I think this film is suffering in the votes for two reasons: 1.) It includes many scenes of explicit drug use and gay sex (seriously, some are barely shy of hardcore pornography). 2.) People are approaching it as a documentary, which it is not.... exactly. You need only read Andrew Haigh's notes on the film's website to understand that he is purposefully blurring the lines between documentary and narrative by using a cast of real London rent boys, playing themselves, in a fictional, if not entirely scripted, drama.
In my opinion the result was extremely successful. I found Peter Pittaros incredibly winning (it took all of fifteen minutes for me to fall entirely in love with him) and the supporting cast complex, realistic and often devastating. The scenes in which groups of them hung out doing drugs, dancing, goofing around and sharing (likely nonfictional) war stories spoke volumes to me about their histories as well as their trajectories. In fact I came to feel that the film was really about everyone but Pete, whose sheer positivity and drive to succeed makes it so you never really worry about him. I think Haigh did something clever by giving us a rock of a protagonist to cling to as we explored the sadness, emptiness and insecurity displayed by Kai and the supporting cast. And as someone who has been on both sides of the loves-too- much, loves-too-little divide, Pete and Kai's relationship rung incredibly true to me and was all the more powerful for the way Haigh presented it more often through looks and actions than words.
