Customer Reviews

Leather Jacket Love Story

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I just wanted to say Thank You to all you guys (and gals) who left the nice reviews.

I played 'Kyle' in Leather Jacket Love Story and got casted about a week before shooting.
Most takes were done just once.
It was a tough shoot in the sense that we didn't have a big budget, weren't paid very much and as mentioned, didn't get the chance to really do any re-takes.

However it was a film I wanted to do.
I was offered the part after approx 500 guys had auditioned.

David, the Director came to my acting class a week prior to shooting and told me he had been looking and looking for the lead for his new film and after seeing me in my acting class wanted me to play the part. Chris, who plays 'Mike' had been casted several months before I was.

I accepted the part then pretty much crammed to learn the ever-changing script in about a week.

This film was shot in 1996. Prior to this they were not showing sex scenes between two men like they do in many straight full feature movies.
Typically when the sex scenes would start in gay movies previous the camera would fade, or cut to a silhouette or move to bedroom curtains blowing in the night sky, hehe

The Director and Producer of this film believed the time had come for gay films to start showing sex scenes like straight ones do and they wanted ours to be the first.
It was for this pioneer element that I agreed to do the role.

I've read the reviews and noticed one reviewer writes that I got the part because I agreed to do the nude scenes. That isn't exactly accurate.
I got the part after David saw me in my acting class, then was told of the nude scenes afterwords but agreed to do those scenes because I felt the pioneer element of not having those kinds of scenes in a full feature before was an important step to our community.

We took alot of heat for doing this, people even walked out of the editing room because they were so discomforted by it..but eventually things would lead to more gay films now following this, mainstream TV shows like Queer As Folk and many others that would also take this route many years later.

The original script was quite a bit different from what me and Chris saw in the actual theater. Scenes ment to go at the beginning were now placed in the middle, and scenes Chris and I both thought were very important to the film were cut-out entirely.

I have now been reading reviews and feedback about this film for years. Yeah, I've read the vicious stuff, the cruel stuff and the stuff that made me feel pretty bad.

I guess I just wanted to leave this response to say 'Thank You' for those of you who have left the supportive positive comments that were awesome, brightened my day and made me feel proud to make this film a few years ago.

Thanks guys, I really appreciate it : )
For your kind words, support and for just being AWESOME!

Thank You.

Much Love & Hugs,
Your Bud,

Sean Tataryn, 'Kyle' in Leather Jacket Love Story

LEATHER JACKET LOVE STORY

(USA - 1997 - black and white)

Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Theatrical soundtrack: Mono

An aspiring young poet (Sean Tataryn) relocates from the Valley to LA's Silver Lake district where he's distracted by drag queens, sex clubs, gay bashers and a hunky older stud (Christopher Bradley) with whom he falls in love.

Shot in ten days for $60,000 in 16mm black and white, and inspired by Jean-Luc Godard's MASCULIN-FEMININ (1966), David DeCoteau's LEATHER JACKET LOVE STORY is something of an acquired taste. DeCoteau had toiled in the lower echelons of the exploitation movie business for many years (BEACH BABES FROM BEYOND, TEST TUBE TEENS FROM THE YEAR 3000, you get the picture) before commissioning screenwriter/poet Rondo Mieczkowski to write the gay drama DeCoteau had always dreamed of directing, and it took a year for the project to finally come together. But all good intentions are scuppered by a combination of threadbare production values and a reckless shooting schedule, both of which are characteristic of DeCoteau's directorial 'style'. Furthermore, the central romance isn't remotely believable, because - at the risk of sounding crude and disrespectful - Tataryn isn't attractive enough to warrant all the attention (he was chosen for no other reason than his willingness to perform the nudity and sex scenes!), and he plays the character as little more than a socially awkward debutante, completely at odds with Bradley's exerienced older guy, with whom he appears to have little in common.

Howard Wexler's low-tech cinematography struggles to maintain the fairy tale ambience suggested by Mieczowski's ambitious script, and as usual, DeCoteau allows too many dialogue scenes to continue well beyond the limits of endurance. In a commentary recorded for this DVD, DeCoteau chides those critics who trashed his 'feel-good' approach in favor of the 'heavy dramas' which he himself seems to dislike, refusing to countenance the idea that some viewers simply weren't taken by his amateurish scribble of a movie!

But there's still much to admire in this flawed venture. Mieczkowski's script may be dramatically uninspired, but his dialogue is smart and colorful, and he manages to prick the bubble of pomposity which informs his company of eccentric Silver Lake characters. Similarly, the cast is a mixed bag of newcomers and cult favorites: Bradley is an experienced actor (URBANIA, BILLY'S HOLLYWOOD SCREEN KISS, etc.) and director of animated shorts ("Backstage With Little Lorenzo"), and he has the kind of dazzling good looks which can stop any movie dead in its tracks. His full frontal nude scenes here are genuinely impressive! Exploitation fans will be surprised to see Nicholas Worth (THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT) playing an ultra-theatrical gay poet, given his reputation as a fearsome screen villain, and he steals every scene in which he appears - his poem-readings are a hoot! Fashion model Geoffrey Moody makes his only screen appearance to date as Tataryn's best friend, a sluttish pretty boy with a penchant for rough sex, and it would have been interesting to see him cast in Tataryn's role (DeCoteau mentions that Moody was OK with the sex scenes but wasn't prepared to do full frontal nudity, which could have been accommodated without threatening the film's erotic potency).

Also included in cameo roles are Andy Warhol/John Waters favorite Mink Stole (PINK FLAMINGOS, DESPERATE LIVING) and veteran gay activist Morris Kight, and DeCoteau's commentary reveals that Joe Dallesandro was considered for a major cameo in the movie, but he couldn't be found in time! Watch out for a truly memorable stripper (Dennis Larkin), and a hilarious cameo from Bob Prest as an irreverent doctor who pierces nipples and other body parts for a living!

This is a movie about a Yin-Yang affair between a "Twink" and "Leather Man", both classic gay sexual personae that have been around forever. Cute as button, blonde and blue eyed Sean Tataryn plays a overly romantic, somewhat naïve "Kyle" who falls for the dark and brooding "Mike" played by Christopher Bradley. The movie delivers a lot of laughs and positive, touching conclusion.

I strongly disagree with all the other reviewers who dismiss Sean Tataryn in his role of the central character, "Kyle". On the contrary, casting Tataryn as "Kyle", as the teenager from the suburbs who writes romantic poetry was inspired! Tataryn plays the role of "Kyle" with the perfect amount of innocence and naiveté that one would expect from a suburban kid exploring his options in the gay scene.

Christopher Bradley is believable as "Mike", the blue collar, leather jacket wearing, motorcycle riding object of Kyle's lust and affection. Mike is sort of "Peter Pan" character, cynical about love, hardened by life, and emotionally unavailable.

Kyle turns out to be the perfect yin to Mike's yang, so the sexual tension between them is interesting to watch as their affair unfolds

At first, Kyle's angelic looks and vulnerability stirs Mike's lust. But Kyle challenges Mike about his promiscuity, and stirs in him repressed feelings for emotional intimacy that Mike finds uncomfortable. The ending scene where "Mike" is so moved by Kyle's reading of a poem he wrote about their affair that he tears up the phone number of the "trick" he was seeing was as powerful and touching moment as I've ever seen in any romantic drama. .

The movie has it's flaws, not the least was it`s $60,000 budget. The movie was shot 10 days with a circa 1969 camera in B&W and combined with the generic 1950's soundtrack, which you may find out of context with the plot and the characters. But the worst flaw in my opinion, is that the movie couldn't seem to decide if it as a serious romantic drama or romp through gay camp. It's not surprising to learn that director was responsible for forgettable flicks with titles like Voodoo Academy and Creepozoids. I found the flood of drag queens and gratuitous sex scenes overwhelmed the dramatic potential of the plot.

Leather Jacket Love Story DOES delivers a positive feel-good experience that is often hard to find in gay fiction and movies. It may even become a gay classic. Sadly this plot, the script and these actors could have delivered a much more complicated and moving picture then this feather duster. On the other hand, it's simple laughs and romantic plot make it the perfect "fluff" movie to curl up with on a friday night when you are too tired to go out, and too lonely to just stay home. I've watched this movie serveral times, and still watch it from time to time a few years later.

I had a bizarre movie-viewing experience lately and rented this DVD on the day after I rented "Jackass"; I greatly preferred "Jackass." "Leather Jacket Love Story" is yet another tiresome entry in a long line of recent gay-themed films (within the past 13 years or so) that do not show any promise in the world of what one charmingly calls "Queer Cinema."

As somebody else has noted in a previous review, I think that one of the film's main problems is that the lead actor, Sean Tataryn, with his "Herbie the elf dentist" hair, is really not a very attractive kid and in reality, certainly would not command the attention he gets in the film; he is what I'd call "charisma free." This central casting mistake really weighs the film down. It's hard to see that so many men would grab Tataryn when he would walk into a room and try to engage his attention. This is most notable and flawed in the bath house scene. Tataryn's acting isn't much to go on either.

Christopher Bradley as the older more worldly (and truly handsome) man tries to rise above the material, but with such bad dialogue, cliched situations and the use of full frontal nudity to mask the films flaws, it all just goes over like a lead balloon. I think a very interesting and touching film could have been made out of the relationship between Mike (Bradley) and Sam (the too good for this film Hector Mercado). The chemistry between the 2 of them seems very genuine and generates the only real warmth in the film. Instead, we are treated the beginnings of a co-dependent relationship.

Some of the more noticeable problems in the film: the grainy black-and-white photography, the use of silly 50's sitcom type music during a pivotal love scene (I have never witnessed a love scene so trite before), the overused drag queens who, in the end, really don't seem to serve any point, and any number of the bland, smiling extras who walk around with vacuous looks on their faces. Special mention goes to the ridiculous exchange between Tataryn and the sleazebag stripper who discusses his love for painting a certain type of his anatomy. This is one of the silliest, forced conversations in a film full of them.

Rent this if you must, but this is not a film to waste your money on. The extras on this DVD are just prolonged scenes of male nudity and sex, with no real deleted scenes that would shed any more light on the film.

This film is everything an indepedent art film should be. All the characters seem to be having such a great time. It is nice to see a film that manages to be both serious and light hearted at the same time. I'm not sure if this is my favorite film from David DeCoteau (that would probably be THE BROTHERHOOD) but I do think this is perhaps his best work as a film maker. The DVD transfer looks very good considering it came from 16mm. The black and white photography of Howard Wexler is quite beautiful. The DVD includes one of David DeCoteaus less informative audio commentaries. While he is often quite the chatterbox on his audio tracks, David gets so caught up in watching this film that he often seems to forget he is recording a commentary track. There are still some great insights from him however. There are over a half hour of deleted scenes that also include audio commentary. All in all this is one of David's most unusual and beautiful films. It is hard to believe this film came from the same director as NIGHTMARE SISTERS.

Leather Jacket Love Story

Try to remember your 1st, 2nd, or other crushes/loves while you were still innocent, which by the way is always a part of you no matter how much you want to deny it now that you're all grown up, then this movie will probably appeal to you.

It has heart, brains, and a funny bone, and if you're highly imaginative, creative, enjoy lots of humor, are romantic, idealistic, and/or any combination of these, then you'll put yourself in the main character's (Kyle's) place, see it through his eyes, feel a ping or two pulling at your heart strings, and remember what it might have been like for some during those times, and really have fun, laugh a lot, and feel silly.

I'm not going to tell you a lot about the movie's plot and other details, since the other positive reviewers did a great job of that. I'm just going to tell you that every friend that I've watched this with so far, and they are all very different personality types, has enjoyed this movie and laughed out loud quite a bit, throughout. Leather Jacket Love Story is touching, funny, light, campy, hopeful, and sexy. Enjoy!

I first saw this with a bunch of friends when it came out on VHS. I was completely taken with the indi feel of the film and especially of it's 2 stars - Chris Bradley and Sean Tataryn. There was a great chemistry between the 2 and the story was well done through them.

I have to disagree with some of the comments that Sean was in over his head as an actor and not someone you would notice on the street. I NOTICED! I thought his portrayal of Kyle was dead on as a young gay man finding his way and coming out and into his own. And what a teacher to have in Chris Bradley! Chris' Mike was the polar opposite of Kyle. Comfortable in his skin yet knowing as an aging gay man that he had a short shelf life within the youth obsessed gay community. The growing pains felt by both actors was incredibly honest and added depth to the movie that went beyond what the script was written as!

I recently watched the film 3 Day Weekend which featured a pair of actors within the same situation. An older guy falling in love with a younger guy and their working everything out. I think even Queer As Folk did the same with Brian and Justin - so LJLS was ahead of the curve!

Also a chance to shoot down an urban myth that Sean was only hired after "dozens of other actors turned down the role because of its nudity and frank sexual content" - as the director states on the commentary track! As in any movie several actors were brought in to read but no one seemed to be right for the role and no one was offered it. It wasn't the nudity or theme of the film - it was finding the right person to play Kyle. Then the director saw Sean in an acting class, invited him to audition and offered him the role. That was it! The nudity was discussed and Sean saw it as an important part of the movie and he had no reservations. The package was complete.

In full disclosure, since the film I have had the opportunity to talk with both actors and to tell them how wonderful I thought the film was. I also heard the stories about Sean and found out 1st hand that the directors memory seems to be a bit cloudy!

This is a great little indi film that deserves a viewing. I'm not sure if it has been given to a new distributor or not, but I just saw that Here TV will be airing it in the next couple of months. It would great to see a new group of people be exposed to this film.

The extras are a lot of B roll from the sex club and the sex scene and the commentary track doesn't add a lot to the film.

No matter how bad it may be, any film transferred to DVD deserves the best audio and video quality possible. Unfortunately that's not the case with Leather Jacket Love Story.

The transfer looks as though it came from a VHS original, compete with distorted vertical lines, lack of contrast, and extreme artificial edge sharpening. True, the 16mm of the original might not have been the most professional stock, but a decent transfer would have avoided the telltail righmost outlines of a cheap "sharpening" filter.

Unless you really need to see poorly transferred pictures of a couple of naked actors, you can do much better than this film. "Hard" is another indie filmed about the same time as this movie. There's occasional nudity there, too. But what Hard has and Jacket doesn't is better transfer, acting, and story.

Although "Leather Jacket Love Story," leaves a great deal to be desire, namely, a story, it accomplishes its homoerotic purpose. I cannot be- lieve the director had any other intention. Christopher Bradley is a James Brolin look-alike and radiates both charm and sensuality but the writers give him no depth of character. The same can be said of everyone else in the movie. Above all, there is no crisis moment to purge the lethally mundane moments throughout. I agree that the best moments are between Mike and Sam, witlessly portrayed as S&M Construction. The young boy who moves to Silverlake should have stayed away. Even so, when all is said and done, it serves as soft porn effectively enough.

I am a heterosexual female and I love, love, love the "Leather Jacket Love Story." I just love the opening theme song! I am excessive compulsive so when I love a movie I watch it literally several times a day. I love Kyle because he is so cute, sweet, innocent looking and very affectionate and passionate. I loved most of all about Kyle was that he was sexually responsible. He was mature to have his own mind and mature enough to ask about Mike's AID's status during their banter at the diner. In addition, Kyle was mature enough to speak up if he was uncomfortable about something. I really liked the way Kyle was portrayed. Mike my goodness was he a beautiful, very manly hunk, and bad boy. Oh, Mike played his part well. However, there was also a very sweet and generous side to Mike as well. I loved Mike's facials expressions and especially his "lipid pools" eyes. This is another reason why I watched the movie repeatedly. In Mike's eyes, you can see the growing affection he was starting to have for Kyle. Gay or not a beautiful man is a beautiful man and Mike is a beautiful man. I also love the girls, all three of them, i.e., Charella, Amanda and Madge! I am beginning to watch more gay men movies more than heterosexual movies. The rest of the cast did a great job as well. When the CD become affordable I will buy one. It's worth having. But, $50, $75, etc. is way too pricey!

Leather Jacket Love Story