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| ToY | |
|---|---|
| File:ToY2015Poster .jpg Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Patrick Chapman |
| Written by | |
| Produced by | Lije Sarki |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Vernon Rudolph |
| Edited by | Barry O'Donnell |
| Music by | |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by |
|
| released =
- 22 August 2015 (2016)
- Expression error: Unrecognized word "germany". June 2
| runtime = 94 minutes | country = United States | language = English | budget = n/a | gross = n/a
ToY is an independent 2015 erotic drama film co-written and directed by Patrick Chapman. It depicts young L.A. artist Chloe Davis (Brianna Evigan), who hires prostitutes to pose nude and talk openly about their lives for her new film project. She falls for one, the elegant British 40-something Kat Fuller (Kerry Norton), whose sex work options are precipitously dwindling. The two dissimilar lost souls begin an unlikely, chaotic affair, as they compliment and complement each other, experiencing themes of abandonment, vulnerability, secrecy, miscommunication, missed connections, and reconciliation.
The movie's tagline is "Love does not heal the broken."
Plot
editThe movie opens with choreography of Chloe's interviewees that is half keyhole, half damaged film, to convey simultaneously the private nature of the prostitutes' disclosures and their fractured states. This segues to an argument between Chloe and art gallery owner Alison (Bre Blair), who is exhibiting a mortified Chloe's art too prematurely for her taste, but belatedly for the broker's budget. Chloe sabotages a sale to the Greenbergs (Patricia Bethune and Carl Bressler).
We see various scenes of Chloe's creative process, which ends with her losing focus while overpainting, making an irreversible error. We share in Chloe's concern over the significance as she recall via flashback when she was a child (Ava Griffith), spying her mother (Maria Maestas McCann) suffering loss of motor control, indicating, whatever this affliction is, it is hereditary and will eventually affect her own motor coordination.
In the next scene she is removed from the board of her mother's foundation by the board's lawyer, Mr. Palmer (Joe Peer), for escaping a drug rehabilitation facility. She then refuses to sign an NDA concealing that she is now a beneficiary of the foundation that she helped found. The next scene reveals that the board knows that the drug abuse is either self-medication for the disease or is a response to knowing she will suffering the same fate as her mother. She indicates to one of the board members (Daniel Hugh Kelly) that her mother should have killed herself before the disease killed her, our first hint of her suicidality.
We return to Chloe's creative process, with a model (Ana Foxxx) posing only in a large ribbon in front of a floor-to-ceiling window, presumably the buildings in the background unoccupied at nighttime. She is confused by Chloe's not clicking the shutter as she tires of her poses. She is further confused by Chloe's offering the model to sit if for an interview... now using a video camera stabilized with a tripod. Her questions reveal more about Chloe than about the model. She is fascinated by how idyllic life must be in a perfect body. Unaware of what Chloe has been through and will go through, the model misinterprets Chloe's clinical questions as those of a male photographer getting too personal, an experience she has clearly had before. Two sufferers unable to articulate their suffering to each other.
Afterward, as she ponders the model's defensiveness, she gets the idea to interview a "whore" (in the model's vernacular) instead, someone who also makes their living by their physique but with no résumé to rattle off when a photographer becomes unprofessional.
The first prostitute (Brighid Fleming), a skittish girl who lies about her age and her pimp, flees when Kat knocks at the door. Chloe identifies with the child's being motherless but not with what threat she imagines appointments scheduled too close could be.
We then see more scenes from Kat's POV: her age; her attitude toward clients; Conrad Setch, her pimp (Paul Rae); the drug habit and unreliability that make a 9-to-5 job unappealing. We learn her (boss's) rules, including why she showed up early the first time, scaring away the trafficked girl.
Before Kat does a nude shoot for Chloe, she knows just the words to use to get more money out of her. Once again, her visitor affords a study in contrasts: facing bleak futures, both are cold and clinical, but hardened in different ways. Kat is the hooker with no future, meting out advice to clients, a mother figure with no child to mother. Chloe is the reckless dreamer, not experienced enough to have a set of rules to follow or give—a motherless waif in need of a mother. When Kat is finally fired by her Conrad, the scene ends with a closeup of scrap, what Kat has become.
Chloe finds Kat's C-section scar when blowing up the nudes. The possibility of a child elsewhere without her mother is not lost on her.
Chloe wants to go along on one of Kat's calls. She agrees to the price and films it unbeknownst to the client, while waiting in an adjoining room. She then films Kat's dancing silhouette from outside the shower. Kat catches her enjoying herself to the video playback. Kat is amused to know what one more person wants without their knowing it. By contrast, Chloe is as embarrassed as at the unauthorized art exhibit.
After the subject of control comes up during a nude shoot, Kat decides to take Chloe to a place outside of town she uses for target practice, which then leads to their going to a nearby BDSM show where she used to work. Kat senses Chloe's disgust and leads her away. After the long day, they sleep together (only literally). Kat wakes up to the sound of a camera timer. Chloe is replicating Kat's silhouette motions—perhaps emulating Kat, perhaps documenting her own physical deterioration. Whichever, she conceals the real reason from Kat, who figures the former and reverses the early scene, she now admiring photos of Chloe's silhouette. Kat uses this mutual admiration as a segue into gentle kissing—all over.
At daybreak, Kat unloads her Mercedes and moves in. The careful way in which she hides her gun recalls Chloe's earlier talk of suicide. Kat probes why she's left painting. In turn Chloe probes why Kat is sensitive about her C-section. Kat's evasion salvages the mood as they make love again.
We learn the board member Chloe's apartment is indeed her father. He has dropped in uninvited to leave an invitation to a benefit for patients with Huntington's disease, revealing the disease behind the earlier loss of motor control and the likely motivation for leaving painting. Chloe refers to his having her arrested, revealing to us who had her committed to rehab. The sight of the invitation just annoys her, either because she doesn't like being reminded of her imminent deterioration or the seeming insincerity of his visit. The date of the gala matches the movie's release date.
We learn the gala is in its fourteenth year, suggesting that if Chloe's symptoms started at the same age as her mother's, she can look forward to at most half a generation of deterioration before passing away. Kat misses two heartfelt speeches about HD that push Chloe to hide in the bathroom sobbing. After pulling herself together, she finds Kat chatting up a guy outside who wanted to share a smoke, an activity that would lead to an earlier age of onset (AOO) of Chloe's HD. After these three strikes, Chloe decides Kat must leave, but not before telling Chloe about the child behind the C-section. Already having shocked her over the child's abandonment, Kat shocks her further by referring to the child as "it."
Kat returns to Conrad, who warns her only lousy jobs are available, even to those half her age. Kat accepts what he has in mind, which entails moving in with another pimp, Sweaty Pete (Joey Capone), who has her do porn, chat room work, and see johns to pay the rent.
While Kat is away, Chloe learns her father actually did assist with her mother's premature demise. She asks an attorney, Mark Keener (Harvey J. Alperin), to help find Kat's daughter. Chloe finds the gun Kat always takes on jobs. She had left it behind accidentally from having rushed Kat out of the apartment with only what she could carry. She mentally adds that to the plan.
Kat comes back to get her things, especially since she needs the gun. Chloe misses her by minutes. As she has lost the ability to operate her equipment efficiently, she teaches Alison how to complete her art exhibit.
The dementia worsens. She imagines going down on Kat but snaps to realize it another interviewee. Again being reminded of what the future holds for her sends her into a rage. At the same time that Chloe is losing her mind, Kat is losing consciousness while a rough job (Douglas Bennett) suffocates her.
When Chloe smears her lipstick in the same way she smeared a photo, instead of giving up on painting, this time she gives up on life. Her mother's final words to her, "I'm not leaving you on purpose," echo in her head in her final seconds. She now understands how planned her mother's end was, and feels free to follow in kind, and escape the feelings of abandonment she's felt for 14 years. She pulls the trigger of Chekov's gun, the gun Kat needed too, just as Kat awakes from her coma. She finds a card from Chloe's father, another invitation, this time to see lawyer Mark Keener. The card also tells her the hospital bills are being covered.
When Kat recovers enough to leave the hospital, Mr. Keener meets with her to disclose that, though a detective firm could find her, they could find neither her assaulter nor Conrad, who dumped her at the hospital. Also, Chloe has left her a trust fund. As he recites its stipulations, she fades out, reminiscing of a time when she was closest to Chloe. Her final wish was that Kat attend her art exhibit. Interspersed are shots of father Steven leaning against the floor-to-ceiling window similar to how Kat had when posing, Chloe had after blowing up at the Greenbergs, all in a position similar to Chloe's mother when suffering motor control loss.
At the exhibit, Kat learns that Mr. Keener had succeeded in finding her daughter (Grace Glover), who the adoptive parents named Amy. Have a hanky ready.
Kat's decision whether to use her inheritance to meet her daughter is left to the viewer to speculate. In the final shot, we see the basis of the title, a building outside Chloe's apartment with the word "ToY" painted in five-story letters, perhaps a reference to the proper use of the word, meaning a plaything for a girl to have a happy childhood, as opposed to an adult who is exploited by other adults.
Cast
edit- Briana Evigan as Chloe Davis
- Kerry Norton as Kat Fuller
- Bre Blair as Alison
- Daniel Hugh Kelly as Steven Davis, Chloe's father
- Maria Maestas McCann as Chloe's mother
- Joe Peer as board member Mr. Palmer
- Harvey J. Alperin as attorney Mark Keener
- Ava Griffith as young Chloe
- Grace Glover as Kat's daughter, Amy
- Brighid Fleming as underage prostitute
- Ana Foxxx as angry model
- Patricia Bethune as Janice Greenberg
- Carl Bressler as Dr. Greenberg
- Paul Rae as Kat's pimp and supplier, Conrad Setch
- Joey Capone as pimp Sweaty Pete
- Douglas Bennett as Kat's assaulter
Awards
editBrianna Evigan won for Best Actress at the 2016 FilmOut San Diego Audience Awards. Kerry Norton won for Best Actress at the 2016 FilmOut San Diego Festival Awards.
MPAA rating
editThe film is rated TV-MA for language, explicit assault, drug use, female nudity, and implied lesbian snugglebunnies.
Notes
editReferences
editExternal links
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