Takeaways on Cutaways

 Ditch the lube and get to the point in the raw, honest, cheeky dramedy written and directed by Mark Schwab. Cutaways will have you on your knees laughing or gagged, with your mouth hanging open like a good boy, or girl if you’re into that. 

Did I watch this film without reading a single short summary or watching the trailer first? Yes. Was that smart? That all depends on if you consider the Shocker, Rocker, or Show Stopper a good time or not. Watching this film without a clue of what to expect cultivated genuine shock value for me that made the film funnier than I was prepared for. While I had a fair amount of belly heaving cackles, I will warn that your grandma, or your favorite prudent conservative friend, will surely be left speechless. 

Evan (Silas Kade) is a director whose career was flipped upside down when an actor in one of his films made a false accusation that didn’t hold up in court. While he got off with no charges, the damage was already done. Evan pivots to spending his days crashing at his producer’s old, furnished warehouse, self medicating with alcohol, pessimism and a morsel of hope by directing gay indie internet porn. Just something to get by until he makes his big comeback, because he’s an artist who makes “perfect” movies. Rising stars, Andy (Jose Fernando) and Ryan (Diogo Hausen) are cast in Evan’s latest indie porno. They inevitably suffer the side effects of Evan’s bitterness towards the industry and lack of better work. Stepping into character himself, Evan’s style of directing is to edge his star just enough for the perfect tack but never let them reach satisfaction with him, but instead only with the camera. He knows what he wants and he knows how to get it. Andy, hot, horny, and a little high, moseys onto set, which coincidentally is also the warehouse Evan is living in, ready to fulfill his dreams and also be filled. Late for his call time, Ryan rushes in still in a hazmat suit from his day job handling dead bodies. Commence a sloppy porno production of an intruder who strangles his victim with the very knee-high sports socks from his feet before essentially, as Evan calls it, “raping him”. As an SA survivor I’m genuinely hoping this is a reflection of Evan’s character, or at least a dig at rape-culture, and not a grotesque attempt at making rape funny or lighthearted. That would be an embarrassing red flag and massive ick on Schwab’s part, which to that I say, ew. Absolutely wretched. Do better. This scene sticks out like a foul “pink sock”. You can look away but you can’t unsee it. Either way it’s an absolutely ridiculous plot for (hopefully an artisanal) director like Evan. No wonder he’s so bitter! 

With no desire to interact with his producer Sammy (James Duval), things take a turn when he shows up in the midst of shooting. Sammy quickly disturbs the flow on set by sneaking in mid take, providing more drugs to Andy, showing off his hot new piece Chase (Jason Caceres) and tearing Evan a new one. Things escalate quickly as filming is paused, and before getting to the big finish, one of the stars unexpectedly… dies. A decision must be made; hide the body or finish filming the porno, because telling authorities is out of the question, but railing a dead body…isn’t. Go ahead and pick up your jaw off the floor, we’re not done yet. While Sammy handles hiding the body, Evan and Chase spend some alone time shooting a few cutaways for the porno. With Chase’s desire to be the next hottest star, and Evan’s salacious way of working for the perfect shot, things heat up quickly between the two, only minutes after seeing a dead body. Shots are indeed perfected while more than just the film gets finished.

With an entire cast of men, Cutaways manages to still be diverse with queer characters and a couple actors of color. Duval has a Vietnamese, Indigenous, and French background, Caceres being Cuban American, Fernado who is Latinx , and Hausen born in Brazil, the cast has a range of representation. While most of the cast is BIPOC on paper, most of the characters are white passing in the film. Simply looking at the film poster alone, one may not initially realize Cutaways isn’t primarily a white cast. Though it’s a queer film, there’s no heterosexual side character, and there is not a single woman, or non-gender conforming person in the story. All the characters, and many of the cast themselves, are part of the queer community, in a variety of different “flavors of gay”, ranging from clueless twink, power daddy, kinky playboy, moody artist, and sexy selfish prick in the film.

Schwab does a great job of writing quippy punchlines and queer characters with real internal struggles. With a story line that feels all too familiar to any artist that has felt like their career is going nowhere, or even completely over, Cutaways depicts those emotions well. It evokes genuine feelings of frustration, disgust, and hopelessness over the hardships of being an artist with a passion and no way to truly satiate it, while simultaneously serving up a good laugh. Rolling through waves of dark comedy and drama, Cutaways will have you gagged and questioning if you should keep those knee-high athletic socks in your closet.