Most gay-themed romances I've seen, read, and even made, tend to resemble the format of heterosexual romances. What I discovered when reading Boy Culture is that there are differences. The book goes further than replacing the gender of a character in a traditional heterosexual story. These characters are uniquely men. Rather than taking the approach of the traditional romance in adapting the story to the screen, I felt it important to approach this as a "guy" film. Only, instead of coming together to pull a heist, fight a war, or beat each other up, these "guys" are falling in love with each other. And the thing that makes this relationship difficult is that both men bring stereotypically "guy" relationship problems to the table. When I first read the novel, I was quickly drawn to the inner voice of the main character, X. Here is a guy who is a lot like me: a strange combination of heartless cynic and hopeless romantic. His detached observations, coupled with his experiences as a hustler seeing people's deepest secrets, give him a cold, bleak veneer; an emotionless surface on which he prides himself. But beneath that lies a need for companionship. A need that could never be met by a mere "gay man," because gay men are flawed. And as long as he knows this, he can remain impervious to love until he realizes how badly he's fallen for his roommate Andrew, who is exceptionally flawed. The obstacle keeping them apart isn't feuding parents, a conservative society, or a secret bet; it's their own definitions of commitment and what they want in a relationship. They've met and they like each other, but neither one of them has a traditional conception of a happy ending, and therein lies their conflict. The realistic simplicity of such an obstacle-oneself-is what makes this story so exciting and personal to me.