A Place on Earth (2013)

Directed by: Fabienne Godet
Country: France / Belgium

Movie Review: After her directorial debut in 2005 with “Burnt Out”, followed by the documentary “My Great Escape” two years later, Fabienne Godet presents us now her second fictional drama with “A Place on Earth”, a story about obsession, depression, and self-confidence. Antoine Dumas (Benoit Poelvoorde) is an alcoholic photographer whose latest works aren’t having the desired results in the agency he works. Instead of going to another boring New Year’s party, he decides to stay home, taking care of his best friend, Matéo, the little son of his constantly absent neighbor. Allured by Chopin piano pieces played by Elena (Mariane Labed), a neighbor who lives across the courtyard, Antoine will be witness of her suicide attempt. The woman survives and Antoine will develop a strange obsession for her, retrieving little by little his self-confidence. The film oscillates according to its characters, showing pondered moments in one hand, and occasionally bursting of interior liberation needs, in the other. Intriguing only in its first part, it started losing interest as the end approached and became indifferent as its mysteries revealed to be ineffective. The subplots, regarding Matéo or Elena’s addicted friend Margot, didn’t add anything relevant to a drama that failed to provoke or stimulate our minds. Godet tried to use depression as her best trump but the conclusions/moral that passed in “A Place on Earth” were too contrived to achieve admirable results.

The Fifth Season (2012)

Directed by: Peter Brosens, Jessica Woodworth
Country: Belgium / others

Movie Review: Belgium-based filmmakers Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth (“Khadak”, “Altiplano”) continue their audacious work on writing, production, and direction, with the lyrical and intimidating “The Fifth Season”, a sensational drama about the consequences of nature/climate changes on human beings. Instead of focusing in global chaos, the duo preferred to choose a small and isolated village in Belgian Ardennes whose community struggles to survive. Along four seasons, the viewer witnesses a progressive decadence, with the ‘angered’ Nature refusing to give them the basic needs - the bees fled from the beehives, cows no longer give milk and were taken out by the authorities, while potatoes didn’t germinate as they should. All these aspects are presented together with weird interactions and unexplainable communication among men and animals, along with inherent senses of fear and helplessness that produces deep changes in everyone’s behavior. Another very strong aspect in the film were the rituals, whether presented in the form of traditional parades, whether in form of sect gathering where alienation, sacrifice, or purification, become the new real threats to humanity. “The Fifth Season” was extremely satisfying in its approach, creating great impact through its disturbing score, haunting images, and constantly involving us in its grim story of survival pelted with supernatural forces and symbology. The film collected important prizes at Valladolid and Venice film festivals.

Torn (2013)

Directed by: Jeremiah Birmbaum
Country: USA / Pakistan

Movie Review: Producer-turned-director Jeremiah Birnbaum has in “Torn” his first directorial solo film. A drama that explores the anguish of two distinct families, one American and other Pakistani, after learn that their juvenile sons were killed in a moll terrorist bombing that victimized ten more people. Moreover, police has motives to believe that one of them was the responsible for the bombing, causing apprehension and revolt in their parents. The two mothers will maintain contact, not without some aggression and prejudice, but soon will realize their unfair behavior towards a very difficulties and inconclusive case. I found a bit forced the way Michael Richter, the writer, arranged all the pieces to turn the story upside down, creating unexpectedly the rupture in one of the families and reconnection in the other. With exception of Dendrie Taylor, the performances weren’t always convincing, making the film equal to so many others dramas that couldn’t find a way, both artistic and narrative, to excel in the genre. Birnbaum’s direction also didn’t satisfy completely, often allowing unpolished images with excess of whites, fact that on purpose or not, is not for my particular taste. In the end we are presented with instants of that fatal day – do they change anything? “Torn” was considered best feature film at Rhode Island International Film Festival.

We Are the Best (2013)

Directed by: Lukas Moodyson
Country: Sweden

Movie Review: Plenty of attitude can be found in Lukas Moodyson’s seventh feature film, which tells the story of two 13 year-old girls who, in 1982 Stokholm, believe punk’s not dead and embark in their dream of forming a band. With a fragile aspect and disillusioned with their families, Bobo and Klara exhibit uncommon haircuts and adopt a rebel posture, not caring a bit with the sarcastic commentaries of their colleagues. Having big problems with sports, they decide to call “hate sports” to their first song, but as beginners, they realize that learning some more music is fundamental. After seeing Hedvig playing classical guitar at school’s fall concert, they decide to invite her for their band, trying to dissuade her to believe in God and converting her to punk music. Most of the situations are funny, but drama and jealous will also arise when Klara and Bobo involve themselves with Elis, a member of another reputed teen punk band. With their friendship in jeopardy, and the first live appearance scheduled for Vasteras, will they get over the situation? Evincing a tireless energy, the viewer can sense that pretty much is going on in the life of these young girls, and those things are far beyond studying. The urge to be different, strong personalities, and support from the families, were positive aspects to take into account, but there were others not so positive (but plausible), such as too much freedom and preconceived ideas. Moodyson returns to interesting scripts, effectively mixing the harshness of punk with the sweetness of these three little friends.

Mister John (2013)

Directed by: Joe Lawlor, Christine Molloy
Country: Ireland / UK / Singapore

Movie Review: “Mister John” is an Irish/UK/Singapore subtle thriller directed by husband-and-wife duo Joe Lawlor and Christy Molloy. The film opens with the image of a body floating in a Singapore’s lakeshore. The victim is John, an Irish man who ran a night bar in Singapore with his wife Kim (Zoe Tay). The latter will meet her brother-in-law, Jeff (Aiden Gillen), who arrived at the hospital to identify the body and later to attend to his brother’s funeral. Having some problems with his wife back in London, the overtired Jeff gets dangerously closer to Kim, while trying to find more about the death occurred in mysterious circumstances. Suspicions fall in one of John’s best friends, Lester, but all the insinuations are both inconclusive and deceivable. Without much to do, Jeff still has time to interview young girls to be hired for Kim’s hostess bar called ‘Mister Johns’, after has been bitten by a snake. Most of these happenings were wrapped in dreamlike tones, and were causing Jeff’s pain and lack of control. The complexity of the main character oscillates between real and calculated, and the same happens with the plot – we never know what to count with or where the things are going. This could be an advantage, but in this particular case it didn’t work out satisfactorily. During its non-shocking final minutes, I had the sensation that all was too shallow to hide any profound secret. Gillen and Tay’s performances were acceptable, while direction showed positive aspects, hopefully to be used in a stronger future plot.

Le Week-End (2013)

Directed by: Roger Michell
Country: UK

Movie Review: “Le Week-End” is the third collaboration between director Roger Michell (better known by the massive hit “Notting Hill”) and screenwriter Hanif Kureishi, after “The Mother” in 2003, and “Venus” in 2006. The result is an agreeable romantic comedy that is kept alive by constant changes in tone, whether in terms of speech or behavior. Nick (Jim Broadbent) and Meg Burrows (Lindsay Duncan) form a long-married British couple who decides to go to Paris for a weekend and try to give a break on crisis, 30 years after have spending their honeymoon there. Several tribulations, unexpected encounters, hearty speeches at dinner tables, and a mix of laugh and sorrow, will mark this special and unforgettable weekend. Despite some common situations, the film was able to celebrate love over any possible trouble that might come, not without some friction, dispute, and irritation. After they bump into Morgan (Jeff Goldblum), Nick’s former fellow student, Meg promptly accepts his invitation for a dinner party at his house. While he smokes a joint with Morgan’s teen son, she accepts an invitation for a drink addressed by another man. Things don’t seem to go in the right path and the tension grows until the film’s disarming last moments. Michell and his trio of actors put sufficient charm in an adventurous romantic story that, at least, had the merit of never being corny.

Kill Your Darlings (2013)

Directed by: John Krokidas
Country: USA

Movie Review: John Krokidas’ sophomore feature, “Kill Your Darlings”, is a biopic centered on poet Allen Ginsberg’s early life, featuring his family problems, big passion for a bohemian classmate Lucien Carr, and his libertine circle of intellectual friends that include future icons of Beat Generation movement, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac.  The film has a powerful start at the sound of a swinging jazz and absorbing images depicting the hot atmosphere in Columbia University where Ginsberg challenged the education system, inspired by Henry Miller and Yates, while experiencing alcohol, drugs, and becomes conscient of his homosexuality. The insecure and heartbreaking Carr served as a huge inspiration for Ginsberg’s first poems, in a tumultuous relationship that has never achieved stable proportions. Despite the accomplished performances by Daniel Radcliffe (remember Harry Potter?) and Dane DeHaan, along with the construction of some incisive tension, “Kill Your Darlings” ended too fast, at the same time that lost some grip in its final moments, even with a murder case involved. Krokidas maintained the desired objectivity for the most part of the time, but the major interest here was purely informative. Perhaps a bit more fervor was required to make the film grow in satisfaction.  

In Fear (2013)

Directed by: Jeremy Lovering
Country: UK

Movie Review: After the experience gained with TV series, Jeremy Lovering’s first feature reveals to be a simple but watchable horror film that relies on the same old techniques to impress. After making a stop (shrouded by mystery) in the unique pub of a remote Irish city, Tom and Lucy hit the deserted and mazy country roads with the intention of finding a house hotel. Driving in circles and running out of gas, the couple’s apprehension and uneasiness will be noticeable in their facial expressions when the night falls, spectral appearances start to occur, and an uninvited guest joins them to give every indication. The concept is far from being new, but the film gains some points by causing some chills and excitement through nocturnal images of the roads surrounded by woods, only illuminated by the car´s lights. The doubt about what happened in the pub and the uncertainty of what’s coming next never abandoned me, with the question if the threat was coming from this world or from another starting to emerge in my head. Minimal in terms of plot and execution, sparse in intentions, and evincing an efficient camera handling, “In Fear” makes of ambiguity its better tool to scare, well sustained by dim light images and a balanced alternation between silences and music. Considering the low budget and minimum resources, the film partly succeeds, even not unclasping the habitual stereotypes of the genre.

Grand Piano (2013)

Directed by: Eugenio Mira
Country: Spain

Movie Review: Spanish thriller “Grand Piano” stars Elijah Wood as Tom Selznick, a talented pianist who returns to concerts after a five-year hiatus due to an almost incontrollable stage fright. Accusing the responsibility of having his fans and media with an eye on him, Tom cannot hide his deepest fear but this time seems decided to cause good impression. He just wasn’t prepared to be threatened with death by an alleged hitman who forbade him to play a single wrong note during the concert. Emma, his famous wife sitting in the audience, becomes another easy target for the madman who communicates with the musician via cell-phone, while he plays the most difficult pieces of his mentor, Gudureaux. Tension is mixed with an unconvincing, humorous tone that never causes the desired effects of involving us in the implausible and forced situations, hopelessly impossible to be taken seriously. Throughout the entire concert, Tom communicates with his persecutor through an earpiece, occasionally stopping to play and leaving the room in order to find the man’s identity and motives. While the band keeps playing, a ridiculous game of cat and mouse is created, and we breathe an unnatural atmosphere that in nothing contributes to elevate its far-fetched plot written by Damien Chazelle (“The Last Exorcism Part II”, “Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench”) whose next directorial feature “Whiplash” is very much awaited. I only found “Grand Piano” slightly entertaining, becoming an ‘out of tune’ piece of cinema within the ‘songbook’ of the genre.

The Artist and the Model (2012)

Directed by: Fernando Trueba
Country: Spain / France

Movie Review: Renowned Spanish helmer Fernando Trueba has a gentle style of filmmaking, and that’s noticeable in “The Artist and the Model”. However, this drama shot in an appealing black-and-white, is not at the same level as his big hit from 1993, “La Belle Epoque”, or the absorbing musical animation from four years ago, “Chico & Rita”. If the two films mentioned before were quite passionate in the way they express themselves, this one seems to lack some confidence and the results are lucid but restrained. The story, set in an occupied France in the early 40's, follows a famous aging sculptor whose long-time discouragement vanishes after his wife finds the perfect model for him: a young fugitive girl from Reus, Catalonia. Beautiful, shy, and restive, this girl will create a special bond with the persistent artist, at the same time that she takes actively part in the war, helping Jews to flee to Spain. Despite of this last factor, all was depicted with a relaxed pace and a quietness that dangerously approaches to sleepiness. The few events depicted in the film, like the unexpected visit of an SS officer or the hiding of a wounded soldier, weren’t sufficiently strong to give a shake into monotony and the results nothing have to do with enthrallment. Trueba wrote the plot conjointly with screenwriter/actor Jean-Claude Carrière, and the film was nominated for 13 categories of Goya Awards, including best film, screenplay, actor, actress, cinematography, and director.

Concrete Night (2013)

Directed by: Pirjo Honkasalo
Country: Finland / others

Movie Review: Ultimately dedicated to documentaries, Finnish helmer Pirjo Honkasalo returns to fictional drama with the stylish “Concrete Night”, 15 years after “Fire-Eater”. Based on the novel of the same name by Pirkko Saisio, the plot was effectively composed in the grey atmosphere of Helsinki, where 14-year-old Simo (Johannes Brotherus) lives with his unconcerned mother (Anneli Karppinen) and older brother Ilkka (Jari Virman), who is about to go to prison due to drug dealing. Simo shows a great admiration for his harsh, pessimistic, and lost brother, being negatively influenced by everything he does or says. The film, magnificently photographed in black-and-white, is loaded with dreamlike tones and enhances the alienation where its characters are sunk. The opening scene that shows Simo’s nightmare, getting trapped underwater, starts to make sense as the film approaches its end. It was a product of the negativism and disillusion of his brother’s theories, which were based on become free of hope, not expecting tomorrow, and devalue the human being’s existence. The predestinated arrival of a homosexual neighbor, who was living abroad, seemed to have been the last straw to make Simo explode from all the restrained anger and disenchantment of his young life. Despite philosophical allusions to love, fear, and future, the story is very simple and definitely casted some spell on me, with its mirrors, glasses, water, and creative details. It belongs to those ones dark, poetic, and beautiful…

Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)

Directed by: Jim Jarmusch
Country: UK / USA / others

Movie Review: Acclaimed indie filmmaker Jim Jarmusch opens his contemporary vampire tale with a great shot: camera moving in circles following the movement of a vinyl record spinning, and showing the two protagonists, Adam (Tom Hiddleston) and Eve (Tilda Swinton), both vampires who are in love for centuries, but currently live physically separated. While she runs through narrow alleys in Tangier to find her blood dealer, he drives across the dark roads of Detroit to reach the hospital where he buys blood. Stating their appetite with their favorite drug, they show the pointed canines with pleasure and ecstasy. After speaking with each other, Eve senses the depression and discouragement of Adam who plans to kill himself with a 38-caliber bullet made of dense wood. She decides to be with him, but the arrival of Eve’s sister, Ava (Mia Masikowska), will bring uneasiness and trouble. Well-set scenarios help to compose the almost lyrical, contemplative atmosphere, adorned with medieval sounds and psychedelic rock. Don’t expect standard vampires, since the ones depicted here are more mature, controlled, and artistically cultivated. Only Ava showed not to be in the same level as the others, obeying to her strongest impulses and behaving irresponsibly. Many factors made me identify “Only Lovers Left Alive” as a Jarmusch film. Despite narratively more direct than some of his previous works, and without climax, I found it conceptually more interesting than “Byzantium” and much more adult than “Dark Shadows”.

Dream and Silence (2012)

Directed by: Jaime Rosales
Country: Spain / France

Movie Review: Fourth feature film by Spanish filmmaker from Barcelona, Jaime Rosales, is an astounding study on family, dreams, and silences that heal. With influences of Robert Bresson and Victor Erice, Rosales presents us magnificent sequential segments drawn by preponderant steady shots, and bold camera movements (like moving in the opposite direction of its characters towards the unknown, or lurking insistently whether from afar or closely). In a contrasted black-and-white, the image sequences seemed to disperse themselves from time to time (following its characters), leaving to the viewers the task of putting together the pieces of the puzzle. Yolanda is a Spanish teacher in France, where she lives with her architect husband, Oriol, and two daughters. A terrible accident in Spain will make irreversible changes in their lives. The way Rosales found to tell such a simple story is simply ingenious and almost surreal. The calmness presented in several details from everyday life and some conversations, don’t let us forget the depressive states of despair and anguish in the case of Yolanda, or the strange and laid-back behavior in the case of Oriol in face of problems. I felt completely immersed in its enigmatic structure, insinuations, and occasionally abrupt silences. “Dream and Silence”, in its elegant and distinctive disposition, shall delight art-house lovers, as well as enthusiasts of unconventional storytelling.

Stalingrad (2013)

Directed by: Fedor Bondarchuk
Country: Russia

Movie Review: Shot in 3D for IMAX format, Russian WWII blockbuster “Stalingrad” is excessively graphical and noisy, relying on a deficient narrative to depict the drama lived in 1942 by a group of Russian soldiers in order to keep a strategic building in their possession, after the German onslaught. Some images are grotesque and completely out of reality, like angered soldiers in flames shooting incessantly, and constant use of slow motion to depict the battle scenes, where extremely saturated colors and an ornate composition give a non-natural air to the picture. Through silent ambushes or explosive offensives, the war scenes conveyed fierceness but not exactly reality. At certain point, soldiers from both sides were fighting over the two women stuck inside the building, and not even the story about the five fathers of the narrator, or the explanation on how a famous tenor became cold and cruel after volunteer himself, were interesting enough. Filmmaker Fedor Bondarchuk preferred the elaborated methods, so misleading and exhaustive, to the simple ones capable to create a suspenseful atmosphere. I also can’t choose a performance that has stood out, since everybody seemed lost among the debris. The score composed by the acclaimed Angelo Badalamenti, widely known for his work in David Lynch’s movies, did its part without surprise. Assuredly, “Stalingrad” doesn’t make justice to one of the most important and bloodiest battles of WWII.

Two Lives (2012)

Directed by: Georg Maas
Country: Germany / Norway

Movie Review: Germany’s submission for the 86th Academy Awards, “Two Lives” is the second fictional feature by Georg Maas, focusing in the story of Katrine Evensen-Myrtal, an evasive yet affecting Norwegian-German woman who dedicates herself to her husband, daughter, and mother. The place is Bergen, Norway, and the year is 1990, right after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Katrine (Juliane Kohler) and her mother, Ase (Liv Ullman, former Ingmar Bergman’s muse), were victims of the famous Nazi program known as Lebensborn, being the unique case that both mother and daughter were found. A young lawyer is trying to persuade them to testify in court against Norwegian Government for having cooperated with the Germans. By refusing to testify in the case, Katrine will call the attention for her secret past as Stasi agent, compromising the happiness and stability of her family life. “Two lives” was well structured, as well as visually representative of the time and place where the story occurs. There were occasions where a narrative impasse was noticeable, with the revelations near the end becoming very welcome in a time where impatience seemed to start taking care of me. Gladly, the interest and satisfaction increased as the story proceeded to its sad conclusions. Performances were extremely credible, in a sober thriller that exposes the discomfiture of seeing dark secrets exposed to the ones we truly love.

The Ravine of Goodbye (2013)

Directed by: Tatsushi Ohmori
Country: Japan

Movie Review: Tatsushi Ohmori adapts Shuichi Yoshida’s novel for the big screen, in this depressive drama shaped in familiar tones and hidden mysteries. The film starts with Shunsuke Ozaki (Shima Onishi) and his lover, Kanako (Yoko Maki), sharing intimate moments while their neighbor next door is arrested for the murder of her own little son. The couple seemed not to be much affected by this happening, despite knowing the victim and his mother. A few days later, Ozaki is also arrested for supposedly involvement in the crime, after a phone call from his lover telling the police that he was in a sexual relationship with the neighbor. In order to find all the answers, journalist Watanabe (Nao Omori) whose wife is giving him a hard time, starts his own investigation and coming to the conclusion that Kanako is the same woman Ozaki raped 15 years ago when he was a promising baseball player at college. Not very expeditious in its development, the film moves in sinuous ways, never reaching acceptable levels of discernment or even transmitting truthfulness. Some scenes that were meant to mix sadness, seriousness, and tension, ended up becoming artless and trapped in innocuous dialogues. Awarded at the 35th Moscow Film Festival with the special jury prize, “The Ravine of Goodbye” was imprecise, fastidious, and misrepresented in psychological terms, factors that won’t contribute for us to keep it in mind.

R100 (2013)

Directed by: Hitoshi Matsumoto
Country: Japan

Movie Review: Japanese helmer Hitoshi Matsumoto creates an original and bizarre universe in his latest comedy “R100”, a film that can be seen as a sort of vicious, dark comics about sadomasochism. Katayama (Mao Daichi) is a furniture salesman who becomes inconsolable and depressed with his daily life, deciding to join an obscure S&M club for gentlemen in order to distract himself. While his wife is staying in a hospital for a long time in a vegetative state, their little son is almost exclusively raised by his father-in-law. Katayama seems constantly daydreaming and is frequently beaten up by different ‘femmes fatales’ (implacable Queens who appear without notice to play with his body and mind), but at night he returns to his family, trying to act normally in front of his son. Fed up and exhausted, Katayama decides to quit the club, but not without fierce opposition from the foreign CEO (great show by Lindsay Kay Hayward) who arrives to solve the problem, in a memorable and furious appearance. The film also tries to leave some smart cues in sneering tones, joking with the menace of earthquakes, seen as the reality of modern life in Japan, and presenting us with an inscrutable film inside the film. “R100” was meant for minorities and conceived to be a modern cult-film that can be seen whether as a challenging surrealistic experience or as a pointless macabre feast. With an unruly attitude, Matsumoto combined pale colored images predominantly brownish with a joyful music (including Beethoven) that goes against the sinister happenings.

Heli (2013)

Directed by: Amat Escalante
Country: Mexico / others

Movie Review: Part of the Latin-American new wave cinema, “Heli”, is a powerful film set in Mexico, that starts with a memorable scene in which two harmed men are taken in the backside of a pickup truck and one of them is brutally hanged in a bridge. The story then shifts back in time to makes us get to know Heli, a car factory employer who shares house with his dad, wife, baby daughter, and younger sister, Estela. The latter is in love with a young police cadet who wants to marry her and runaway from small town, but choosing the wrong way to do it. Well informed, he steals a couple of cocaine packets, propriety of an unscrupulous gang, that were hidden in a remote place. This action will change the life of everyone, since the drug was placed inside the external water tank at Heli’s home. The visceral scenes of violence will stay in your head for a while, and to tell the truth, the film never lost meaning and was quite penetrating till the end. An adjacent subplot, regarding Heli’s marital crisis, ends up oddly related to the main one, and even here, we cannot stop being curious or get disarmed by the occurrences. “Heli” is an agonizingly depressive film that gives us a prospect of ruinous future for its characters through well-established frames. Helmer Amat Escalante won Palm Spring’s Cine-Latino award and was considered best director at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.

Omar (2013)

Directed by: Hany Abu-Assad
Country: Palestine

Movie Review: “Omar”, the first fully financed film of Palestinian cinema industry, combines skillfully a painful love story and tragedy of war. Hany Abu-Assad, mostly known by the powerful drama/thriller “Paradise Now” dated from 2005, has here a great return after a despicable experience in American soil with “The Courier” in 2012. Omar is deeply committed in the fight for freedom of Palestine, side by side with two childhood friends, Tarek and Amjad. While preparing his first operation against Israeli troops, Omar swap love letters with Tarek’s sister, Nadia, with whom he intends to marry. Things eventually go wrong and Omar is arrested and tricked by Israeli troops, being forced to work as an informant in exchange of freedom. With Nadia in mind, other deceptions will come up, leaving the restless Omar completely alone in a blind alley with no other option than solve the problems by himself. Debutants Adam Bakri and Leem Lubany were very convincing in their performances, complementing Abu-Assad’s assertive direction, in a riveting film that presented traumatized romance, compelling espionage, and striking chases over narrow passages. Balance was maintained throughout all the film, making “Omar” a guaranteed option among other choices of the same subject matter. The film is nominated for best foreign language film by the Academy, and won the special jury prize of ‘Un Certain Regard’ section at Cannes.

G.B.F. (2013)

Directed by: Darren Stein
Country: USA

Movie Review: Too basic to seduce other audiences than teen ones, “G.B.F.”, which stands for gay best friend, reveals to be slightly better than Darren Stein’s previous films, “Sparkler” and “Jawbreaker”. The three most popular girls of North Gateway High School compete fiercely to be the next prom’s queen, trying to find the ideal gay best friend to escort them, once the outdated rules are changing and everyone sees this as a new cool trend. The victim is Tanner whose popularity increased in school but eventually will break up with his boyfriend, Brent. Tanner suddenly became the queens’ friend, advisor, and company for every occasion, at the same time that had to deal with the harassment of a devout Mormon guy. The best and funny aspects of the film were the supportive roles played by the parents when confronted with the truth about their sons. Brent’s mother even watched a few queer movies in a row at his side, to cheer him up and show she was there for whatever was needed, while Tanner’s parents were more concerned about the unsubstantial talk about Abraham Lincoln than really with his revelations. As for the rest, the story ran pretty artificial, with the speech lines hitting occasionally the target, but most of it relapsing in crappy conversation and ‘bitch’ language. The sensibility it tried to convey was phonier than ever, and the film ends as it began: in a frivolous manner.