House of Boys *** (2009, Layke Anderson, Benn Northover, Udo Kier, Stephen Fry, Steven Webb) – Classic Movie Review 14,023

The entertaining but troubling 2009 drama film House of Boys stars Layke Anderson as 80s gay teenager Frank, who runs away to Amsterdam, falls in love, and battles the AIDS epidemic.

Writer/ director Jean-Claude Schlim’s lightly entertaining but deeply troubling 2009 Luxembourg-German drama film House of Boys stars Layke Anderson, Benn Northover, Udo Kier, Stephen Fry and Steven Webb. Layke Anderson stars as 80s gay teenager Frank, who runs away from his home to start a new life in Amsterdam, falls in love, and battles the recently discovered AIDS.

Layke Anderson stars as Frank, a sweet but determined English teenager who runs away from high school to live a gay alternative lifestyle in Amsterdam in 1984. Abandoned in the street with his bags in a rainstorm, he finds a home and work at the House of Boys, a night club bar-cum-brothel run by the cannily strict Madame (Udo Kier), who clearly knows and offers what his punters want.

Frank works his way up from eager-beaver barman to surprisingly spectacular star on-stage dancer, and meanwhile falls in love with his supposedly straight American roommate Jake (Benn Northover). Bewilderingly, Jake earns his keep with a male-hustler lifestyle. His long time girlfriend steals his money to have an abortion, so he breaks up with her and turns to Frank for comfort and joy.

But then disaster, as Europe sees the start of the AIDS epidemic, and the first signs of what is described as ‘the gay cancer’ shock, appal and frighten Frank’s close group of friends. Frank is devastated when Jake gets sick, but his loyalty, courage and doggedness, along with support from his close little circle friends and an intelligent sympathetic English doctor (Stephen Fry), will help him to survive.

House of Boys is a superficially sexy, then deeply serious rainbow-coloured coming-of-age story that reveals an enticing but scary Eighties world of sex, drugs and music, where passion, love and fun turn into a terrifying battle for survival. The film starts off amusingly and enticingly, and then becomes very depressing, a tragic wallow, and finally seeks to get out of this by a sentimental, optimistic wrap-up, though with still a strong warning that AIDS has killed so many people and is still very much with us. The film puts on a brave face with a happy show, but it has a sad heart.

Layke Anderson is excellent, just right, charismatically carrying the whole movie in a couldn’t-be-better performance, and Udo Kier (as the drag queen performer club owner) and Stephen Fry are great value, beefing up some of what might have been empty spaces, with several other charismatic turns in support, especially Steven Webb as Angelo, who aspires to transition from male to female. The music’s fun, the boys are fun, but the disease and death thing is no fun at all. It is an awkward film, meaning incredibly well but dragging us down and giving off some mixed messages. Though set in Amsterdam, it is shot in Luxembourg, some it very imaginatively and all attractively shot.

The mixed messages are, that though it declares firmly against what is described by the bad guys as ‘the gay cancer’, and attacks Ronald Reagan and his anti-gay policies not to help the suffering and not to fund research to try to find a cure, there is still a hint that careless partying may have led to illness and death.

There is plenty of entertainment on the soundtrack, including a couple of thrilling stage performances by Udo Kier. The great music includes three Roy Orbison numbers and, of course, Soft Cell’s ‘Tainted Love’. The soundtrack also uses music from Cockney Rebel, Jimmy Somerville and Spandau Ballet, and ends with “Là-bas” (Somewhere) (music by Cyril Collard and lyrics by Corine Blue) and performed by Nyco Lilliu,

Runtime: 113 minutes.

Release: November 20, 2009

© Derek Winnert 2026 – Classic Movie Review 14,023

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