Truth (2013) Poster

(2013)

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4/10
Cause and Defect
Suradit10 January 2015
Quite honestly I'm not sure what to think of it all. A "suspenseful, psychological thriller," it was not.

One of the two central characters, Caleb, has enough personal baggage to sink a ship although at least outwardly he seems to be coping with it all reasonably well at the start of the story. He meets Jeremy whose background has been less of a train wreck than Caleb's but he's not dealing especially well with the pressures that society and family put on gay men of his age. Through experience Jeremy has learned to use deception and denial in dealing with other people and with his perception of self. That this does not lead to a "they lived happily ever after ending" is not particularly surprising.

In the "storyline" description it states that Truth "exposes the hidden demons buried deep inside each and every one of us." Whoa. We may all have our secrets and have had experiences that affect the way we deal with others, but I doubt most of us are as burdened as Caleb nor do most of us resort to such manifest deception as does Jeremy.

The damage caused by a "Mommy dearest" and the need to remain "closeted" for survival are fairly common themes in gay drama, but this movie tries too desperately to pile it on and thrill us with the resultant mayhem.

It all just seemed a bit too much. From the start the relationship between Caleb and Jeremy seemed more weird than genuine and as it began to unravel the situations weren't particularly suspenseful or psychologically deep.

The actors, especially Sean Paul Lockhart, were good. The overall quality of the production was also quite good. The general result, however, seemed superficial, heavy-handed, inevitable & propelled by contrived events.
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6/10
Could have been better
labeebster5 August 2019
Warning: Spoilers
This movie wasn't bad but it had some faults or unexplained scenes like how would Caleb know his mother hit her pregnant belly? Or how Caleb was able to steel that baby bib? Or why wouldn't Leah be surprised that she was invited to a house she actually never knew for a dinner? I loved Sean Paul's acting but some other actors & actresses were mostly wooden. I understand that most filmmakers who want to make gay movies don't have a good budget so I forgave the movie for that. But the ending too was incomplete. This is usually the case in half of the psychological movies but that's what I don't like about them. This is what I hated about Mulholand Drive and Cache. But I don't think that the movie should be ignored. It should be watched when there's nothing better to watch or when you just want to enjoy some gay romantic scenes because they were very well done. And finally, I was really expecting a happy ending in this movie...
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4/10
Interesting (but failed) premise
Coralknight17 February 2017
"Truth" is one of those movies where you ask yourself: "who green-lighted this thing???" It is a gay-themed psychological thriller, and the script itself is actually pretty good. The dialogue is creepy, and at times actually more disturbing than the action around it. But the acting (and I use the term loosely), the "made for TV" style cinematography and campy music just don't match dark subject matter this film is supposed to evoke. I was wondering why there were so many shots of the main character (including full-frontal), and when I checked IMDb...surprise! (actually, not really) it turns out he is a gay porn actor. This and the fact that both characters are often wearing Andrew Christiansen underwear pretty much answer how this film came to be. The ending is probably the worst part of the film, and is both a drastic departure from the tone of the beginning of the film and sloppy way to resolve the entire situation. Sadly, what could have been an interesting premise was poorly executed and is basically just a warning to aspiring actors: don't do gay porn!
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"The Room", move over!
ciffou30 August 2021
This has got to be one of the worst movies I've decided to endure until the end.

I now know what happens when theater kids and friends get to make their own movie. I don't know what's worse: the acting or the script. No. I'm lying. The acting is slightly more atrocious.

If you need to be entertained by watching a trainwreck, this movie (and Andrew Christian ad) is for you.
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3/10
Horrible wooden acting an a horrendous soundtrack yield a poorly realized film
manuelasaez19 January 2017
The story was simple, yet the acting from the main cast was so bad, I could not watch the movie with a straight face. Every actor delivered their lines like bad community theater actors, and had no tact, talent or ability when it came to injecting feeling and nuance into their performances. This alone was enough to ruin the film, but then you have that God awful soundtrack, with "singers" and music that gave the impression that they were recorded in a bathroom studio. The vocals were awful, the melodies were awful; it was just extremely poorly done.

Look, I get it; some people do not have the budget to create a film with real actors and instead choose friends and family to fill the roles. But, really, if you are going to attach your name to something, wouldn't you want it to be of quality? Overall, this is quite possibly one of the worst LGBT films I have ever seen, and really, towards the bottom of any film I have seen in any genre. Do yourself a favor and avoid this film. It has no redeemable qualities to warrant even a disinterested viewing.
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1/10
Depraved. The age-old "faggots are psychopaths" message
kqlts2 June 2021
Warning: Spoilers
There are a number of documentaries made on the history of gayzinthemovies. My take has been than the vast majority have portrayed gays in four main identities: Objects to be laughed at, not with; self-made unhappy, inherently dysfuntional and sex addicts; incurring terminal illness or murder; or murderous psychopaths themselves. This one defines to the core the last one. What message does all this send to people?

What do virulent homophobes need to point to when we do it for them and ourselves? Extremes of well-justified homophobia, internal and external. We are supposed to feel good about our personhoods here?

I was initially hooked in by the portrayal of the struggle to love and care in face of past tragedy. As Caleb suddenly snaps into psychotic sadistic murderer, I felt as a viewer as pathologically manipulated and stabbed in the back as the protagonists.

I told myself I've made it through King Lear often enough, and there, understood the higher purpose of tragedy, as the Ancient Greeks created it, of catharsis of our fears and pain, of good wasted in the battle to overcome evil. Here we are left for dead. In every sense.
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3/10
What the...?
rklein12313 April 2023
I pulled this movie up in Dekkoo, without knowing much about it. Overall, it was a disappointing evening.

The film is mostly decently acted, but rather slow. It jumps back and forth in time, and I found the flashbacks much more interesting than the main story line. Caleb's mom does the best acting in the movie.

Most of the scenes with the two men are painfully slow and drawn out during much of the film.

The end of the story is hinted at in the first moments of the movie.

The story revolves around two men who meet on an app, enjoy a sex-filled night, followed by a 3-day hiatus. One of them has very strong abandonment issues. When they meet again their relationship takes off and deepens, and they expose more truths about themselves, revealing secrets they've kept from others.

But insecurity drives one to delve deeper into a darker secret of the other, which leads to a turn of events in the story, and a change in the relationship.

Suddenly it's "What Ever Happened To Baby Jane." Okay, this is not a a completely unbelievable change, given the insecurities of the protagonist. But the ending?

If anyone knows what the ending of this movie actually is, please post it!!! I was left wondering... "What the...!"
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7/10
Unbalanced but with a strong first half and a surprisingly well acting Sean Paul Lockhart.
johannes2000-11 March 2017
Warning: Spoilers
This is a strange and unbalanced movie and I don't quite know what to think of it. Attractive young Caleb meets-up with slightly older Jeremy through an internet dating site and they start a passionate affair. During the rest of the movie we see in flash-backs that the young guy has had numerous issues with an abusing and mentally ill mother, and we also see signs of a mental disorder in his own behavior. The older guy tries to ignore these red-flags or just recoils when his casual attempts to learn something of Caleb's past are aggressively rebuked. But at one point (due to Jeremy's own fault: he turned out to have hidden secrets too, and Caleb finds him out!) something in Caleb snaps and the whole movie capsizes into a sadistic keeper-prisoner flick. In the end Caleb ends up in jail, where he is questioned by (I suppose) a psychiatrist and where he reveals by bits and fragments the whole story.

The premise is rather thin, the moral is unsurprising, given the title: both protagonists hide their own truth for each other and that's lethal to any relationship. Their motives however are different: Jeremy hides his truth out of sheer selfishness, but Caleb is sick and probably would have also snapped at any other point in their relationship, even if there had been no hidden secret with Jeremy.

The whole thing impresses as very low budget, and while the first half of the movie is extremely slow, the second half is way over the top and totally unrealistic. Good parts are scarce, but I have to mention the scenes with Caleb's deranged mother, very well acted by Suzanne DiDonna. Rob Moretti as Jeremy (also the director, writer and executive producer!) acts rather subdued, his soft whispering way of talking was more irritating than sexy, and he is hardly convincing as the love-interest of such a breath-taking guy as Caleb.

Sean Paul Lockhart (with a background of starring in adult movies) actually played surprisingly well, in the scenes with his mother in the mental institution he was very touching, while in the sudden tantrums he threw with Jeremy he really scared the hell out of me. Only in the second half of the movie, where he's supposed to be a totally out of control murderous maniac, he lost me (but probably the director is to blame too). And okay, I admit, he is super-hot and sexy with a stunning physique and not shy to show it.

One more thing, the movie seems to have been sponsored by gay-favorite underwear-brand Andrew Christian, we see Caleb walk around in numerous types of Christian's underwear, sometimes the underwear even changes within one scene, and all of them spotless and in yet another sparkling color, I wouldn't be surprised if he has had the whole catalog to wear and show off. Now I can imagine that you have to raise funds somehow and that you are expected to fit some of the products in the movie in return. But in this amount it at may times distracted me from the story itself. Luckily Lockhart occasionally forgot to wear anything.
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7/10
I Found It A Cringeworthy Film
joncj521 March 2021
It's refreshing to see a film that isn't predictable. I had no idea what would happen in the second half and was quite surprised. I typically don't like flashback type films, but it worked with this one. I thought these guys' relationship could work, despite emotional problems until more was revealed. This isn't something I'd see twice, but it was good the first time around. I admit I wasn't completely satisfied with the ending, but it is possible the writer wanted to leave something for the viewers to decide for themselves. I enjoyed the suspense and not knowing what was going to happen.
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8/10
Surprisingly good
geoffox-766-41846711 June 2014
This was an amazing film to watch. So many unexpected things happen turning this movie into a major dramatic ending. No, I won't reveal it.

Direction was wonderfully simple about two men from their first meeting to the ultimate ending. Their relationship, as it develops, changes them both.

Rob Moretti did a triple job with this by playing the lead, writing and directing the film. I assume he also did the editing. A truly difficult job doing any of these jobs. He accomplished them all by bringing us a thoroughly suspenseful and professional movie that really keeps your interest all the way through.

Playing the other lead is Sean Paul Lockhart, ala Brent Corrigan from erotic films, in his first starring "straight" film. Congratulations Sean you have made the big jump doing a super job with a very difficult role. There's no mistaking his good looks. There is a sex scene, done with taste, that shows just how good he was.

But it is the story we watch unfold. Watch these two actors bring the ring of "truth" from their performances to life.
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7/10
The absent father and the final scene
katkin-9485522 November 2019
Having read others' reviews of this "suspenseful, psychological thriller", some important aspects of the psychology, essential to understanding Caleb's "breaking point", are the role of the absent, but powerful presence of a father, not just the rejecting mother; and secondly the very final somewhat disturbing scene, where, after the psychologist once again says, "now let's start at the beginning", we have a somewhat bruised Caleb watching Jeremy at play with his small son, suitably wearing the coloured bib, "Dad's Angel". This scene opens up another level of depth to the film.
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a relation
Kirpianuscus9 October 2021
A relation from beginning to its last consequences. The effort to impress and the try to explore inner demons , maybe forced in few moments , maybe giving to story strong aspect of emotional montagne russe, but having the virtue to enter in crumbs of many details giving roots to frustrations, vulnerability, angry and hard need of other , with terrible consequences. A beautiful film , not great, not original, beautiful more for acting than for story itself. Chronicle of a relation, brutal in few scenes, profound unrealistic in others it is just a decent film, for for the try of a sort of exorcism than for the story itself.
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A movie that stigmatizes Borderline Personality Disorder
cine6826 November 2022
Again, people with Borderline Personality Disorder are portrayed as psychopaths. Borderline Personality Disorder is a form of PTSD and an insidious damaging condition. People with this condition hurt a great deal, and it is always because of parental emotional and verbal abuse, blaming the child for their parents problems and mistakes, often physical violence in the home, and at times sexual abuse. Self esteem is low because they were raised in chaotic, unstable families and were not given the unconditional love children need from their parents to develop self esteem and the ability to have healthy relationships with others. Their feelings were continually invalidated. It's a shame this movie just adds to the stigmatization, and Rob Moretti should be ashamed of not only his bad acting, but for making this bad, stigmatizing film. Twice as bad because the character with the condition was gay. Even the medication given to help people with this condition is stigmatized. Just an all around awful film.
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