In general, the standard of independent gay films has greatly improved in recent years. So much so that it's surprising that something as cheap, clumsy and amateurish as Mates can still earn a release. Mates is poorly scripted, the characters are wafer thin and if it weren't for the English countryside the film would have no production values at all. None of the actors is strong enough to rise above the weak material, and they're not helped by pedestrian direction and editing. Technical aspects aside, the central character, Connor, is unappealing. His would-be seducer, Adam, is entirely unbelievable - pursuing Connor in front of his apparently very straight mates, and after Connor has said he's not gay and not interested. And the mates are clumsy straight stereotypes, albeit with an equally clumsy attempt and questioning just how straight one of them might be. At what might seem a mercifully short 80 minutes, Maters is still 60 minutes longer than it needed to be.
