"What Goes Around" (2004) is a terrific little movie from a British studio that takes a new twist on the famous French play, "La Ronde," which the late, great J. Brian once used as his basis for a porn classic "First Time Round" (Bijou Video, 1972). This time we have a wide variety of young Brits in more than compromising positions that are linked by one guy leaving one scene and kicking off the next, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. What makes this flick so special is that the boys are so well cast for their roles, and the sex is just what you would expect in situations like this -- not all scenes include fucking, much of the sex is sweet and gentle, and all of it is perfectly believable, with a great soundtrack playing along with the action.
We begin with the sultry-eyed, swarthy and goateed Dean Monroe (kneeling right, cover) who has made several American blockbusters, but who has returned home to Britain for this one. He plays an exec on business who needs a horny fix (the opening credits are rolled over his shower, which is spectacularly erotic), so he rings up a rentboy, the smoldering Daniel Leger (second right standing, cover). After some interesting chitchat (the script, sometimes muted by muttering actors, is brief and spot on), they start to get down to matters -- but Dean suddenly gets cold feet -- "I've got a boyfriend." This does not matter to Daniel, who's already been paid in cash, and he soon settles Dean down into a sweet conjugal session of mutual blowjobs, some 69 action, and a good, sweet, scissor- and missionary-fuck, Daniel on top all the way. There's a rather businesslike ending to this tryst, and Daniel moves on.
Seems he's a rentboy and a bartender, so he takes up his post (a bit late for work, he's chastised by his boss), and doles out the brews. One customer, a bleached-blond raver appropriately named Spike, stays to closing, which is what we expect, given the suggestive run-ups to this encounter. Doors locked, lights turned low, Daniel approaches Spike on his barstool and they're off into a kissing and cocksucking encounter, which soon moves upstairs to the office couch. There they offer each other mutual blowjobs, gooey loads shot simultaneously, but no fucking, and Spike takes off into the night.
He winds up at a disco where he immediately moves into the loo, joined by a slim, exotic looking Grant Pearce, who's got eyes that resemble those of Tutankhamen -- he's quite beautiful. He arrived with a lady friend, but in the loo he takes some interest in Spike's rising member, which gets a vigorous workout by its owner over the pissoir -- resulting in a substantial spew of sperm into the trough. His lady friend is still waiting and bitches that he took too long when he comes out, but they dance anyway. On the dance floor he is heavily cruised by a very attractive suburban boy, Aaron Slater, who signals his intentions by moving out of the club into the alley, where, of course, Grant follows. They engage in a touchy-feely foreplay before Aaron drops to his knees to service Grant's pretty pecker. This entire seduction is simulated on the disco stage by two club boys, and the editing only serves to highlight the desperation that Grant brings to the situation: he wants it, but he wants to pretend not to. Eventually Aaron forces the boy down to his knees and shoves his cock into his willing mouth, but not for long, Aaron goes back to work on Grant's cock, then pulls him over to a pile of junk, lays him down, and creams all over him as Grant climaxes. Aaron zips up and goes home.
Next morning, Aaron is awakened by his alarm, and soon is into a masturbatory mood, but the sound of the gardener taking care of the yard interrupts his pleasure. The gardener is obviously a regular, and in the person of the somewhat doughy, but very sexy, working-class-looking Christopher James (left, standing, cover). Aaron throws a robe on, but leaves it open, goes to the backdoor, slides it open, and starts jerking off. Christopher knows what's next. He strips down to his cut-offs, and after a cute and short couple of sentences between them, he drops to his knees to service his client's cock, very well, indeed. Aaron then gets into the act, stripping Christopher's shorts as he feeds on the stiff cock sticking out of the pants leg. This leads to a steamy on-the-grass festival of sex, complete with great close-ups of veiny, thick young cocks throbbing in mouths, a segue into a sweet 69 and then a sweet sit-fuck in which the gardener rides the suburban boy to a body-drenching climax and see-you-next-week kiss.
Christopher loads up his truck and soon is on the road where he stops to pick up a hitchhiking college type named Ryan Williams (white cap, standing, cover), whose jeans show a promising bulge -- but not as much as Christopher's cut-offs, which are struggling to hold his naked cock in place. With his lanky body, blue eyes and pug nose -- and hunger for cock -- Ryan reminds me of a clone of 1980-1990s American porn stars Steve Henson ("Pizza Boy," "Inch by Inch," etc.) and Brian Estevez ("The Young and the Hung," etc.). Christopher stops the truck in the woods and they get out -- Ryan immediately drops to his knees and takes on that huge cock and sweet ass with vigor as both he and Christopher service each other over the hood of the truck. But having already been fucked in the garden, Christopher needs his reward and he pounds Ryan belly-down on the hood before Ryan gets up on his knees and offers his hole to Christopher's tongue, which brings both to climax, Christopher on the hood, Ryan in great gobbing splashes onto the windshield.
Christopher drops Ryan off on Hampstead Heath in the cruising park, where he wanders, looking over blond sweet-faced David Johnson and then moving on. Soon the adorable brunet Josh Taylor spots David and the two of them literally rips each other apart with kisses before we leave them (let's see these two again, please, in full action!). Ryan is out for rougher stuff, and he gets his wish with skinhead blockbuster Chip (right, standing, cover), and the two are soon chewing on each other's faces before Chip pulls his jeans down and shoves Ryan's all-too-willing mouth around his Prince-Albert-graced cock. This is all Ryan sucking and Chip receiving, but it serves to continue the ratcheting up of the pace of the flick from the casual first scene one step at a time. With the soundtrack accentuating the sense of apprehension and danger of such a public encounter, Chip soon shoots a major load all over Ryan's face (Ryan takes some of it off the Prince Albert with his tongue as he spills his own load on Chip's boots). Chip leaves Ryan on his knees (but we think we'll see Ryan back in other productions soon -- he's a major superstar in the making).
Chip is off to work, which is as a stripper in a gay bar, complete with diva MC. He really tears up the joint, he's a great dancer, has a super tight body, does some wonderful things with bottles and flags, and eventually grabs a ringsider -- the absolutely beautiful Sebastian O'Neill (kneeling left, cover) -- to blow him onstage behind a Union Jack. As he leaves the stage Chip chucks Sebastian under the chin, and of course we get a dressing room encounter. Full of heat, the two opposites (Sebastian is taller, almost twinkish, but not at all shy) are soon all over the place, sucking each other off with tremendous heat until Chip impales the younger guy on his metal-dangled donger, lifting him up and carrying him around as he fucks him before setting him into a missionary pounding that forces the cum right out of him. Chip pulls out and splashes Sebastian's beautiful pecker and inviting crotch with a sticky load and wipes the boy clean with a towel.
One of the great things about this flick are the subtle touches, and one of them takes place when Sebastian steps into the alley behind the exit door and takes out a market to put a smiley face on the photo of Chip -- but then the camera shows you that this is certainly not the first time Sebastian has been in this situation. So, he heads off to clean himself off at the baths, taking a shower first (there is a deleted scene featuring the blond at the other shower head), then heading off to the Jacuzzi room. There he takes one tub while the other is occupied by Benjamin Web, a late-20ish beauty with a huge cock and funky sideburns which accentuate his ears in a very hot way, who cruises the hell out of him and asks if he can join him. They are soon all over each other in the tub, kissing, fondling and sucking before Benjamin bends Sebastian over for a hot rimjob and serious doggy-fuck. Furtive and silent, they end up with Benjamin in a chair sucking Sebastian off to climax -- right into Benjamin's mouth. While Benjamin is covering his body with his own spooge, they end their encounter with a snowballing kiss.
Benjamin leaves the sauna and heads home, and comes in to discover that his boyfriend has come home early from his business trip. Of course, that boyfriend is Dean Monroe, and the scene which ensues is filled with great, pithy and well delivered dialogue (very little) and superior sex on the couch. They make love like boyfriends -- and considering each has had a peppering within the past 24 hours, with great relish and vigor -- and the roundelay is completed neatly with Dean topping Benjamin in a multi-positioned fuck that actually makes you believe this might all be true.
"What Goes Around" is one of the best movies I have seen in 2006 (produced in Europe in 2004) there is only one cum-eating scene, there is no barebacking, most of the guys are not gorgeous, but there are several things going on here. It is beautifully conceived for a movie with an old conceit. It is brilliantly cast (some of these guys deserve to be major stars). It is directed with tremendous skill (watch this guy Steven Brewer), edited with an eye toward the viewer's crotch, and surrounded by a great mostly original score. Most of all, it's hot as hell, with the heat building up for over two hours, and that's not an easy thing to do. This is impressive, and reminds you once again why the Brits did invent something called "Masterpiece Theatre."
DVD features: Chapters; outtakes; behind-the-scenes footage; deleted scene; gallery; trailers; and no regional coding (playable worldwide).
A DVD Review by Bo Champion