The Journey of Jared Price 2000

Nineteen-year-old Jared Jarrad Webster arrives in Los Angeles from a small town in Georgia, hoping for a different life. In a crowded youth hostel, he rents a bunk-bed room that already houses a male prostitute who sometimes uses the space to meet clients. Jared isn’t thrilled by the arrangement, but it is all he can afford. He soon lands a job as a sitter and caregiver to the blind Mrs. Haines Rocki Craigg, hired by her son Steve Tyler Matthew, a movie executive who wants someone to spend time with his mother so he won’t have to.

At the hostel, Jared meets Robert Josh Jacobson, an openly gay teen who soon shows his attraction to Jared. Robert is very comfortable with his sexuality, which leaves Jared uncertain about his own orientation. The story twists when Matthew asks Jared to move in with his mother so that he can also look after her at night, a plan that makes sense given the hostel’s noisy living situation.

Jared agrees to move into Mrs. Haines’ home, and it isn’t long before power dynamics begin to surface. Soon after Jared moves in, Matthew gets him drunk and they have sex. The encounter complicates their relationship, raising questions about consent, boundaries, and what it costs to find shelter and care in a city that promises opportunity but often tests trust.

Complications mount as Matthew withholds a telephone message from Robert, and fails to mention Bryan Shyne Andrew, his lover at home, to Jared. This deception places Jared in a difficult position: should he stay and risk exploitation, or leave and potentially lose his job and a place to live?

Across these events, the film explores how young people navigate desire, loyalty, and survival when money and housing intersect with intimate relationships. It traces Jared’s slow, uncertain path toward autonomy in a city that tests his limits and forces hard choices about what kind of life he wants to build.