Bag Boy Lover Boy (2014) User Reviews

What is art? What is garbage?

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 4 September 2018]

Who decides what is art and what is junk? Is there much of a difference between Alejandro Jodorowsky and Lucio Fulci? What is good and what is bad? This movie raises those questions and more. Does it answer them? Kinda.

Albert is a strange man - a hotdog vendor who can barely communicate with the rest of the world. Played by Jon Wachter, a first-time actor who is usually a writer and director, he's an unsettling presence everywhere he appears. Suddenly, he becomes the muse of a Richard Kern-like photographer and forced to endure all manner of bloody and disturbing photo sessions.

Our hero - is he the hero? - decides to become a photographer himself. But all he knows is how Ivan acts. And the only people he knows how to hire are prostitutes. This can't end well. And it doesn't.

This isn't a perfect movie. But it will keep your attention throughout. It has an odd undercurrent beyond its subject matter, making the viewer think they are watching a real maniac and not just one of the screen.

Art can be ... deadly

[kosmasp · 5/10 · 16 June 2022]

Another one of my pun summary lines - and another one that is sort of fitting I might add. Now before we go on, you have to ask yourself one thing: do you care for low budget horror movies? Do you like watching them, for whatever purposes (tingling feelings while being safe, escapism or any other reason)? If so, and you generally watch horror movies, you may want to give this a try.

Apart from the horror (violence/effects), you also have a fair amount of nudity in this. Actually there is a shot of a vagina at some point - which you may feel is unnecessary. Apart from maybe shocking some of the audience members. And that is what the movie sets out to do. More or less it does succeed. It is looking very good when it comes to the video quality, the framing and the editing is also well done.

Acting wise you may feel it has some flaws. That is a fair assessment. But you normally do not watch these for that particular reason. The story holds up to scrutiny overall. I have seen better executed (another pun) and well done (thematical) movies than this one - so this is only for the hardcore fans. But for the budget it had, it is decent.

Meh. Kinda lackluster

[treediploma · 6/10 · 18 March 2018]

Nothing interesting ever really happens.. I read other reviews saying it was going to be sooooo disgusting and not for the faint of heart, but it wasnt all that disgusting.. i mean, it tried to be but kinda failed. No interesting characters, boring plot.

Maniac II: Napoleon Dynamite's Revenge

[thesar-2 · 3/10 · 26 March 2018]

Don't just vote for Pedro, vote out this dark and disgusting cousin of Napoleon.

What an odd little "movie." Probably more of an experiment or a lost bet from drunk buddies, this comedy-horror is so out there, you feel more uncomfortable than entertained. And, even more strangely, this does have a plot and straight line from beginning to end.

An absolutely repulsive (inside and out) NYC hot dog vendor undeservedly gets his big break into modelling and is pushed too far from those using him. Way too far.

Not really to be taken seriously, as this is supposed to be a comedy, our never-hero ventures into the dark side while trying to, ah-hem, model himself after his sadistic mentor. Things don't go well.

Admittedly, I did laugh a couple of times, namely with said boss/mentor. He did steal every scene he was in and that's totally a good thing because the actual lead actor was not pretty to look at. Yeah, that was the point, but once you see how gross he is on the inside, his exterior becomes even more repulsive.

Not really recommended as I don't see anything of mention here. It was, again, an uncomfortable experiment and the few laughs were not worth the measly 77 minutes. Plus, about half-way through, they tried, unsuccessfully, different horror subgenres that made no sense/connection to any of the motivations in addition to somewhat ripping off the movie: Maniac.

See this hot dog man? Catch the next vendor.

***

Final thoughts: I *knew* there was a reason I hated hot dogs!

Like Napoleon Dynamite for perverts?

[selfdestructo · 8/10 · 10 July 2022]

Bag Boy Lover Boy is... different, and fairly unique. I like different. I like to be surprised. Much of this lies in exactly how much of an oddball the lead character, Albert (Jon Wachter) is, but the story, situations, actions, and colorful cast veer the whole movie into a different and intriguing territory. Always a plus when something unique has a clear narrative (anyone can do a surreal, self-indulgent art flick). This definitely qualifies as a dark comedy with horror elements, if you're into that sort of thing.

Albert works at a hot dog stand in New York City, but dreams of being a photographer. He is "discovered" by a pompous art snob named Ivan (Theodore Bouloukos), who offers him a modeling gig, strictly to exploit Albert's freakish persona. Albert accepts the gig, hoping to learn the ropes of photography from Ivan. These photo sessions are, I dunno how to put this, eccentric? Ivan gives Albert a Polaroid, then promptly splits for a job in Italy, so Albert starts to... explore. And his sessions, with prostitutes, drunks, a flirtatious friend, get even more bizarre... and deadly.

Seems like Albert's freakish charm is a hit with the ladies, only he wants absolutely nothing to do with them (seemingly happy to just masturbate to dirty photos). No, he has taken his inspiration from one of Ivan's sessions, in which he really lives up to the moniker "bag boy."

I can really only fault this movie with its brevity (77 minutes). I don't know if a low budget factored into this (the movie looks great, anyway), but I felt a lot of avenues went unexplored, or could have been explored further, characters more fleshed out. Certainly, more screen time from this cast of characters would not be unwelcome. The ending is abrupt, but I did really enjoy the ensuing resolution. I'd love to see a sequel, but, well, that ain't happening.

The insanity of Taxi Driver, Maniac & Buio Omega with some Waters-esque humor

[biscutbuu69 · 8/10 · 15 February 2018]

Bag Boy Lover Boy follows Albert a lonely guy who works at a hotdog stand, lives in a crappy run-down apartment and just looks at the pin-ups on his walls and wonders what life has to offer him. One day Albert is approached by a photographer who is strangely inspired by Albert's thick accent and grotesque face. The photographer, Ivan, offers Albert a job modeling for him but Albert doesn't want to model, he wants to photograph. When he is given the opportunity to use the skills Ivan inadvertently taught him Albert goes down a very dark path. It's a shame that it took 3 years for this film to hit home media cause this film, despite some performances and the low budget, is kind of great. I felt the writing was really solid all around and all the actors at least tried to give a good performance. The lead gives a really good performance which helps to make Albert a very sympathetic character. I think the film was very well paced and never really boring I didn't have any real problems with the film, I think its also very interesting it has that gritty grimy New York look that Taxi Driver or Maniac has. The film even has some really good gross-out humor similar to some of John Waters early works and psychosexual tones reminiscent of Buio Omega. Its a film I would highly recommend to fans of cult films and John Waters early low budget stuff. If you don't like cult films and can't stand weird sexual elements and gross humor do not see this film.

I enjoyed it.

[Cenobitehell · 8/10 · 8 August 2018]

I watched this film expecting it to be a cheapo indie slasher film, but I was exceptionally impressed by the production values and especially by the perfomance of Theodore Bouloukos as Ivan, the sleazy career-minded photographer, Theodore played the role brilliantly, giving a performance that put me in mind of a sort of mixture between Stanley Tucci's Jack Warner in FX's "Feud: Bette & Joan" and William Petersen's Gil Grissom from "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation". The overall story of "Bag Boy Lover Boy" is an urban drama-cum-thriller in the vein of Michael Powell's classic film "Peeping Tom", presenting us with the tragically lonesome character Albert (played beautofully by Jon Wachter), wanting to further his creative prospects as a studio photographer, but with a kinky sort of death-fetish tie-in. Andres Torres certainly pulled out all the stops with this movie and I will be eagerly looking out for any of his future titles, especialy if they are as good as "Bag Boy Lover Boy".

worth the watch low low budget horror

[surfisfun · 10/10 · 15 September 2017]

worth 7 + for effort and writing and overall tone balance.

check out some of the critics reviews on IMDb.

well choose cast and decent cinematography I seen lot worst b movies before.

Be nice if director come out with another project as good or better, maybe with same main actor in as he probably did it for peanuts for a friend.

deserve the wins it got