Evenings Out

Violent, but hot

Tale of coming out in a gang is not for the faint of heart

by Anthony Glassman

The threat of violence is a dark shadow hanging over the LGBT community, one that has existed for thousands of years longer than there has been an established community, or even discrete identities. Ever since the first time same-sex attraction was considered wrong and transgressive, that specter has dogged us.

In the last few decades, however, an idea has emerged: Perhaps those shouting the loudest, throwing the first stone, acting out against us the most, are trying to hide something they fear in themselves.

Sometimes gaybashers are secretly gay, and that is part of what’s behind the British film Shank, now available from TLA Releasing.

Cal runs the streets of Bristol with a tough crowd. The film opens with their assault on a gay man who is innocently walking home.

Nessa, the leader of the gang, records the beating with her cell phone camera. A good time is had by all, except, of course, their victim.

Later, Cal is sitting in his apartment, doing massive quantities of drugs and trolling the internet for anonymous sex, which he eventually gets with Scott.

Paralleling the first traumatic scene, Cal has Scott record the proceedings on his cell, providing the young tough with masturbation material later.

As the film progresses, it becomes apparent that there is some form of attraction between Cal and his best friend and fellow gang member Jonno, but Nessa somehow always gets in the way.

Scott, meanwhile, returns to his teaching job at the local university, sporting a black eye, the result of a post-coital head-butt from Cal after their frantic tryst in the woods. He claims it’s a DIY wound, sustained while doing a fix-it project at home.

One of his new students is an immensely annoying young French exchange student, Olivier, who himself becomes a victim of the gang’s violence as he’s flouncing down the street a few days later, laden with shopping bags.

Jonno and Nessa beat and kick him. Cal, however, refuses to take part, eventually dragging Jonno off of the young man. Olivier runs away, and Cal collects his bags and drives around town looking for him so that he can return them.

Nessa is far from pleased with this betrayal, and Cal is on the outs. She and Jonno break into his apartment, where she finds his naughty man-on-man video clips, which cement in her mind Cal’s fate: He is their next target.

Cal is now staying with Olivier, knowing he cannot return home. As must happen, the two begin a romantic little affair, but Cal freaks out at how quickly things are moving.

But when Nessa and Jonno kidnap Olivier, Cal is forced to choose between them, and finds out just how violent his former friends can be.

Directed by Simon Pearce, Shank is an uneven film. There are times when it dives head-first into the trite end of the pool.

At other points it is either brutally violent, intensely sexual, or astoundingly intriguing.

Young Wayne Virgo combines Cal’s innocence and toughness in an entirely too-appealing package, and Tom Bott as Jonno is sex on wheels. The chemistry between them is frighteningly arousing.

Alice Payne’s Nessa is, startlingly enough, a truly great villain: a snarling, frenetic mass of malice that fills the screen with menace. When she receives her comeuppance, the sudden shift in her portrayal is absolutely heart-rending.

However, the less said about Marc Laurent’s Olivier the better. The kid is cute enough, but the character is so annoying, the audience itself might want to beat him as he’s walking down the street.

Overall, the film is worthwhile, although not for the faint of heart. The extreme drug use and brutally realistic violence are legitimately cringe-worthy for those with lighter constitutions. For those hardy souls who can handle it, however, Shank is a fascinating movie, a good example of how interesting British independent film can be.

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