A scene from Jackie Boy.
A hunky lout named Jack meets and sleeps with a girl and causally posts extremely intimate photos of her online the next morning. "She's a slut," is his reasoning. But if she's a slut, what's he? Well, a monster to start. Or is he? Cody Campanale's gritty, brooding Canadian-made character study Jackie Boy keeps us guessing. Handsomely shot and worth the ticket, the dialogue-light drama addresses today's party-people hook-up culture and the ugliness of men. Crude, self-destructive Jack has habits for booze, coke and women, but his two posse-mates (who seem at first seem saintly and meek compared to their alpha-male bro) are pathetic in their own unique ways. Convincingly portrayed by brooding newcomer Alino Giraldi, Jack slowly reveals his softer sides – he reveals all his sides actually; the part calls for significant nudity – after he meets feisty Jasmine (a highly watchable Shannon Coulter). The film's tension builds slowly (too slowly?) and silently (just right), and if the payoff doesn't seem 100-per-cent true, the rest of film's brutality feels uncomfortably real.
Brad Wheeler