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"Man of the Year" director
Dirk Shafer brings us a gripping and thoroughly entertaining story of one
former Midwestern cop (the statuesque Jonathan Wade Drahos) as he
negotiates his way around sketchy friends, hustling and a drug problem
that he encounters as a newbie to the circuit after moving to Los Angeles.
And while the movie devolves into noir murder/blackmail noir, worry not,
for there's plenty eye-candy and gratuitous "shirtless guys" shots to take
you through some of the Schafer's moral posturing on the superficiality of
the scene. And even non-dance music enthusiasts can find something to love
on the slamming soundtrack, which features tunes by Kevin Aviance, Taylor
Dayne and others. |
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There's so many things that
make this film so irresistible. For one, there's some really interesting
casting choices including Nancy Allen ("Carrie,") and William Katt
("Greatest American Hero,") as well as cameos by Bruce Vilanch and JM J.
Bullock. But most compelling is the surprisingly captivating performance
the stunningly handsome Andre Khabazzi, who plays the sinister,
drug-addled Hector, a high-priced hustler who's having a fit of self-destruction
brought on by the fact that he's about to turn (gasp!) 30. |
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Shafer’s journey to the
director’s chair began in his home state of Oklahoma, where, as a child, he
would entertain his family with puppet shows and slide presentations. “Then,
finally, a teacher gave me an old camera, and I started making movies with
my friends as the cast,” he recalls. “There was one about a woman who brings
her dead daughter’s hand back to life, talks to it, and the hand ends up
running around the house. We were cranking them out like a little MGM.” |
Though one might expect rural
Oklahoma to be a less-than-ideal place to grow up gay, Shafer begs to
differ. “I don’t know what they put in the water where I grew up, but I was
always surrounded by gay people,” he marvels. In a twist straight out of
Queer as Folk, the filmmaker’s first affair, at 17, was with the 29-year-old
gymnastics coach at a rival high school. “We pulled it off for a year, and
no one ever found out,” reveals Shafer. “As soon as I graduated, it was
over. I wanted to feel what it was like to be on my own.” |
After graduating from film
school at the University of Oklahoma, Shafer moved to Hollywood, where he
landed various film production jobs, including a stint in development for
the late gay writer-director Colin Higgins (9 to 5). When Playgirl came
calling in the early ’90s, the onetime competitive ballroom dancer saw it as
a fluke opportunity to have fun and get a little, uh, exposure. “The
Playgirl thing was an adventure,” says Shafer, who currently supplements his
writing and directing income by working as a personal trainer (Will &
Grace’s Eric McCormack is a client). “But looking back, I think it’s silly
too, and I wonder if I put that same amount of time and energy into my work,
I would be further along now.” |
