Strong and Moving!

It is a performances centric movie

Absolutely Brilliant!

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

This movie is rated too low on IMDb. It's worth about a 7.5 It tells the true story of the murder of a gay porn producer (played by Christian Slater). There are two story lines.The first is about this porn producer and a new star (Brent Corrigan, played by Garrett Clayton). Brent stays at his place and together they have fun making some hot movies. But then they have a falling out when Brent finds out how much is being made from his films.The second is about two mentally unbalanced losers (Joe and Harlow) who hang around at the edges of the porn industry. They want to make a film with Brent, but decide that they have to kill the porn producer because he's not allowing Brent to use his trademarked porn name.I loved how this film dealt so naturally and explicitly with gay sexuality and with the gay porn and escorting aspects. The sex scenes were depicted with relish, but without genitalia. (After all, this is an American movie.) The depiction of stereotypical porn situations and dialogue and was hilarious. At times the real world in the main movie seemed disturbingly too close to the porn version of reality. These characters were so immersed in porn that they were leading porn lives.Part of me wishes that the director (Justin Kelly) had focused on creating just a feel-good movie about the gay porn industry, about gay escorting and about gay sexuality in California. This alone would have been a great film (or hell even better -- a Netflix series). He could have developed various interesting characters and just drawn the viewer into this sexy world.Kelly partly succeed in doing that in this film. But I had problems with some of it. Where were the drugs, for example? No drugs at all?? The dysfunctionality of the characters was also a major theme. I wish there had been some normal gay men in the film, because yes we still need to show that in a film like this.I thought the porn director and Brent parts were well played by Slater and Clayton. However, although Clayton is a stunningly handsome man, in this movie he didn't really generate the same erotic heat as a sleazy 18 year old porn star. The movie would have made more sense if they had found someone who can do that.I liked how the porn producer was torn between desire and greed when it came to Brent. He wanted Brent's love, of course. He wanted Brent to want him. Or at least to pretend that he wanted him. He was an older porn-producing lech, but there were a few perceptive lines in there about his motivation and he came across as a sympathetic character.The dysfunction of the Joe and Harlow characters got in the way for me. I found some of their scenes to be difficult and awkward to watch. Perhaps that was the point (because after all they were psychos). After just watching the film, I feel I still don't have a good understanding about the underlying forces that drove them to murder. Maybe the problem is with the basic plot. The murder was so senseless. Tbh, I think the movie would have been better without Franco (because...c'mon).This is the second movie I've seen this year in which the difficult relationship between porn producer and actor was central. (The other was Tickled.) These movies also have something to say about porn itself, how it can take over people's lives and ruin them.

The strange but true story of Porn legend Brent Corrigan is told in this well made drama from director Justin Kelly ('I am Michael'). Sean Paul Lockhart took on the name of Brent Corrigan as a 'porn name' when he dipped his toe in the world of smut. He was taken under the, very keen, wing of Stephen played by Christian Slater in a well executed performance. He was a talented man who had a liking for young lads and the moment he saw Sean he was smitten. He also had a canny head for business and stood by the rule of not mixing the two together.We also have the back stories and the story of a rival firm where the star was not making the kind of money that Stephen was and how the envy turned into, what some would cal 'affirmative action'. Those that know the story will not be surprised, I did not and must say this was compelling and gripping in equal measure.The acting is all first rate with some well observed period detail but this is the very 'near past' so not too much effort really needed. The action – if one can call it that - is all simulated and mostly not seen so nothing to put one off ones dinner. The real strength is the story and the performances and they are all more than up to the task. This is a film with gay interest but it is predominantly a thriller and on that scale it scores both highly and readily – hence easy to recommended.

This is sort of a real life comment type of review, as I knew both Harlow and Joe before they were both convicted.I had an affiliate sales porn blog, and Harlow and Joe's porn company and their corresponding porn site (BoyBatter.co/) were big money-makers. They focused on military, hyper-masculine types of young men, and their fans couldn't get enough.They focused on bareback porn, which means of course "without condoms", pioneers of the industry at the time. Now bareback porn has become almost the standard in most markets, as it seems to sell better than safe sex videos.After arrest and before conviction, Harlow called me often always to reiterate that he wasn't guilty, and I supported him in my own naive way. (The collect telephone calls from prison/jail were outrageously expensive, and I asked him not to call me unless it was something urgent.) But my question is why is Bryan Kocis, who was the actual owner of Cobra Video, (hence the title of the movie) named and referred to in the film as Stephen? Was there a prenuptial type of agreement with Bryan's family to completely avoid using his real name?I'm going to watch the film tonight, and will update this, if possible, after viewing it.

The still very much active Sean Paul Lockhart, aka Brent Corrigan's career and the scandal associated with it is the subject of the film King Cobra. Disney twink actor Garrett Clayton plays Corrigan and I'm sure Clayton probably has a limited future with the Magic Kingdom. He joins a list of players like Shia LaBoerf, Miley Cyrus, and Lucas Gabreel who've appeared in less than wholesome projects. I don't see any more Teen Beach movies in Garrett Clayton's future.Subsequent to the story told here, Sean Paul Lockhart has gone to mainstream entertainment and gay stories of the non-pornographic nature. I know a few gay adult film stars who have other lives and have diversified their interests and entertainment roles like Lockhart in order to survive. A lot don't survive for one reason or another.One of those who didn't is Christian Slater playing the producer who discovers Clayton and makes him a gay porn star sensation in the middle Bush 43 years. But this relationship which has some resemblance to Liberace and Scott Thorsen goes the same way with Clayton chafing under Slater's dominance.His name Brent Corrigan was trademarked by Slater making him unable to work under what has made him a star in the gay porn world. At the same time Clayton reveals that Slater used him before his 18th birthday and that trashes Slater's career as well.There's a parallel story of James Franco and Keegan Allen also a porn producer and his Trilby like star told and they want to have Clayton's services with the trademark name. Therein lies the seeds of the tragedy that takes place.James Franco created this project and I wish he'd just come out of the closet already. Are you fooling anyone? The gay porn world is certainly part of the gay culture, no getting away from it. Some say this is exploitive. I'd say no more so than Boogie Nights and you see how much acclaim that film got.I hope this leap into most adult type material augers good things for Garrett Clayton.