The Mountain King (2000) Reviews

• Just .... WOW!

  tevanson2002-07-03

  This little film, which went largely unnoticed in 2001 at most film festivals, is an incredible tour de force. An uptight, middle-class tourist (reading Theodore Dreiser's "An American Tragedy") on a lonely beach is approached by a sleazy, obnoxious hustler. The hustler seduces -- there is no other word for it -- him into the water and then into a luxurious beach house. There, the two lives collide in a tidal wave of sex, excitement, drugs and release. Like the accompanying music (Edvard Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King," from the "Peer Gynt" suite), the film builds to an emotional crescendo that will have you on the edge of your seat. It's almost impossible to describe the emotions. It's just...WOW. The encounter with the dangerous, sleazy, manipulative hustler opens up the frigid tourist, releasing emotion like a volcano. Even when he realizes that things haven't ended up quite as safe as he'd like (abandonment, theft and breaking-and-entering being only some of the things we realize have occurred), the film's final minute is a jaw-dropping visual statement about risking everything in order to gain life. Director Duncan Tucker is someone to watch for in the future! (And so are his two actors -- just incredible!)

• Not easy to forget

  eventpix2006-10-19

  I've seen quite a few short films at the Tampa gay and lesbian film festival over the years and most of them tend to blur together in my mind after a year or so.... but this one I remember, and now I guess I'm going to get a hold of the DVD of "Boys to Men" (it's one of the three films featured) in order to see it again. Duncan Tucker went on to write and direct Transamerica and I just saw Paul Dawson in "Shortbus" last week at the festival and he was fantastic, as was the movie ! I am always frustrated when people pan a movie because it deals with something outside of their own personal experience. Seduction, lies, manipulation... all words with negative associations, and yet there have been times in my life when a most scuzzy character has opened my mind to possibilities that I hadn't dreamed of.

• only a tryst

  Vincentiu2013-04-10

  two young men. a beach. a summer house. and profound change of life for one of them. nothing special. maybe a parable or a Coelho story. but, it is only a short movie. seductive, shining, wise. at many short films. strange, it is a gay story but not about sexual options. its subject is the choice who defines life. courage/ occasion to discover yourself. art of joy. and desire to build your new beginning. the first scenes and the last are extraordinaries. Paul Dawson and John Sloan does touching roles, in fact pieces of way to be free out of world expectations. it is something magic in this film. and necessary. like a wake up. or, only, like a meeting as seed.

• surprising

  Kirpianuscus2017-06-30

  first, for its simplicity. than - for the status of an old known story. not the last - for the final lesson. a beach. two guys. real different. the temptation. and the fundamental change. and, sure, Grieg. at first sigh, a version of Faust. the hidden desire. and the profound metamorphosis. and the change of places. nothing new. but surprising for the admirable manner to use this pieces. for performances. and for an end who deserves applause. because it is only a circle. desires, meets, the happiness. and, sure, the price. like reward.

• An answer to Hunky_Stud's questions

  pop_lkj123-12008-12-22

  The hustler wore the straight guy's clothes, because he wanted to get a new pair, he liked the preppy style and it simply made him happy to get a new outfit. Plus it matched his new watch :) The straight guy had to wear something to return to his hotel. And i also think it made him happy, it left a little "memory" of he guy he just met on the beach. It was a fairly empty island at that time of the year, the hustler got there in the first place with his client, or when he still had some money. He took the boat to return back to New York. He didn't break into the house, his client left him in there when he had to "go back to the city".