Ill Love You Forever Tonight

Opening scene, set in a Los Angeles bar, features a beginning typical of many gay films: a quick pick-up followed by impersonal sex. But it also sets the tone for a work that aspires to examine the inner emotional states of five young gay men, whose lives seem aimless and unfocused.

Opening scene, set in a Los Angeles bar, features a beginning typical of many gay films: a quick pick-up followed by impersonal sex. But it also sets the tone for a work that aspires to examine the inner emotional states of five young gay men, whose lives seem aimless and unfocused.

Protagonist Ethan (Paul Marius) is a handsome photographer who frequents the bar, deluding himself that he has no need for love or commitment. Emotionally scarred by a childhood trauma that involved incest, it soon becomes clear that Marius needs to come to terms with himself and with his abusive father.

The film’s melodramatic centerpiece revolves around a trip to Palm Springs that Marius’s friend Dennis (Jason Adams) engineers as a manipulative scheme to get Marius back with his ex-lover Peter (David Poynter) so that he might get Peter’s current lover for himself.

With the exception of the rather bland Marius, the other men remain representatives of different lifestyles rather than distinguishable individual characters, and there are too many pregnant looks among them that are supposed to be meaningful.

Even more problematic is the link that Bravo proposes, but never convincingly explains, between Marius’ incestuous experience and his current emotional malaise — and possibly his homosexuality.

Bravo’s claim that his work is the first gay feature by a Latino may be true, but it is not especially significant, as the men on view are white and the P.O.V. is uninformed by a specific ethnic sensibility. Still, helmer shows facility in staging realistic scenes and establishing a moody ambience.

Pic is more impressive technically than narratively. Jeff Crum’s stylized black-and-white cinematography provides an interesting tension with the more naturalistic repetitive conversation. Recurrent visual motif of an overhead shot of a congested L.A. freeway forcefully conveys the anomie of its characters.

I’ll Love You Forever … Tonight

(Drama -- B&W)

• Production: A Headliner Prods. release of a Cinema Bravo production. Produced, directed, written, edited by Edgar Michael Bravo.
• Crew: Camera (B&W), Jeff Crum; music, Robert Cairns; production design, John Edgar Bledsoe; set decoration, Lisa Kelly; costume design, Robert Velasquez; sound, Bill Beck, Mitchell Guttleman. Reviewed at the Monica FourPlex, Santa Monica, Feb. 14, 1993. Running time: 77 min.
• With: Ethan ... Paul Marius Dennis ... Jason Adams Peter ... David Poynter Steve ... Roger Shank Jeff ... Miles Wilshire I'll Love You Forever ... Tonight" is an ambitious but ultimately uncompelling exploration of ennui in the contemporary gay scene in Los Angeles. Yet considering it's a UCLA graduation thesis, the film may serve as a calling card for writer-director Edgar Michael Bravo, who demonstrates greater talent in evoking mood and texture than in vibrantly rendering a poignant tale.

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