Model for Murder (4 Stars)

When I watched "Cosmic Calendar Girls" last week I said that I might re-watch the other two films in my collection starring August Ames. Here's one of them.

There's been a small war taking place on August Ames' Wikipedia page. On the one side it's the people who want to make the page as factual as possible; on the other side it's the cyberbullies and their supporters who don't want to be named as responsible for her death. The last edit was made only three hours ago, and I doubt it's the last version of the page. Let me state the facts here.

On December 3rd August Ames posted on Twitter that she didn't want to have sex with a man who regularly performed gay porn. She criticised her agent for signing her up for this film.

Bruce Beckham, the actor that she refused to have sex with, replied by calling her homophobic and uneducated.

Over the following two days a series of people, mostly gay men, attacked August on Twitter. The leader of the pack was Jaxton Wheeler, who called on August to swallow a cyanide pill.

On December 5th August Ames killed herself.

Bruce Beckham's initial reaction was to say that her death wasn't his fault. A day later he expressed regret and apologised for what he said. Several of his friends, including Dirk Caber, Conner Habib, Topher Drew and Mathew Mason, contradicted him and insisted it wasn't his fault.

Jaxton Wheeler, on the other hand, feels no guilt about his statements and continues to lie about his participation in killing August. In an official statement he says "None of my aggression was directed at August nor her ability to consent to who she decides to work with". I would quote more of his words, but I find them too sickening. He presents himself as a defender of the gay community to justify being responsible for August's death.

It's totally disgusting that a group of homosexual men ganged up on a sensitive young woman and drove her to suicide. Criticising these men doesn't make anyone guilty of homophobia, whatever they say. There are gay men throughout the world who would never have acted so badly. This whole catastrophe isn't about the pros and cons of homosexuality, it's about men being abusive to women. (If you check Jaxton Wheeler's Twitter account you can find examples of him talking badly to other women).

Now let's finally get back to the film itself. August Ames plays an upcoming model called Audrey Elfs. She's murdered early in the film, but she's shown taking part in a photoshoot at the beginning. I've reviewed the film elsewhere. Today I'll just publish some snapshots from the film's photoshoot.

August Ames
August 23, 1994 – December 5, 2017