| Director | Everett Lewis |
|---|---|
| Genre | LGBT-related film, crime film, drama film |
| Country | United States |
Skin & Bone is an episodic account of three Los Angeles-area hustlers, Harry, Billy, and Dean, and their pimp Ghislaine. Ghislaine constantly drives the streets of Los Angeles arranging client appointments. She relies on Harry, the most experienced member of her stable, to train new recruits, including Billy and Dean.
Harry services both male and female clients and always acts as a top; many male clients hire him to beat them. He fantasizes about a woman he once knew. He has convinced himself that he is not a prostitute but an "actor" providing "fantasies". In his unsuccessful pursuit of an acting career, Harry goes on a casting call for a police film. The casting director asks if he will do nudity, implying a casting couch scenario. Harry says he is an artist and loses the role.
Billy, though experienced, is still somewhat goofy and absent-minded. He sometimes helps Harry with scenes and Harry tries to convince him too that he is an actor and not a prostitute. On several occasions, Billy picks up men only to discover that the man is not actually his client. In one case he and the man fall in love and they plan to get Billy out of the business and start a life together. Shortly thereafter, Billy mistakes a man for a client in a public restroom and that man stabs him to death.
Dean is Ghislaine's most recent recruit. While training him, Harry again tries to impart the notion that their job is just acting. Following his training and first successful trick (with a woman), Dean is humiliated when two women force him to start and stop masturbating seemingly at random. Dean then performs as a "nude cleaner" for a client. He learns that the client is an ex-Marine who was paralyzed in combat and still longs for the boy with whom he fell in love, who was killed. The client is still able to achieve an erection and Dean has sex with him.
Harry is at an appointment with a regular, a uniform fetishist called "The General" (Wynston A. Jones). Usually Harry beats him, but unknown to Harry, the client has arranged for something different with Ghislaine. After showing Harry a picture of himself in which he closely resembles Harry, the General orders Harry to strip. When Harry hesitates, the General attacks him from behind, binds his hands with tape and rapes him.
Harry asks his acting agent to set up an "interview" with another casting director. He lets the man fuck him. Later at Dean's place, Harry finds Dean sitting alone burning himself with a cigarette. Dean tells Harry he ran away from home after his father had him arrested at age 14 for stealing a candy bar. Dean was put in a cell with several men who took turns raping him.
After allowing himself to be used by the casting director, Harry gets a small role as a cop in the film for which he had previously been rejected. On-set he impresses the producers and they offer him a part in a TV series.
Ghislaine sends Harry to the local morgue with $2,500 to bribe an attendant. Harry sees Billy's body and realizes that Ghislaine is acquiring it for a client. He confronts Ghislaine, accusing her of arranging Billy's murder, and tells her he wants to quit and take Dean with him. Ghislaine agrees, if Harry and Dean perform one final scene.
The scene is a cop/prisoner scenario which begins with the cop beating the prisoner then the prisoner overpowering the cop, binding and beating and finally shooting him. Harry plays the cop and Dean the prisoner. Bound and gagged, Harry sees Ghislaine switching his gun (loaded with blanks) for another gun, but fails to convey the danger to Dean. As Ghislaine and the client watch and the client tapes the scene, Dean pulls the trigger and kills Harry. Harry meets "Lovely Girl", who asks him how he feels being dead.
Six months later, Dean is living on the streets. Ghislaine finds him and convinces him to return to work.