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Test

Country: USA, Language: English, 90 mins

  • Director: Chris Mason Johnson
  • Writer: Chris Mason Johnson
  • Producer: Elizabeth Pang Fullerton; Chris Mason Johnson

CGiii Comment

Way back in the 90s when fear and paranoid were alive & kicking ferociously at the gay man's psyche...an unrelenting, devastating, hard-hitting, sweaty [dance] film was released.

Test - alas - is not - by any stretch of the imagination - the same kind of film. It neither hits hard nor does it commit to the stress and fury of the time.

The [HIV] 'test' is not really at the centre of the film - it resides on the periphery...along with some mice and a peeping Tom.

Ask a gay man - from that time - what went through his mind - before, during and after - taking that test. Those 3 stages are a film...of soul-searching, fear and resolution.

Test almost suggests that....life goes on as normal. Well, it doesn't. It would be lovely to think that it would, that it could...but HIV/AIDS changed everything...drastically and tragically.

And that's the fundamental problem with the film - it's been written with none of the urgency of the time - it's been written with today's knowledge...HIV/AIDS is - thankfully - no longer the death sentence it once was.

That said...it's not a bad film - just a little naïve...with some striking and mature choreography.

Technically...accomplished.

Johnson has come a long way from his rather pedestrian debut...it's only a matter of time before he makes something truly inspirational.


Trailer...

The(ir) Blurb...

San Francisco, 1985: Frankie confronts the challenges of being an understudy in a modern dance company as he embarks on a budding relationship with Todd, a veteran dancer in the same company and the bad boy to Frankie's innocent. As Frankie and Todd's friendship deepens, they navigate a world of risk - it's the early years of the epidemic - but also a world of hope, humor, visual beauty and musical relief.

Cast & Characters

Matthew Risch as Todd;
Kristoffer Cusick as Walt;
Damon K. Sperber as Dr. Corbett;
Scott Marlowe as Frankie