Bayamon_Hill Reviews

The Poet and the Boy (2017)

The Need for the New to Feel Alive & Its Consequences

[7/10 · 24 November 2019]

This is a movie about living under the weight of the status quo without any obvious way to break out from under it. The Poet is in a marriage long overdue with a nagging but loving wife demanding a baby to liven things up. Certainly a baby would change the focus from oneself and all the dreariness to something more hopeful. It can, but so can falling in love. Enter The Boy. Mr. Hyeon is a married man who becomes infatuated with the youth, vigor and beauty of a donut shop employee. He insinuates himself into that kid's life without thinking through the ramifications of becoming someone's trusted father-figure. The feelings are at once paternal and carnal - a desire to take care of The Boy and to be with him. To leave all behind. How can that be done in a society that demands allegiance to the status quo? In the end, The Wife and The Poet get their baby, so that's something positive, but what about The Boy cast aside as an impossible future? He was left weeping at the side of a coffee shop, eventually making his way to a new town and new job, and is given a handsome severance by The Poet for his suffering. The movie ends with a tear going down The Poet's face. I get that the whole situation is complicated, and it is true that people seek people out without thinking of the consequences, but to have an ending that is tidy but with everyone unhappy is tragic. At one point, I thought they were all going to recognize each other's need for each other and live together, but that is too unconventional, too non-status quo, though heart-warming. Alas, the cold that pervaded the movie set the conditions for a sad ending devoid of warmth.

Mariposas Verdes (2017)

More of the Same...Now in Colombia

[5/10 · 11 November 2019]

There needs to be some academic research done on the desire of filmmakers to make depressing movies about gay kids. Make no mistake - the two characters who are at the center of the story have almost no problem with their sexuality and love for each other. It's the society that stands in their way, with predictable consequences. As a viewer, aren't I familiar with these consequences already? Must we be constantly be reminded how bad things are out there, how slowly things change? Another item to make clear - there are happy gays in this world. Everyone, everywhere would benefit from seeing those stories, not in an attempt to whitewash the difficulties, but as an act of restorative justice. These beautiful guys deserve better in this film than to be squashed under the boot of an uncaring world. As an aside, it could have been a good television series as well.

Come Into Your Own (2019)

The Least Likable Lead Character Maybe Ever

[2/10 · 31 August 2019]

Lirim (what a pretentious name) is upset with how charmed and successful his life is. Don't you feel bad for him? So he decides to devastate life after life in order to find meaning in his own. Then the movie ends. This movie has essentially four characters in it - the lead, his ex, his current love interest and the friend. Simple enough. The biggest problem is that the lead is the least interesting or likable of all four people. He is very closed off, cynical and is not trustworthy. Meanwhile, the three people who surround him are open, heart-on-sleeve people who don't deserve what happens to them, namely getting entangled with a heartless narcissist who is unable to have true feelings for others. I blame it on the creator of this film, who not only wrote the story, but directed it and played the lead. He is so wrapped up in this character he created that he can't see how much of a jerk Lirim is and because of all the duties he took on, probably wrote the lead to have less lines to accommodate the directing as well. This means that we don't really get to know Lirim as intimately as we would have had different people took on the different roles. Or maybe the writer/director/actor is himself a heartless narcissist and so can't see his reflection. Either way, the movie is a perfect portrait of self-absorption in an age where I'm tired of self-absorbed people. This movie is a fail.

1:54 (2016)

Must Gays Always Suffer?

[3/10 · 19 July 2019]

This movie takes place in modern times, in Canada. That alone should make this extreme tragedy about homphobia seem out of place in time and location. The film also goes out of its way to retain that bleak outlook regardless of the support and love of so many people surrounding the main character.

Tim is a loner who spends all his time with his co-loner, Francis. They go through life together, but once the school bullies throw the word "fag" around, Tim abandons his friend at the first chance, leading to dire consequences straight out of the 1990's. What does Tim do with all this tragedy? He decides to win the big race. Seems like an appropriate response to what happened to his best and only friend. All goes well until the word "fag" comes around again, and really dire consequences occur that leave you with your mouth open.

Can anyone be happy or turn happy if you're young and gay in a small town? The answer is NO. To anyone interested in making a movie about young, gay people, let your characters be happy. We have enough movies about gay misery and death already. People count on you filmmakers to show another way. You aren't journalists. You don't have to reflect the misery of the world because you can make it better through imagination. Enough with these movies about how young, gay kids will never escape their shame. Show them that it is indeed possible and that you can be a happier person for it. That's what is needed, and that's what the character Tim and his friend Francis needed early on in this movie. Some compassion on the part of the filmmaker.

Play the Devil (2016)

A Greek Tragedy in an Age when None are Needed.

[3/10 · 19 July 2019]

First things first, it is amazing to see a movie set in Trinidad and to get to see and hear the sights and sounds of that place. It's a beautiful place with a lot of culture. In that sense, this movie does a lot for the country. It does very little, however, for its protagonists, who are up against cruel fate and decidedly lose, and for real people in those very same situations. When life gives you lemons, you shouldn't get more of them from a movie.

If I were a gay kid from the Caribbean who finally got to see my world on the big screen, I would be very saddened by what I see. The only movie about me tells me that my life is tragedy and will end in tragedy. That makes this movie cruel and sadistic. The lived experience of people in homophobic cultures is hard enough without having it reflected back on 100-foot screens. This movie should have been about the hope for something better than can, and does, happen for people, even in places like Trinidad.

So when is it okay to show the bad, not just the hopeful good, of being gay in homophobic worlds? The simple answer is when there is no more homophobia. The longer answer is when there is enough representation in film to offer variety. If I were a young girl from a culture that demands my pre-arranged marriage at 12 years old, and I don't want that for myself, I wouldn't want the only movie I get to see about myself being about a young girl who gets married off, raped and then murdered by the end.

The two characters in this movie, James and Greg, are not free to make decisions - everything about their relationship seems pre-destined and nothing can change. There is very little discussion between the two, nor is there evidence of reflection. The two just move haplessly forward to the bitter conclusion. This movie is not fair to them, and it's not fair to those sitting in seats hoping to see something more inspirational than the cruel realities many still find themselves in.

West of Eden (2017)

Another film where the only value of gays is to teach straight people lessons

[4/10 · 23 June 2018]

The film opens on two young friends playing, and they begin talking about one of the boys' "cowboy" uncle. That uncle is then asked to tell the story of his cowboy hat, which he does. In fact, the movie never returns to that the set-up, as if the movie makers forgot. And the story that does unfold isn't really about his hat either (he had it by the time the movie begins). Billy Williams is a gay man living in Australia/New Zealand in the 1960's. He decides to abandon the guy he likes when things get too complicated for him and his conservative family by taking a job as a farmhand on an estate far away. He then enters a soap opera where there is endless intrigue and betrayal. The movie becomes about the Henshaw family, and Billy all but disappears. The movie gives you a lot of information about every and all characters that you encounter so the focus is a very loose, with Billy disappearing from screen for up to 30 minutes at a time. We have no choice (eventually) but to accept that Billy has fallen in love with the son of the family, the extraordinarily handsome Tom, based on one scene of looking at clouds together. Tom becomes the focal point of the film as he desires to live his life openly and to love who he wants to love, unlike the rest of his family. Upon coming to that realization, he is shot dead, leaving Billy alone. But, the straight members of his family learn a valuable lesson about living their fullest life authentically. So I guess it works out in the end, unless you care more about the gay characters than the straight ones. And no offense, the actor that played Billy had such severe acne scars that he was the least attractive man in the movie, including the older gentlemen. He did have nice hair though. In conclusion, this is a movie that is an interpretation of Steinbeck's "East of Eden", full of family drama. Cramming a focus on homosexual desire into the film seemed pointless and only as a means to teach the straight people how to love fearlessly before it's too late. For gay people, it is almost always too late because they die in the end.

The Ornithologist (2016)

Film for Portuguese Catholicism class...

[3/10 · 22 June 2018]

I saw this movie because it was on the LGBT list on Netflix. That's all I knew about it. That's all I know about it by the end. The movie has scenes of wilderness with someone speaking Portuguese, so I immediately assumed it was Brazil. It is only when we are introduced to two Chinese lesbians who don't know where they're at do I realize that the movie is set in the wilderness of Portugal. I didn't even know they had wilderness in Portugal. The girls' presence is explained simply enough, but their fanatical turn is the first of many absurdities that I couldn't follow. Sometimes the construction of shots are beautiful enough to sustain interest for a time, but by the time the topless Amazonian women speaking Latin make their appearance, I'm pretty much done. It helps to read the Wikipedia article on St. Anthony of Padua before watching the movie, as he is the patron saint of Portugal, of lost people and things, of animals, etc. Things make more sense, but not in a pleasing or interesting way. So I came looking for a LGBT movie about an ornithologist but got a bizarre allegorical tale about a Catholic saint who has sex and murders a shepherd names Jesus on his way to Padua in Italy. There's even hints of St. Sebastian imagery thrown in for good measure. Not good.

Ander (2009)

Becoming Free to Decide Who You Are...

[4/10 · 22 June 2018]

Ander's life sucks. He is a middle-aged man, the head of a household that includes his mother and soon-to-be-wed sister. Never married, he goes about his day on the strictest of schedules, his mother the true head of household. It's important to accept that the culture in Spain's Basque country holds that kids live with parents until they marry, no matter how old. Ander's sister Arantxa is on her way out despite being 14 years younger than him. What's holding up Ander? He has never put a point on it, but he comes uncomfortably close to an answer once Jose comes to the farm. What follows is the "romantic story" of Ander and Jose, except it isn't. Both cultures (Basque, Peru) don't accept homosexuality, so that word is never mentioned in the film. The closest you get is Ander's friend calling them "f*gs" at the conclusion. There's not even a kiss, a true sign of intimate entanglement. You do get a scene of lust-driven action, far different from love, which culminates with revulsion-induced vomit. The two, lust/love, get conflated in this world, where it isn't the best thing to define things openly. And how to reveal any of this to the matriarch of the conservative family?! He doesn't have to, and only when all familial connections are severed is he willing to live unconventionally. The hesitation I have in calling any of this a romance is that power plays an unstated, but potent, role in this movie. Ander is the "boss" of this farm, and Jose is a foreigner with no means to survive without Ander's support. They are both lonely men and they recognize that in each other, and Ander does decide to let Jose stay with him in the end, but to call it love? I don't know, maybe in time. Only through the death of those with even more power is Ander able to decide who he is, which isn't that powerful of a message, but it is a real one for many people around the world.

Beach Rats (2017)

A film that exploits the sadness of the closet

[5/10 · 24 November 2017]

It is a little shocking to see this movie in 2017. The desperate situation that the writer/director creates for her character as entertainment is so dark and frankly, cruel, that it offends me as someone who lived/lives with that desperation. Frankie is a typical street kid from Brooklyn in many ways. He and his crew don't have much to do, so they go to Coney Island and take prescription drugs to create mild entertainment. He's atypical in that he's capable of being pleasant and respectful, when necessary. He's also gay in a world designed for straight bros, and he lives out that part of his life on a hook-up chat website. This set-up is straight from a gay 1990's movie, when the AIDS epidemic was winding down and being gay was scary - queer films reflected that back then. Like those tragic movies of yesteryear, Frankie becomes more and more isolated by his choices and actions. He finds himself alienated from his friends, his family, his straight girlfriend, his potential boyfriends and himself. And then the movie ends. The writer/director is a straight woman whose artistic decisions amount to having a character put in a glass box that is slowly filling with water just to see what happens. It's cruel. I think the problem is that as gayness is more socially acceptable as a topic for film, straight people feel empowered to tell those stories but their conception of gayness is from the 1990's. "Brokeback Mountain", "Moonlight" and "Beach Rats" are all straight people's assessments of gay life, and man are they bleak.

Eastern Boys (2013)

The Ending is a Concession to Judgmental Eyes

[5/10 · 24 June 2015]

The first thing you must understand about this movie is that there is hardly any back story to the characters. Daniil, the well-off French man, wears a suit, has dinner parties at his house, and desires young men to have sex with. He finds one named Marek, who is part of a large group of (illegal) Eastern European guys, none older than 26, that cruises and hustles, and ultimately looks for ways to get over on people. The arrangement is made between the two and disaster happens the following day when Marek's crew shows up instead and ransacks Daniil's place and takes everything. Lesson learned right? That would be a short, but pretty good movie. What we get is a slow slide down to something less compelling. Marek comes back out of some sense of regret (or maybe just an easy way of getting money) and he and Daniil complete their deal, except that Marek keeps on coming back. All of this makes sense to me because people act differently when by themselves. The hustler acts tough with his guys and when alone, he can be more expressive (not that he is). Marek eventually tells Daniil that he trusts him, and so allows himself to be vulnerable enough to relate his tragic tale. Daniil, in turn, offers up no story of his own but shows a desire to take care of Marek. It still makes sense until Daniil's attraction for Marek, who he is getting to know so much about, changes from carnal to paternal. One can still care and protect someone who he or she loves intimately. I would say it is sort of required. So by the end of the movie, when Daniil is now trying to adopt Marek as his son, I was very confused. It just seemed that the maker of this movie wanted to create a relationship between the older man and the younger guy that would be more palatable to audiences. Getting to know someone's troubled back story should not become a reason to stop loving someone romantically, but I think would make that love stronger. It would just take a braver filmmaker to make that point.

Free Fall (I) (2013)

Another Film Where Gay Lust Supersedes All

[5/10 · 20 July 2014]

This film introduces us to a young man moving along a well-worn track: advancing in his job, moving into a house with his pregnant girlfriend, parents all smiles. Then out of nowhere comes a force so strong it just knocks this conventional guy off his track. That force is another man. Sounds good so far. The problem comes in dealing with the reality of what happens next, and what choices are available in confronting that reality. The protagonist, Marc, once he allows himself to succumb to Kay's quiet, but potent seduction, is almost nonverbal for the rest of the movie. He seems to act completely on instinct, forgoing his life, his family, everything for this new, strong lust he feels. I think it works as melodrama, but as reality, I have a hard time buying it. I would have preferred two male leads who are deep thinkers, who are able to verbalize the risks both are taking. Gay men can be intelligent about their emotions too, not just carnal. Marc never expresses his feelings, or growing anxiety about those feelings to anyone, not even his new love, Kay. Kay, in turn, goes along with Marc's emotional indecision until it hurts him too. I'm a little weary of homosexual desire portrayed as some barely-contained base impulse that can't be thought about and expressed in sophisticated ways. It would have made the movie truer to life and even more dramatic if that path were chosen. Instead, we get a character who has moved out, has lost his girlfriend and boyfriend, his family and all stability, and yet we are to believe that through it all, he has found himself. Give me a break. He could have done that way earlier if he just had the courage of his convictions and told one or the other what he was feeling in a rational, intelligent way.

Sassy Pants (2012)

Find the Courage to Strike Out on Your Own!

[7/10 · 7 September 2013]

This is a lovely little story with lots of comedy and drama in equal measure. Ashley Rickards is wonderful as Bethany Pruitt, the sheltered, home-schooled protagonist of this film. Her character is the most fully-realized and best-acted in the cast. The rest are more like archetypes of characters, achieved with varying degrees of success. The mother is definitely over-protective but over-acted,the father is a barely-there character, and the father's boyfriend, played by poor Haley Joel Osment, is more a mocking caricature of a young, gay man that an actual live person. What gets you though are the small moments: the first time Bethany says hello to the hot Mexican boy across the street; Bethany's firing from Michael Paul's store because "some people are afraid of change"; Behtany's unadulterated excitement at getting accepted into fashion school. You are with her every step of the way. I just wish the supporting roles were a little stronger, more developed as individuals instead of types. The movie would have been a true sleeper hit.

Vampire Boys 2: The New Brood (2013)

Watch this Movie for the Guys, not Anything Else

[3/10 · 1 September 2013]

To be fair, the writers did try to make a coherent script that ties up all its story lines. Bad-boy Demetrius' hatred of Good-boy Jasin is reasonable, as are the situations of Tara and Caleb. They make up a solid quartet of character-types revolving around love and jealousy. Storyline B is about Demetrius's cousin Judah and his complicated feelings for a young, attractive protégé at the boxing gym. By the end, both story lines are resolved, with degrees of skill varying from bad to very bad, but they do get resolved. So kudos for making sense, but more kudos on the flesh peddling. My favorites are Quinn Jaxson who plays Kevin in tight red jeans; David Alanson who plays a jogger who becomes Kevin's meal, consumed while both are naked; and the adorable Will Branske as Caleb, the doe-eyed boyfriend Jasin has to protect. The lore of vampires is full of better representations in film. Gay vampires don't really add much except bodies in this one, so enjoy that.

Dorian Blues (2004)

Solid Movie About An Old Problem

[7/10 · 1 September 2013]

This film benefits from really good acting and a strong, if familiar, storyline. Dorian is the stereotypical odd man out in his suburban town, the butt of schoolmates' harassment and his father's vitriol. It all seems so unintelligible until Dorian realizes he's gay. The one aspect of this film that is unique and wonderful is the relationship Dorian has with his straight, Daddy's favorite, brother, Nick. Instead of an oppositional dynamic, the movie sets them up as confidants and allies. The drawback to this film is that as Dorian becomes more comfortable in his homosexuality, he confuses arrogance for confidence. Dorian becomes less likable as the movie progresses. I also think the resolution of the film's greatest tension, the relationship between Dorian and his dad, was a let down. I think it is a testament to how much America has progressed that a movie about a kid coming out, meeting with criticism and hatred from his family, moving away to the big city, and finding peace when mean Daddy dies, seems so old-fashioned. Watch the movie for the historical curiosity of where gay culture was at in 2004.

A Wedding Most Strange (2011)

Contrived Plot & Shallow Protagonist Ruin Movie

[2/10 · 18 August 2013]

For any romance movie to work, the audience has to believe in the protagonist. We have to find him lovable and deserving of another's love. You do not get that in this movie. We are introduced to a man named Danny who has to get married in two weeks to get his father's inheritance. He spends the ensuing days interviewing and culling suitors as if selecting fabrics for a new sofa. Danny is immediately unsympathetic as a main character, and remains so as the film's silly plot device takes over. The groom bounces between three prospective husbands all the while trying to prevent his closest friends from realizing what he is doing. Would-be hilarious hijinks do not ensue. Through it all, I kept trying to understand why anyone would want Danny, especially when the suitors all seem like nicer people than him. When he eventually does choose someone, it seems arbitrary because there is almost no connection, or screen time for that matter, between the two men. There is no romance in this romantic comedy (not even a kiss in this movie), and very little comedy. The movie would have worked much better if Raj (Rupert Charmak) were the main character (he exudes earnestness and love) with a less contrived plot.

Saltwater (2012)

Timing is Everything

[6/10 · 10 August 2013]

'Saltwater' is a film about two guys who just can't seem to get their stars aligned and be together, until something grave occurs which makes all of their hemming and hawing trivial. The problem with the movie is the two characters don't really get together(SPOILER!)until the last two minutes of the movie. Until then, we, the audience, are subjected to endless encounters with misunderstandings, hesitations, wrong-headed judgments and bad decisions. Although the movie has a bevy of characters screaming for development, they all seemed wrapped up in whether the two protagonists will ever get together. I applaud the makers of this film for choosing actors who are well into their thirties and beyond, and for making supporting characters who are believable and likable. The '6' comes from stringing the audience along for as long as possible for the flimsiest of pay-offs. And realistically, I don't know if two guys would hesitate at trying to date for almost a year. It stretches belief a little to far.

From Beginning to End (2009)

A Love that Overwhelms

[8/10 · 7 August 2013]

This movie is about a love that is instantaneous and grows as the lovers mature, eventually becoming a love so all-consuming you would think they would burst into flames at its intensity. I know this movie is about two brothers who are in the middle of this passion, but that is beside the point. Being related only emphasizes the insularity of the two boys' love, its uniqueness. This movie is really about a love so ideal that it TRANSCENDS convention and conflict. Thomas and Francisco were meant to love each other and nothing else seems to matter. The details of life - friends, family, career, arguments, jealousies - are dealt with superfluously, marginally. It doesn't matter compared to the opera that is the love between the two men. The only tension that can threaten that type of love is separation, its effects beautifully displayed by Francisco. The ending could be no other. The '8' comes from the conventions of storytelling in a movie - characters and scenarios that add the mundane details to a love that soars above them. Watch it because you love love stories, the love being more important than the story.