Lie Down with Dogs (1995)

Recent college graduate Tommie (Wally White) is a young gay in NYC with a dead-end job handing out fliers in Times Square. At the beginning of a fateful summer he has a chance encounter with a friend who tells him that he's headed to Provincetown, Massachusetts for a long weekend. Tommie makes his own trek to Provincetown, where he goes on a long quest for Mr. Right, even though he has no money and holds his breath each time he uses his American Express card. Over the course of the summer, Tommie looks for a work as a house boy at various inns, works several jobs, benefits from the kindness of a stranger, and gets involved with a series of men.

Working as a houseboy, Tommy encounters many characters as he navigates the carefree gay community, betrayed by employers and friends alike, and always coming up short in friendship and in love. He does find lots of casual sex, but is devastated when his favorite dream guy dumps him after a one-night-stand. Tom (Randy Becker) is a con artist who takes advantage of the good-natured Tommy, and Ben (Darren Dryden) is the superficial and unattainable object of Tommy's affection. Tommy takes a bike tour through the nature trails with Ben. One of his new best friends is an alcoholic who does not help him when he is sick, Tom is a dangerous combination of beauty and stupidity, and we are supposed to root for shallow, self-centered Tommy at the end when Ben starts a relationship with another man.

This independent feature film is surprisingly well made for a low-budget effort. It's an offbeat diversion and a slice of life not often seen on the screen, notable for its whimsical lack of substance, its self-effacing sense of humor, and choppy editing. Some viewers enjoy "the fresh and wickedly funny humor", whereas many viewers dislike it. One wrote, "This is gay filmmaking at it's shabbiest and most incompetent. Every moment of this film is a nightmare of mind and nerves." Another wrote, "This film is not an honest portrayal of Provincetown...the movie is a slanderous portrayal of gay life." Wally White must take full responsibility. He not only stars in this film, but he wrote, produced, and directed it. He frequently pauses throughout the film to address the audience directly. Douglas J. Cuomo composed the music.

The Line of Beauty (2006)

Set during the 1980s, this is a story of love, class, sex and money. Young gay Nick Guest (Dan Stevens) an Oxford University graduate student moves in with the rich conservative family of his best straight friend Tobias "Toby" Fedden (Oliver Coleman). He becomes part of the family and also part of the gay scene. Nick has his first romance with black council worker Leo Charles (Don Gilet), and a later relationship with Wani Ouradi (Alex Wyndham), the son of a rich Lebanese businessman. There is an unbelievable party scene at the Feddens where Nick persuades Margaret Thatcher to dance with him, much to the delight of the crowds. The film shows Nick's euphoria of falling in love to the tragedy of AIDS. Framed by the two general elections which returned Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative government to power, the film unfurls through four extraordinary years of change and tragedy. The ending is abrupt.

This three-part mini-series for BBC Two was broadcast in 2006. It's a sophisticated social analysis, not a funny, typical gay story. Sex and drugs mix, love ends by social pressure and ignorance and everything begins to be overshadowed by HIV. It is sad to watch and most of the characters are unsympathic and unlikeable. Nothing that seems perfect in the beginning stays that way, rather the reverse. "The Line of Beauty" is a 2004 Booker Prize-winning novel by Alan Hollinghurst. It was adapted by Hollinghurst and Andrew Davies. Original music was composed by Martin Phipps. Saul Dibb directed. The title has many meanings, ranging from Nick's company name Ogee taken from the sinuous double curve cited by Hogarth, to a line of cocaine, to a man's lower back.