Circuit  B
By Kage Alan

Life in a small town just isn’t what it could be, especially for John (Jonathan Wade-Drahos), a gay police officer serving in the place where he grew up. The problem is that even though he’s very good at his job, nobody on the force wants to work with him because of his orientation. His captain won’t fire him so he suggests John transfer or move to another area more accommodating and understanding of his kind. Hello LA!

John immediately catches up with his best friend Gill (Brian Lane Green), who helps him find a trailer to settle down in, and is taken by a documentary his (Gill’s) ex has been filming for the last two years. Well, it isn’t long before John is introduced into the LA gay community where he meets Hector (Andre Khabbazi), a hustler with some serious issues about his age and looks. Despite their differences, the two strike up a friendship and begin to hit the Circuit parties together. The pressure to fit in finally begins to wear John down and he starts delving into the drugs and easy sex that he sees constantly going on around him at the parties. Mild curiosity turns to dependency and even his ex-girlfriend from college, Nina (Kiersten Warren) can’t get him to see reason.

Somewhere in all of this mayhem, we’re also introduced to the man responsible for the Circuit parties, Gino (William Katt”), and his wife Louise (Nancy Allen). It’s an odd thing that Gino donates money to the AIDS foundations and appears to fully support them, yet supplies the drugs used at the parties that clouds judgment and promotes unsafe sex. Yet another character is Bobby (Paul Lekakis), the king of the Circuit and “performer” who is known mostly for his endowment. All of the characters in “Circuit” end up interacting at some point during the film and go through life changing experiences. When some of them sit down to view Tad’s finished film during the final minutes, it’s obvious we’re looking at true survivors.

It’s too easy to dismiss “Circuit” as just a piece of soft-core pornography. Each character has a strength and weakness that is taken to the maximum here and while the dialogue isn’t nearly as strong as it could be in key scenes, the performances make up for it, especially by Kiersten Warren. In a truly unusual moment, Hector’s obsession with his age and looks goes full circle when he basically makes love to himself in a mirror. It’s imagery like that combined with the huge number of buff bodies (many of them achieved through steroids) that represent the inherent dangers of what path the parties and their temptations can lead one down.