Like It Is
Like It Isis much like watching a train wreck--the very idea of  it is repellent and yet you perversely can't avert your eyes. While its urban  grittiness and sooty veneer entranced some critics who mistook its violent,  netherworld neorealism for art,Like It Isoffers little in the way of redemption, positive gay imaging, or even particularly good narrative.Paul Oremland directed this venture about a young, gay Blackpool tough  named Craig (Steve Bell) who bare-knuckle boxes for money. He ultimately  moves to London in search of a better life and falls in with the trendy  London gay club scene, meeting and falling for a handsome record producer  named Matt (Ian Rose) and his wealthy boss (played by the Who's lead singer  Roger Daltrey). The better life is quickly tainted by disillusion and misery, much as is the viewing experience.Steve Bell is, in real life, a featherweight boxing champion in Britain and  therefore brings an urgent and raw vitality to the lead, but the  characters as a whole are either irritating or unsympathetic, and  it's ultimately difficult to find anyone to care for, or a story  worth empathizing with.--Paula Nechak