuff around the actual sex as well, which adds to the sexiness of what’s going on, helping to add a sense of connection between the two men. It may also get you to think about what you’re seeing – Is it all a dream? Is the other man a ‘ghost’ from the main character’s past? Is he a real ghost? Why is the man sad? Some won’t care about all that, because all they’ll want are erections, BJs, screwing and cum shots. You certainly get all that, but you also get a fair amount more too.
It’s a shame there aren’t more films like this, which are genuinely erotic, and show sex in ways that neither mainstream cinema nor porn seem to manage, where it feels more like sex can actually be. It’s not solely about the mechanics and showing erect penises engaging in various activities, it’s about the people and the pleasure they’re getting from it. By adding a little more around the pornographic elements, including the supernatural side and its hints towards loneliness and sadness, Noel Alejandro certainly demonstrates that porn can be a genuine film genre in its own right, if it’s done well.
Overall Verdict: As sexy and erotic – if not moreso – as you’d expect from porn, with a touch of the supernatural and meditation of sadness, along with real filmmaking skill, which help make it something a bit more.
Reviewer: Tim Isaac
