Trapped in an abyss of drugs and sex? You'll probably have to be to enjoy or even understand this earnest no-budget film which seems to have its heart in the right place but which also, kind of, seems like a comedy?

Personally, I'm not into the ketamine/crystal party world, so I found it bit hard to follow the adventures of Dean (Michael Haboush) who seems to be unable to extricate himself from that world. Unlikeable and bone idle, Dean mentions that he's a house painter, but we don't see him do any actual work. He is ostensibly hetero, with a catch-all girlfriend who's also his professional counsellour, fag-hag and party-pal. His mother recently dead, he runs errands for his fat, sleazy dealer and makes an effort to keep in touch with his heart-problem grandmother. She has to call for the paramedics more than once, though, as poor Dean can't resist a bump and a blowjob, neither of which seem to be in short supply for a guy who spends ninety-nine percent of his time hanging around West Hollywood cruising grounds.

Everyone involved seems to be making as much effort as possible to make a thoughtful film about the dead-end Gen-Y druggy life, but they don't succeed in arousing any real interest. Is the dialogue improvised? It's sounds that way. Professional actors or friends of the film makers pitching in? You decide.

K-Hole is produced by a production company called "Aberdeen-West Hollywood" which struck a chord with me as I grew up in rural Australia next to a tiny town called Aberdeen, a meat processing town which hosted a stinking abattoir that cast its rotting flesh, shitty stink over the whole region. This memory, mixed with my gay-adult sense of West Hollywood, kind of suggests everything that I felt while watching this film.

By all means, move from wherever to the nearest big gay ghetto and get into all kinds of experiences. It's fun to take drugs and have sex with strangers. It's also kind of convenient to own a pick-up truck and have the leisure time and resources to be able to afford to have drugs, time for sex, and always be able to accept invitations to parties. So please don't subject us to Mini-DV diaries about the ennui of such a lifestyle, some whinging, whining complaint about how difficult it is to be a young American with everything at your disposal including the right to complain about how you simply can't stop shovelling drugs and cock down your throat!

In some ways, it's great that's someone's made a movie about modern-day urban gay life that isn't all about how fabulous it can be. The idea behind this film is sound. But the execution is abysmal. Just because the lead character thinks twice about his addictions and behaviours doesn't mean that the film doesn't also act as a seventy-minute advertisment for the allure of quasi-attractive gay men off their heads looking to get blown or hang out in kitchens at parties. I made a video short once, but it didn't end up available for purchase on the market stalls of Bangkok streets.

Why does this film exist?

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