myspace : Latter days

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06/12/2004

Latter days

好耐無試過睇一套戲有一個感覺
個感覺係
睇完之後, 要即刻話俾人知呢套戲有幾好睇

套戲係 latter days
一個摩門傳教士, 同一個夜生活多姿多采既男子
遇上
套戲唔係一套好深好難明
簡簡單單
開頭base on一個輸賭
最後摩門教士point out "你都唔係咁完美, you're skin-deep and empty inside"

男子反思
知道要認真去愛

套戲既連接位好好
"好近好近去睇報紙, 只係見到好多一點一點
做人就好似置身其中, 點都唔能夠意會點與點之間既關係
但係, the dots are inter-connected
當你可以抽身去睇, 就會見到個full picture"
成套戲有一個重點, 就係講緣份, 講destiny, 講miracle

男子係一間餐廳打工, 佢既boss有日係醫院出現, 遇上摩門教士
認識左, 交換卡片

男子有一個朋友, 終日埋首寫歌

男子遇上摩門教士, 最後事情敗露, 摩門教士最後被逼要返到老家
接受一連串"治療"
兩個人互相掛住, 互相放唔低

"治療"中途, 摩門教士聽到男子朋友作既新歌music video
首歌原來係兩人分手後, 男子既日記
摩門教士唔知果個歌手就係男子既朋友

"治療"後, 摩門教士決定放棄教會身份
決定返去log angeles搵果個男子
應門既竟然係一個陌生男子
一個誤會, 令呢個前摩門教士搵張卡片
去到餐廳老闆既餐廳

就係呢度
兩個又再遇上

擁抱

睇落去, 有好多好多既不幸
好多好多錯摸
以為失去左, 原來只係過程既一部份

一個最相信destiny, 最相信神以經安排晒一切既摩門教士
原來最唔知道destiny係乜
一直都俾教條控制

一個最相信自己擁有一切既男子, 有外表, 有身材
原來外表之內, 乜野都無

如果俾你諗到
就唔係destiny
there're tonnes of possibility

anyway
今個冬天最暖既一套戲
latter days

story

Christian (Wes Ramsey), a hunky, 20-something, West Hollywood party boy gets more than he bargains for when he tries to seduce 19-year-old Elder Aaron Davis (Steve Sandvoss), a sexually confused Mormon missionary who moves into his apartment complex. When Christian exposes Davis' secret sexual desire, Davis' rejects Christian for being shallow and empty, The encounter shatters each boy's reality and draws the two into a passionate romance that risks destroying their lives. Latter Days is a charming, sexy, and moving tale that will leave you believing in the transformational power of love.

director's notes

"I don't believe in coincidence." Says Lila, the glamorous restaurateur character in my movie, LATTER DAYS, played by the radiant Jacqueline Bisset. "These days, I believe in miracles." I thought of those words as I stood atop the hill Cumorah, which is something akin to Mormon Mecca. I was being looked down upon by a towering statue of the angel Moroni. LATTER DAYS, about a gay Mormon missionary had just played a film festival in Rochester and I was surprised to find myself in nearby Palmyra, New York, the birthplace of Mormonism. It struck me as less than coincidental that I was facing such an epic figure from the religion of my youth.

It reminded me how I had felt somewhat cheated as a child. Other religions had hosts of angels, glorious gossamer draped seraphim replete with flowing hair and graceful windswept wings. But the scant squadron of Mormon angels were determinedly wing-less beings, somber, exclusively male, all in shapeless clothes with neatly trimmed beards and sensibly cropped '70's era haircuts. To me those angels looked less like heavenly emissaries and more like the BeeGees in that sadly misbegotten Sgt. Pepper's movie. And maybe that was my first clue there might be a discrepancy between me and my childhood religion - Movies.

See as I kid I felt more inclined toward the Hollywood version of celestial glory, like in Heaven Can Wait. I can still remember how I longingly gazed at that movie poster - those angelic wings - on Warren Beatty. Oh yeah. That was probably my second clue.

There are those that find ourselves on the outside, looking in. Growing up in cowboy country, on the Utah border, in a dusty place ruled by pickup trucks and rodeos, I realized that I was different. Even as a boy I knew I had an undeniable, secret urge. I knew I was a closet... filmmaker.

Some people can have an experience, incorporate it into their lives then perhaps use it to make the world a better place. Then there's another kind that has to go and make a movie about it. That's the category I fall into. Originally, I wrote this movie for myself and a couple of like-minded friends. That's not the best target demographic for a medium like film. Yet I felt compelled to tell this story. At some point in one of the script drafts Davis, the lead character, sits down on a bench and (perhaps naively) compares life to the confusing mass of dots on a magnified comic page. He expresses the hope that maybe "from God's perspective we're all connected. And it's beautiful, and funny, and good." I felt like he wasn't just speaking to me, but to anyone who has felt different and alone, or tried to grapple a set of finite answers around the complex conundrum of life, and love and humanity.

And that's one of the things I cherish about film. Ideally it gives us a window into other lives, different worlds, new realms of experience. Often, in seeing the differences between movies characters and ourselves we find connections also. We find our similarities, our shared dreams, our communal anguish. Yes, there are numerous times I walk out of a theater thinking, "Man, I wasted eight bucks and two hours of my life on that piece of crap." But then again there are those rare joyous occasions when I find a theater is like a temple; the house lights go dark, the screen flickers to life and upon it angels find wings.

Writer/Director C. Jay Cox