The "gay interest" movie genre basically falls into two sub- categories.
On the one hand, there are movies which altogether lack any pretence of artistic merit: they are badly acted, badly staged, badly costumed, and badly filmed, with a screen-play completely devoid of any literary quality. Their only redeeming feature is that they usually have a cast of hot young men, who show plenty of flesh.
On the other hand, there are the "art house" gay movies, which absolutely reek of production values. These tend either to be cast with older, fatter, and/or uglier actors; or, if a pretty boy finds his way on to the set, he resolutely keeps his pants on.
D'Agostino is a rare exception to this dichotomy. The two stars – Michael Gordon Andricopoulos (aka Michael Angels) and Keith Roenke – are both exceptionally handsome: indeed, more handsome, in my humble opinion, than the smooth-skinned and pumped twinkie-boys who populate most of the gay soft-core porn movies.
And there is no shortage of flesh on show. Andricopoulos/Angels is naked in virtually every scene in which he appears. Whilst Roenke keeps his clothes on for much of the film, he obviously has no inhibitions about shedding them when the script calls for him to do so. There is only limited overt sexual interaction between these stars, but the entire plot throbs with implicit homoeroticism.
The acting, costuming, sets and cinematography are all first-rate. But what is most surprising is that this movie has a plot which is as competently crafted as it is intriguing. It is one of the few "gay interest" movies which I would bother with just for the story. Perhaps the plot-line is not entirely original, as it could be described as a gay version of the ancient story of Pygmalion and Galatea, from Ovid's narrative poem Metamorphoses, in which a sculptor falls in love with a statue which he has carved. But even that derivative theme is handled with startling originality.
Allan Dawson (Keith Roenke) is a city-based business executive, in a loveless de facto relationship with an older woman. He has recently inherited his grandmother's estate on the Greek island of Santorini, and takes the opportunity to abandon both his professional and his domestic complications by relocating to this island paradise.
Meanwhile, D'Agostino (Andricopoulos/Angels) was washed up on the shore of Santorini and taken refuge in Dawson's recently-acquired property. D'Agostino, it emerges, is the result of a cloning experiment, commissioned by men of wealth solely for the purpose of harvesting organs for transplantation. Lost overboard in a maritime accident en route from Europe to the United States, he has been left for dead.
When Dawson first discovers D'Agostino, he is apparently bereft of human qualities. Locked in a cupboard and covered in his own excrement, D'Agostino walks on all fours like a dog, and seems incapable of rational thought or intelligent communication. But the relationship between Dawson and D'Agostino gradually mutates, from that of master and hound (or master and slave), to one of mutual support and affection. I will not spoil the final twist, but it is quite unexpected.
Movies this good do not come along very often. It should be savoured.