***THIS REVIEW DEFINITELY CONTAINS SPOILERS***I really wanted to love this movie. I watched the Directors cut. I didn't quite hate it but it did fall way short of it's potential.I was a circuit boy in NYC from about 1989 - 2004 and I've never been to any party that looked as lame (except for one in San Francisco) as the ones shown in this movie--and it's actually ABOUT circuit parties as the title would suggest. I would have wanted my money and my drugs back from any of the parties in the movie.The subject of circuit parties, drugs and sex is extremely complicated but it was my experience that it's the minority who get lost in the scene and destroy their lives.These people, likely, have addictive personalities to begin with.Most people I knew who were deeply into the circuit party scene were pretty responsible about it and had extremely responsible jobs, careers and lives outside of the scene ranging from doctors to nurses to architects to construction workers to pilots to politicians to television personalities to teachers to scientific researchers to name a few.So, in my opinion, the movie only focused on a minority of people who got very lost in the scene and life--which is fine. But, the movie really needed a way to explain that that was its point of view instead of making it look like anyone who goes to circuit parties is like that. It would have been easy to have included a character who went to an occasional circuit party, did drugs, recovered, and went on functioning in real life--like most circuit boys do. This would have been an easy way to show that there is another type who attends circuit parties (the majority) and that the movie was focusing on the worst case scenario.Besides the movie's many obvious shortcomings mentioned in many other reviews, my 3 major issues with the film are:1. The music. It was absolutely horrible, low end, lame, obscure, undanceable and very forgettable--except for the remake of High. I understand the movie had a very low budget but there are certain things in a movie about circuit parties where corners (like getting rights to good/real circuit party songs) cannot be cut.2. It didn't show anything about how horrific it is and how long it takes to come down from the drugs taken at a circuit party--the week of being extremely tired, cranky and depressed while the body is recovering from being poisoned and the brain is attempting to produce serotonin again naturally.I'm all for doing the right drugs and the right amount of them with the right timing at circuit parties--that's what these parties are all about and they aren't worth attending if drugs (especially x and k) aren't involved. Drugs are part of the ritual and, in fact, are responsible for creating the ritual. But, what goes up must come down and that part ain't fun. The movie showed none of that. If someone actually went out every night (like John apparently did in the movie) and did that amount of drugs, at best he would be so wiped out and depressed he wouldn't be able to get out of bed for a week after only a few days of straight partying. At worst he'd easily die of an overdose.3. Why in the world would a special bullet containing some mystery drug that can kill someone with one bump even exist in the party scene (or at all) and why would someone bring it to a circuit party? What was it (the movie never mentioned what the drug actually was)? Who was Hector expected to sell it to at the White Party? This ridiculous and completely unbelievable, manufactured premise to end Hectors life was a huge, unforgivable and nonsensical flaw in this movie. Hector could have easily killed himself in a much more believable way by simply overdosing on his drug/drugs of choice--maybe by doing several giant bumps of k and washing down a handful of x with a huge glass of G--that oughta do the trick.What this movie did do for me was make me long for my circuit boy party days where I had some of the best times of my life high as a kite on a dance floor dancing to amazing music of the late 1980's - 1990's with friends and falling in and out of love with a mysterious, high, beautiful, stranger from some far away, exotic place who would be the man of my dreams for a few hours or one night...only until the drugs wore off.This is why I gave the movie 5 stars.

As a gay man who has lived a very sheltered life, I wanted to see this movie to get some kind of an idea about life in an area with a lot of gay men. I think I am happy where I am. I think the movie started okay, but as the main character gets drawn into the web of circuit parties and drugs, I really watched as if it were my summary. I knew this was getting worse as it went on, but I just couldn't tear my eyes away. I felt like the woman the main character lived with, out of my depth and unable to understand the fascination with the circuit. I also couldn't understand in the final party, how people can ingest that many drugs before they die. And what a death! I felt like I was watching a remake of "All That Jazz" with a gay cast. All in all, a fascinating, god-awful mess.

Director Dirk Shafer does his low-budget best to capture the vibe of cruising the California Gay Circuit. The rather bland soap opera device used to connect the party sequences is unaffecting. A much more prurient approach to the sex and drug culture here would have probably worked better. Needless to say, the acting is amateurish, but, for the most part, acceptable. The editing is fairly refined for an indie project, but the film is not as good as Shafer's MAN OF THE YEAR. The unrated DVD is the way to go for those interested, even though the soundtrack is rather poorly rendered for a film filled with pulsating rave tracks.

I really thought this film would never end. If they had managed to shave an hour off the jumbled, cliche-packed story and edit it together in a way that gave the film any sort of flow, it might have been bearable, but as-is it was all I could to not to walk out. The lead actor's entire emotional range consisted of grinning, not grinning, and a really brief bit of rage. Kiersten Warren's performance as the straight ex-girlfriend was the only remotely watchable bit, aside from the token Bruce Villanch cameo. The strange color shifts of the low-quality DV were tremendously annoying. Even all the hot beefcake eyecandy wasn't enough to save this from the hell of bad amateur filmmaking. I usually have a huge soft spot for any vaguely gay film, even something as depressing and nihilistic as this one, but this was just too much tripe.