WHAT MY LOVE IS FOR

US, 2016, 75 minutes, Colour.

Philip Embury, Bianca Rutigliano, Marshall Taylor Thurman, David Maloney, Yvonne Erickson,Djaka Saoure..

Directed by Philip Embury, Sebastian Rea.

A small film, the work of Philip Embury who wrote, directed, and acts on the central role as Philip, a gay man living in rural Virginia (as did Embury in real life), on a farm, caring for horses. His father has long disappeared. He is antagonistic towards his mother and has contemporary his older brother, Douglas. He is friendly with a young woman who has had a troubled background but is finding a place on the farm.

When the relative whom he respects, his great grandma, dies in New York, he inherits her house. But, there is a complex situation in so far as she traded drugs, was involved in bootlegging, also involving her daughter in the process. He and Douglas and the young woman, Katie, find that the house is in debt. They try to market some hoops made in the basement, gatecrash an affluent party in the Hampton.

The focus of the rest of the film is on relationships, Philip attracted to an affluent young musician and artist, unsure about orientation. The film dramatises the changing relationship between the two, very reticent in its language and visuals about the relationship. Douglas, on the other hand, has drug problems, is rather promiscuous in his behaviour, especially with the host of the party, but also wanting a relationship with Katie. Katie uses the opportunity to reflect on her own situation, attitudes towards men and relationships.

There are also the difficulties at home, and the possibilities for some reconciliation ship with the mother.

Rather a quiet kind of film relying on its portrait of the characters, their questions, difficulties and relationships.