Fresh
Against the odds, the indulgent mash-up of sex, old-fashioned corn, romance-novel fantasy and AIDS tragedy is a mostly winning combo.
Sheri Linden, Los Angeles Times
Overview
It is 1984. Frank is a determined English teenager who runs away from high school to find an alternative gay lifestyle in Amsterdam. He finds a home and a job at the "House of Boys", a bar-cum-brothel run by a strict Madame who has an eye for what his punters crave. Frank works his way up from barman to on-stage dancer and falls in love with some of his housemates, Jake. The first intimations of what is described as 'the gay cancer', casts a long shadow over Frank's tight-knit group of friends. Yet despite the troubles that cloud the hopes and dreams of young Frank, his perseverance, along with support from a willing doctor, will carry him through.
Director and cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
56%
Tomatometer
Fresh
A gay tragedy in three acts and more than a dozen excellent songs, "House of Boys" conveys an emotional honesty that overrides its dated style.
Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times
Rotten
For all its hanging on the details of the boys' heavily eroticized performances and its graphing of the relationships between the young performers, the film is at once too drawn out and underdeveloped.
Andrew Schenker, Village Voice
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