Parallel Sons

Seth (Gabriel Mann) is a bored recent high school grad, living with his father and kid sister in a small town located in the Adirondack mountains in upstate NY. Locals consider him a "good kid," but a bit strange, with his blonde dreadlocks and preoccupation with African-American music and culture, very out of place in his lilly-white home town. His father refuses to let Seth go to college in Manhattan, where he could possibly cultivate his artistic talents as well as explore his latent sexuality.

Seth is working at the local diner when he crosses paths with Knowledge (Laurence Mason), an African-American escapee from a nearby correctional facility. Despite an unusual beginning (Knowledge actually robbed Seth at gunpoint, but collapsed from an injury before he could get away), Seth is intrigued by the young man, and helps him hide from the police as he heals from his injury. Discussing the very different parallels in their lives, the two become friends, and then more, until a climatic scene in which the local sheriff becomes aware of Knowledge's presence.

"Parallel Sons" is a very low budget 1995 film, which made the most of its picturesque setting and the work of two excellent actors in the two roles mentioned. It won awards at both the Sundance and San Francisco Gay film festivals in its year of release, and deserves kudos for its non-stereotypical characterizations of the gay couple. DVD has no extras, rated R for some rear nudity and similated sex. Give it four stars out of five.

The basic themes of this film are so subtle as to be almost imperceptible, and I will leave the individual to draw their own conclusions. Arguably, its primary message may be a simple morality tale on the consequences of both internal and external homophobia, but, like any good film, there are other lessons and conclusions to be drawn, depending upon the viewer's own opinions and experience. The script is extremely lean, and although we are presented with enough information to make the plot crystal clear, I was thankful to the end that it avoided the clutter of too many details. The characters are drawn so skillfully, and the story told so plainly, that I was amazed at the amount of story, drama and conflict that the filmmaker was able to squeeze into 93 minutes of screen time. By the end, I was exhausted, exhilarated, outraged, moved and thoroughly satisfied. I had to think about what it all meant, but after replaying the film in my head after it was over, I sat back completely astonished at the talent of all involved in this extraordinary film.

Many of the scenes depicted in this movie would have been totally unbelievable in the hands of less skilled filmmakers. Too often films that credit both writing and directing to the same person wind up as a narrow opinion piece or worse; the sharing of both writing and directing duties frequently signifies an amateur production. Even if well produced, the result all too often comes off at best as a narcissistic indulgence. Occasionally, a film is enriched by one person assuming the dual role of screenwriter and director, as any film can indeed benefit greatly from having a director who wholly appreciates the writer's vision. Happily, this is the case with Parallel Sons. Many times during the unfolding of the story, I caught myself musing at how ridiculous many plot points were, and at the same time, marveling at the utter believability of it all. It is also easy to misinterpret the climax as standard melodrama; it took a minute for me to realize that the tragic ending had more to do with intent than accident, and it was almost as an after thought that I managed to reconcile seemingly unimportant revelations from one key scene with the shattering climax. Suddenly the meaning of the title became clear, and my satisfaction with this gripping piece was complete. There is the danger that many will be unable to appreciate this timely and innovative story, but those who do are in for a thought provoking experience.

If I have one quibble with this picture, it was not with the film itself, but the DVD packaging. Once again we have a film that is being marketed aggressively to a gay male audience, and once again the distributors have found it necessary to place a photo of a naked muscular torso on the box, as if gay men could not consider purchasing a film for its dramatic intensity unless it also offers a naked hunk or two. In Parallel Sons, it's absurd; there is no one in this film who remotely resembles the beefcake on the cover. I didn't expect that there would be, and having read reviews and a synopsis of the plot before I bought it, I had no expectations of any erotic content. One more time I would like to point out that I buy comedies to laugh and documentaries to learn and dramas to be emotionally and intellectually stimulated. It's an insult to assume that I would not purchase a film in any of these genres unless it included a generous helping of eye candy.

this is a great film , a very important film and the other reviews are very accurate....

HOWEVER the quality of the film transfer to DVD is abysmal, apart from being non-anamorphic,(if STRAND is charging top dollar we should at least get a higher definition anamorpic transfer for the money) this dvd looks like a 3rd generation bootleg remastered on somebodys home computer, unbelievable amounts of video noise, over enhancement , blocking and anything that is vertical in an image has double imaging. trees and grass look like one of those old 3D movies looked when you werent wearing the Glasses.In my opinion it is the single worst image quality ever presented on DVD.... shame on you STRAND releasing for doing such a great disservice to this amazing film

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