Shoulder Dance (2023)

I watched this for ages trying to recall where I’d seen Rick Cosnett before then I remembered he was Grant Gustin’s love rival in “The Flash”. Well, here he is more in the “flesh” as he turns up on the doorstep of his long estranged school friend “Ira” (Matt Dallas) with his lively girlfriend “Lilly” (Maggie Geha). Up until now, “Ira” has lived quite happily with boyfriend “Josh” (Taylor Frey) but is reluctant to commit to anything more formal. Now, with their unexpected houseguests, the booze starts to flow, the weed gives way to the molly and boundaries start to blur as truths start to rear their ugly heads. At times there’s quite an engaging chemistry between Dallas and Cosnett, but the unfolding scenario is a little too contrived and the storyline just starts off weakly before going nowhere fast as the predictability lives up to our limited - and disappointing - expectations at the conclusion. It’s sad that it has to reinforce some rather fickle stereotypes along the way, too and in the end it offers little more than an excuse to watch some daytime eye-candy take part in something that looks like it has been sloppily edited for ad breaks. Most of it is filmed in an haze and there’s simply nothing new here, sorry.