A tough young boxer struggles to come out in England. Having travelled to London, from his smaller town, he meets and falls for a twenty-something gay music producer. But love doesn’t come easy.
Like It Is (1998)
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This being a gay film for a gay audience it does help to find the actors attractive and Steve Bell meets this criteria as a tall, good looking athletic northern lad (with accent to match – I love the way he says ‘Tony’ (Tone aye) when speaking with ‘he’s family’ affection of his brother (despite having many arguments with him about his fighting which Tony does not approve of)).
Although a film made on a tight budget that almost wasn’t made due to financing problems the fight scenes are quite realistic – you can actually see whats going on unlike the current trend as in the Bourne films for example where the camera is so close to the action that the fight cannot really be seen. To aid the clarity of the fights some parts were filmed with the actors fighting in slow motion and then this was speeded up for the film.
The film is based on the experience of the Director and is admittedly something of a fairy tale but has many appealing features. Bell, Rose, Behr & Daltrey all do a good job.
The ending is also something of a fairy tale perhaps but I’m not complaining – with Matt refusing to be bought by Kelvin (Daltrey) and leaving his job to find Craig back in Blackpool (after falling out with him) and to ask whether they can give the relationship another chance. Craig’s response is touching but not repeatable here! What is touching (indeed tear jerking for me) is the compassion shown towards Craig by his older brother & Matt.
My only complaint is that the film is not sexy enough – I found scenes in the film Quadrophenia more sexy than those in Like it is – for example the bath scenes & the passionate kissing scenes – which is telling since Quadrophenia isn’t really about sexuality.
