Synopsis
Influence is an Art Form
Fresh off a heartbreak, enigmatic starving artist Hunter and alluring, confident Ruby have a whirlwind romance in Venice Beach, but can it survive the harsh realities of her glitzy NYC art world?
Venus as a Boy
Cast
Director
Producers
Ty Hodges Tim Astor Kseniya Yorsh Roya Rastegar Sanjay M Sharma Daniel Cuervo Timothy Harvey David Krinsky Jon Onyiriuka Brennan Sim Neil Vacchiano
Writer
Editor
Cinematography
Executive Producers
Jijo Reed Melissa Daniels Christopher Rush Harrington Gian Franco DeAnna Gravillis Olufemi Kalejaiye Jeffrey G. Packard Lauren Packard LaSean Smith
Production Design
Composer
Sound
Costume Design
Releases by Date
Premiere
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USA
Tribeca Film Festival
Digital
24 Sep 2021
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USAR
Releases by Country
USA
14 Jun 2021
- Premiere Tribeca Film Festival
24 Sep 2021
- DigitalR
Popular reviews
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A really interesting visualization of being a Black artist and the struggles of white validation both unsolicited and sought after. There’s, unfortunately, more that didn’t work for me than did work for me. However, the visual style of Venus as a Boy was really solid for most of its runtime and the soundtrack was solid as well!
Tribeca Film Festival Watch #25
*400th Watch of the Year* -
TRIBECA FEATURE #6
zoinkssss thought this was gonna be right up my alley but instead it was soooo fake deep... at no point did i have sympathy for what hunter endured in his relationship with ruby. like maybe if one of the first things a random white girl says to you is that gentrification is "cute" .. you shouldn't date her! she will probably just continue to be racist!
the film presumes to be about the pressure that marginalized artists endure to only make art about their oppression. and i would have been interested in a film about that! but instead, it's about a really pretentious dude who can't feel whole without white approval of his work, and i couldn't be less interested in that.
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Venus As A Boy is one of those movies where at the time you watched it you thought “hey that was pretty solid” but then think “actually that was just okay” Ty Hodges and Olivia Culpo give decent performances, the chemistry between the two is quite great and there’s a few meaningful moments in there that are effective. However the writing isn’t exactly great and does ruin a few moments that could have been something interesting, the directing is very okay and doesn’t really bring an interesting choice of style to it. Which is a huge shame because this is definitely the type of movie that would benefit from that, Venus As A Boy is a very okay movie that does have some pretty strong parts about it that make it worth watching, but the lows stick out like a sore thumb unfortunately.
6/10 C+
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she’s not like other girls! she loves hugs, being called bitch and is unaware of gentrification!
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Very, very pretentious. At least it felt that way to me. A gorgeous successful and independently wealthy Instagram model decides to pursue a broke, questionably talented artist with no game and codependency issues. I just couldn’t buy into it.
The other thing that gets me is one of the main themes in the movie is how a Black artist feels pigeonholed into making art about Black oppression when he really just wants to be free to make whatever art inspires him. Fair enough, but then why as a writer/director/lead actor do you make a film with Black oppression as one of the main themes? The film looks to have a decent budget and would take a talented crew to pull…
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A Tribeca Festival 2021 Selection
FROM THE PROGRAM: "Fresh off a heartbreak, enigmatic starving artist Hunter and alluring, confident Ruby have a whirlwind romance in Venice Beach, but can it survive the harsh realities of her glitzy NYC art world?"
There are two movies here. The first one, about a Black LA artist and a white NYC influencer embarking on a Before Trilogy-y romance that gradually gives way to reality, is terrible. Hunter (played by writer/director Ty Hodges) is too passive and inward to be an effective lead. Ruby is too abrasive, vapid, and microaggressive to be plausible as a love interest for Hunter (the scene with the cops is unforgivable). They don't have a single interesting conversation or moment…
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This is the prime example of a movie that’s all style with very little substance, and that makes it inherently disappointing. It fits the cookie cutter description of ‘niche indie festival flick.’ The one thing that Venus as a Boy has going for it is that it is filmed with an eye for beautiful, sweeping visuals, and is filled with fun side characters that provide glimmers of a better movie. The “love story,” if you could even call it that, is distant and boring. I think I liked Ruby (Olivia Culpo) more than Hunter (Ty Hodges), though neither character is particularly well-written. There is a smattering of explicit sex with a dominatrix, meditations, shroom consumption, racial discussions, and mystical quotes like “love is not a transaction.”
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Ty Hodges was a complex character that gave a solid performance. But I can't help but hate the love interest and that leaves the rest of the plot lacking. The strongest part was the desert dream scenes, I wish there was more of that.