Beneath the Skin **½ (2015, Aaron Potter, Hunter Page, Jamie Knox) – Classic Movie Review 12,780

Aaron Potter stars in the 2015 LGBTQ film Beneath the Skin as English student Joshua, whose mother dies and he is forced to move to a town in Canada, where he meets nice young American guy Jay (Hunter Page) – and local thugs.

Aaron Potter (billed as Aaron Ellis) stars in the 2015 LGBTQ film Beneath the Skin as 17-year-old English student Joshua, who is forced to leave his brother and move to a town in Canada, the island city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, to live with his estranged father after the death of his mother.

There he meets nice young American guy Jay (Hunter Page, billed as Justin Liles), an aspiring American artist at the local tattoo parlour, who has fled from the homophobic violence of his parents in Alabama thanks to the kindly owner of the parlour. The two young men Joshua and Jay are made for each other, and soon start to become close despite the homophobia and queer bashing that surrounds them as high school thugs invade their happiness.

Occasionally amateurish and soppy Beneath the Skin may be, but it is still quite likable and appealing, telling a sweet story, with nice local atmosphere and a great good heart brightly covered in the rainbow colours. The two main boys are just fine, riding over Aaron Potter’s script’s bumpy edges, both in dialogue and in some improbable plot developments. Its warm, optimistic romantic spirit is its ace card.

It is shot in the UK and Canada by first-time directing duo Michael Mackinnley and Aaron Ellis.

Aaron was widowed on 27 December 2019 when his husband Anthony Potter died at 31.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 12,780

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