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Animus
Rating: 4 Stars
All Worlds Video. Produced by Dan Cross. Written, photographed, and directed by Wash West. Edited by Billy Rich and Wash West. Starring Thomas Lloyd, Blake Harper, J.J. Bond, David Bradley, Tommy Cruise, Brad Davis, Tanner Hayes, Peter Logan, Tommy Lord, Duncan Mills, Dave Nelson, Zach Richards, Jack Simmons, Kevin Glover, Elizabeth St. Claire, and Dean Maxwell.
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Wash West, the U.S.-based British director of Naked Highway and Dr. Jerkoff and Mr. Hard (1997), knows how to craft sex scenes that advance a story, and how to create a story line that enhances sex. He also understands how to use the interplay of sex and humor as a power source. In Animus, he integrates sexual pyrotechnics with send-ups of media hype, celebrity memoirs, therapy jargon, consumerism, film noir, detective fiction, millennial madness, and cell phone dependency.

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Thomas Lloyd, a memorable secondary player in Titan Media's Fallen Angel 2, proves here that he can act. Speaking in a feral whisper that simultaneously scares and seduces, he plays the Animus, a charismatic, sapphire-eyed thief who robs the rich when the moon is full. When he's caught, he uses sex to disarm his captors. His exploits have earned him folk hero status and even a place on the cover of Time.

As Joe Domino, the L.A cop who is hot on Lloyd's trail, Blake Harper fuses sexual magnetism with deadpan wit. In his Sam Spade trench coat and hat, he has the star presence of a Forties movie idol. The first-rate supporting cast includes, as the Animus's semi-willing victims, Tommy Cruise, Peter Logan, Tommy Lord, and, hilariously, in a non-sexual role as Lord's spouse, Elizabeth St. Claire.

A three-way in a bead-curtained room is done in by glitzy editing and amber-and-raspberry lighting effects, but most of the seven sex scenes bristle with energy. West's variations on familiar formulas may catch you by surprise. When Harper picks up muscular Dave Nelson, who doesn't know he's a cop, the sequence veers into the logistics of sex between tops. The police interrogation of Tanner Hayes by Jack Simmons and Zach Richards sexualizes the old reliable tough cop/nice cop routine in fiercely effective ways. The final payoff is a magical encounter between Lloyd and Harper, who meet on a rooftop as midnight approaches on New Year's Eve, 1999.

Animus improves with repeat viewings. It's denser, richer, and funnier than gay porn ordinarily aspires to be. For anyone who has overdosed on K-brained gay video, this a breath of fresh air.