Latter Days

It’s hard not to think of Don Roos whilst watching Latter Days. A key player in the “chick flick” subgenre having written Boys on the Side, Love Field and Single White Female, he turned director on The Opposite of Sex, a tart, sassy little independent feature with a queer sensibility. Latter Days’ director C. Jay Cox has so far followed a similar route: first he penned the Reese Witherspoon vehicle Sweet Home Alabama before directing this particular feature, a film which wants to be tart, sassy and have a queer sensibility. Moreover, he’s even tried to up the cult appeal by filling his supporting cast with various well respected character actors best known for their TV appearances: Mary Kay Place, Amber Benson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Such attitudes however never feel like anything more than mere embellishments. At the centre of Latter Days we still find a fairly unexceptional romantic tale made up of well-worn themes and traits. We have the country boy moving to the city, in this case Steve Sandvoss’ Mormon missionary on a two-year stay in Los Angeles. We have a case of opposites attracting as he falls (despite his religion’s deeply ingrained homophobia) for a promiscuous young stud who spends his days in the tightest of shorts and his nights waiting tables alongside various other aspirant models/actors/musicians. And then we have the common romantic comedy ploy of there being a cynical bet between the pair’s initial meetings, one that will no doubt serve as an obstacle once their feelings for one another become genuine.



Whilst Cox is smart enough to deal with this in as light and pacy a manner as he can muster, it still can’t quite disguise the fact that his film is as contrived as any mainstream effort. Latter Days is exactly the kind of work which needs to be unassuming in order to get by, yet there’s the feeling that its writer-director is simply too knowing. Moreover, he doesn’t quite have the skill to cover this up and so the component parts reveal themselves throughout; despite its colourful language, male nudity and unashamedly gay lead character, this is still a thoroughly populist work. It’s governed by obvious devices (the music montage to demonstrate characters’ feelings clearly being a favourite of Cox’s), it’s facile when it should be rigid (the Mormon aspect is handled in a sweepingly two-dimensional manner despite this being a heavily autobiographical effort), and it’s ultimately so predictable that we’re never left in any doubt as to where it may be heading.

The Disc

Another of TLA’s initial batches of UK releases (alongside Everyone and Edge of Seventeen), it too is let down by a shoddy NTSC-PAL transfer. What should have been a fine presentation with anamorphic enhancement, correct aspect ratio and spotless print is instead rendered over-saturated, soft and often unsightly. It’s a shame as the film will clearly appeal to some even if left me cold. As for the soundtrack here we find a simple DD2.0 offering which may very well be Latter Days’ original mix. There’s no indication on the closing credits that it should come with 5.1 or DTS accompaniment and it certainly offers no problems. Indeed, the dialogue is audible throughout and the musical accompaniment pleasingly crisp. Moreover, there are no technical difficulties to speak of.



Pleasingly, the disc also comes with a healthy collection of extras even if they’re not all of the utmost quality. Cox teams up with his two leads, Sandvoss and Wes Ramsay, for a commentary track, though sadly the trio have little to say. Their discussion is punctuated by long pauses and the amount of information could easily have been gleaned into a punchier featurette of 15 minutes or so. In fact, one such featurette, entitled ‘Behind Latter Days’, makes an appearance on the disc meaning that this is the one to go for. Speaking to the majority of key players, it’s most notable elements are those in which Cox discusses his own past and the film’s autobiographical nature.

Elsewhere the disc offers up a short film of Cox’s, Reason Thirteen, which was later reconfigured into Latter Days’s pre-credit sequence (and note that it’s presentation isn’t great: 2.35:1 but non-anamorphic, really quite appalling sound, and once again NTSC-PAL); a trio of music videos for the Cox-written, Rebekah Jordan-performed songs which appear in the film; two deleted scenes with contextualising text explaining their absence from the final cut; and the standard photo gallery and batch of TLA trailers.

Note that all special features come – unlike the film itself - without optional English subtitles.