Review: Seek (Canada: 2014): The Unsurprising and Uninspiring World of Toronto’s Night Life Revealed

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Seek

Eric Henry’s debut feature about a young men in the gay club scene is way to tepid to say anything about contemporary gay life. If one has never been to a club, I suppose one might find this interesting. But the actors fail to engage with their roles as they uncover secrets that everyone knows.

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Review: Hidden Away (Spain: 2014): Asylum from the Standard Boy Meets Boy Movie

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Hidden Away (aka: A Escondidas): 2014

Hidden Away (aka: A Escondidas): 2014

Mikel Rueda’s little gem about two young men attempting to act on their affection for each while one is under threat of deportation is a sympathetic portrait of how quickly love can take hold of us. While I’m not a big fan of the non-linear story development, the chemistry between  leads Germán Alcarazu and Adil Koukouh,makes this more enjoyable to watch than your standard lonely boys in love story.

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Suicide Room (Poland: 2011): Run! It’s the Internet!

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Suicide Room (2011)

While the premise is interesting and the performances by the leads are strong, it is just too difficult to empathize with the characters in Suicide Room, Jan Komasa’s film about a troubled teen who withdraws to his room. Hikikomori isn’t actually a social problem in Poland that I’m aware of, and I think the director passed over several more interesting stories to theorize on what it would be like if it were. A wealthy, good looking teen throwing it all away might be arresting to watch, if only the protagonist’s most dramatic act for most of the film wasn’t to hide out at home.
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Tell No One (Italy: 2012): Coming Out, Italian Style

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come-non-detto-e1342776572599-600x392A classic Italian-style comedy, Ivan Silvestrini’s Tell No One focuses on contemporary attitudes toward homosexuality through one man’s attempt to either come out to his family on his last night in Rome or risk having his lover do it for him. While it is consistently funny, there isn’t enough new to the story to push the film out of the average zone.

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Silent Youth (Germany: 2012): The start of something big, or just a bad date?

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Martin Bruchmann and Josef Mattes

What would happen if two people started a journey of discovery and just didn’t want to ever talk to each other?  As far as “first encounter” movies go, Silent Youth is very low key, but audacious in its own way, creating awkward silences where we normally expect bonding.

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