One Kiss (2016) User Reviews

Superb Italian Film of growing Up Coming Out and Falling in Love

[t-dooley-69-386916 · 9/10 · 14 December 2016]

Set in a provincial Italian school where a teenage boy has just been adopted by progressive thinking parents. They need to be as this is Lorenzo and he is 'as gay as Bloomingdales at Christmas' (I nicked that from 'Will and Grace'). Once there he meets Blu who is the offspring of hippy type parents and whose good name is besmirched as a result of a 'full on party gal' reputation.

They are outcast and everyone hates them. There is also the dashingly good looking and painfully unaware Antonio, he is great at basketball and so is tolerated but as he spends so much time with the ghost of his dead brother, he is not seen as 'cool kid' material. They soon form up as three friends and set about righting a few wrongs. Thing is it does not take much to break the fragile and fledgling new found friendship.

Now this is just brilliant. I loved it from the start, there are dance routines, there is animation, there are fabulous outfits, there is humour, pathos and it is all wrapped up in great acting, a powerful yet simple story and a moving narrative. This like Lorenzo deserves a lot more attention and for fans of LGBT cinema there is much here to admire, but moreover it is a simple story of love, longing, friendship, fear and truth – simply can not recommend enough and now my gush is over.

ENOUGH is ENOUGH

[rodolphefleury-182-126991 · 1/10 · 2 December 2018]

Ok the film could have been a feel good movie, not a particularly good one but a decent Sunday evening movie, the kind of thing you watch when you're tired or hungover. But that film doesn't know wether it is a musical, a comedy or a drama or all those thing in one strong piece of original film. It's starts as a comedy then ends up being a lousy drama. BUT the worse thing is that the characters aren't plausible. Antonio is Lorenzo's friend, knows form the start his friend is gay, he has a crush himself on their girl friend and that from that one kiss and petting he turns into being a self hating gay who cares about what other people think. I mean their friendship was about not giving a damn what other people think. I could excuse this, why not, Antonio could be shocked after all and be pissed off, beat his friend up ... regret or stop seeing him ... but he goes as far as shooting him dead and that's was is wrong. Killing off a gay character to get people to be moved and shed a few tear in 2016, is wrong, low and cheap. Another typical BURY YOUR GAY film, like we don't have enough of those. That film isn't meant to be either realistic, doesn't talk about a real event, so why killing off a strong gay character who despite being bullied remains strong and positive? ... and worse for worse by his best friend? The people who committed this film had the perfect opportunity to give a positive message, that is what they actually did through 3/4 of the film, but then they sacrificed this for some cheap thrills and get people some easy tears ... that's not only LOW but dangerous ... enough with killing off gay characters ... other than that the film is entertaining but uneven, a bit awkward at times, the acting is so so and the dialogues are sometimes off ... the cinematography is similar to a cheap tv movie ... a massive disappointment.

Cult-worthy writing

[Ladiloque · 10/10 · 12 January 2017]

I'll start with the bad notes. Acting and scene design might have been much better.

Sometimes they appear a bit amateurish: while a simple, real-life style might not be out of place given the themes, it's clear the attempt to be polished and refined in most of the film. Unfortunately a lot of times photography, action and dialogue delivery are not as sharp as expected, giving a bad feeling of fiction.

This said, the movie is great. The untold topics are social conflict, integration, exclusion, hate. The context is the life in a high school for 3 teens with a complex background (and who hasn't one?). Drama, comedy and tragedy (and even musical scenes) alternate effortlessly maintaining a level of depth, sensitivity and intelligence that can be rarely spotted in other "coming of age" productions.

Strongly advised.

My minority viewpoint: disappointing contents, faulty storytelling, and emphasis on wrong scenes whereas other scenes seem neglected

[JvH48 · 3/10 · 11 July 2017]

Seen at the Movies That Matter film festival 2017 in The Hague. Disappointing, storytelling-wise as well as how the fantasies of main protagonists were visualized. The clearest example of the latter is Lorenzo's arrival at his new school. We see him drop his backpack and dance his way into the building with the other pupils applauding. Another example, not much better than the former, can be found in Lorenzo's dialogues with his dead brother.

Plot and developments overall are not involving, and as such not as moving as the film makers apparently had hoped for. The composition of the threesome is a bit artificial, seemingly only setup to expose and thus emphasize their differences, their sole binding factor being that all three were treated as outsiders by their peers.

The story around Blu does not receive the attention it deserves. It leaves unclear why she still hangs out with one of the guys who filmed her while she was sedated and seduced by him and his three friends, something that appears later to be a full-fledged gang-rape, less consented than Blu herself tells everyone repeatedly. The rest of the school has earmarked her as "easy to get", words like sl*t are graffiti-d on walls all over the area. The footage itself was not made public, yet the seduction was known all along by other means (gossip?? hearsay??). Near the end of the movie when Blu happens to see the whole footage and learns what really happened with her and the foursome "friends", it triggers her to take formal steps against them, together with her parents and eventually involving the police. How and why that developed is covered in only a few minutes, hence left us wondering.

When our three main protagonists are taking a swim at a deserted place outside, Lorenzo makes his move to Antonio and touches him, something that Antonio apparently does not take well and he leaves without saying anything, despite Blu calling after him to learn why he left. I cannot reveal further developments, in fear of spoilers. But in the end, also somewhat artificial, we see the very same scene where Lorenzo touches Antonio, with a totally different outcome, leaving us outguessing how it will develop. This is where the movie ends with showing the final credits, leaving us wondering again.

All in all, I feel a bit lost because of the generally positive reviews, by non-critics as well as critics. None of them even touches the objections I outlined above. In other words, this is a minority viewpoint. Most probably, my age (67) will be deemed the culprit.

Which ending is the "real" one?

[Red-125 · 9/10 · 12 October 2016]

The Italian movie Un bacio was shown in the U.S. with the translated title One Kiss (2016). It was written and directed by Ivan Cotroneo.

This is an interesting film that will grab your attention from the opening shot, and will hold your attention until it ends. (Actually, it has two endings. We all prefer one ending to the other, but we can't say which one is "real" in the context of the film.)

Rimau Ritzberger Grillo plays Lorenzo, a flamboyant, openly gay high school student. Naturally, he attracts homophobic criticism, but he is able to shake it off. Leonardo Pazzagli portrays Antonio, a straight, but different, classmate. Antonio is a star basketball player, so the other young men pretty much leave him alone. They don't like him, but they respect his athletic abilities. Sadly, Antonio doesn't like himself very much. He compares his own quiet character with that of his dead brother. His brother was outgoing and well liked, and Antonio is standing the the shadow of the brother he loved and admired.

Valentina Romani plays Blu, a young woman with the reputation of being a slut. (How she developed this reputation is one of the film's denouements.) She looks a little like Emma Watson, and she plays the Hermione role in the movie. She is the friend of both, and both of them adore her. All of the three protagonists are outcasts, but they stand together and defy the world. This stance works until it doesn't, and that's what we watch in the second half of the movie.

We saw this film at the excellent Little Theatre, as part of the wonderful ImageOut, the Rochester LGBT Film Festival. It was one of 22 films to have its East Coast or New York State premiere in Rochester. Un bacio carries a 6.8 rating on IMDb. That's not too bad, but I think it's better than that. It will work well on the small screen. It's worth seeking out and watching.

Don't kiss a closet homophobe!

[cahidi · 3/10 · 9 January 2021]

This movie was pretty good with a good message about positivity when they showed you Lorenzo, one of the main characters. He's gay and he accepts it and doesn't let anybody bring him down. Then they showed you the other main character, Blu. A good and loyal friend who knows to have fun. But then when they showed you the last main character, you'll know something's not right. Enter Antonio, the straight, closet homophobic boy who's pining for Blu. The first time they showed you that the three teenagers becoming friends, you're gonna have a bad feeling in your gut. Why? Because before that, they showed you how Lorenzo is smitten with Antonio. And after halfway through the movie, they neglected human decency by showing how Lorenzo doesn't know the meaning of personal boundaries. He touched Antonio the wrong way when he already knew that he's straight and likes Blu. And then they showed how stupid Blu is that she can't differ consenting foursome and gang rape. And finally, they showed you how ugly Antonio really is on the inside. He's a closet homophobe. And last but not least, instead of dealing with matters like a normal person, he killed Lorenzo for kissing him. There's only one moral lesson to be drawn here : stop pining for straight boys! You'll end up in a ditch somewhere. This ending left a bad taste in my mouth, that's why I gave it 3 stars. Even if the film making's not bad, but the ending was horrible. That's a big no no to me.

A lite story with a tragic end

[cekadah · 9/10 · 26 December 2016]

This little flick has it's own reality! It's a mix of cheerful hopefulness and sad truth.

Three young teenagers, two boys and one girl, who don't exactly fit in with the other students their age, befriend one another and develop a close bond. Lorenzo is naturally positive, happy, and pays no mind to the other classmates who reject him. Antonio is an ace basketball player but emotionally damaged by his brothers death. Blu is her own person and secure in her decisions and behavior. These three find one another and their friendship brings light into their lives.

All is well until their sexual desires enter the picture and their relationships begin to fracture. Antonio is still very insecure and cannot break his need to be accepted by his peers. His damaged emotional self-image turns the happy threesome upside-down. The story has two endings the real one and the idealized one that Lorenzo and Blu would have preferred.

Surprisingly excellent

[linadamevska · 10/10 · 8 January 2017]

When I first decided to watch this movie, I did so knowing that it could end up being an Italian The Perks of Being a Wallflower. But this film is something entirely different, regardless of how similar some aspects might sound. It tells the story of three teenagers, all rejected from their peers and for different reasons. Blu, a confident, openly sexually active girl. Antonio, who regardless of being a brilliant basketball player is made fun of for being unintelligent. And Lorenzo, an eccentric and openly gay boy. He moves from Turin and into a town that is way to conservative and small for his ambitions.

Regardless of the dance scenes, eccentric clothes and the "cartoonish" edits, this film was quite realistic, and successful in capturing the troubles of teenagers without making it look overly "angsty" or melodramatic. Some of the soundtracks were a bit off, and some scenes could have been avoided completely, but overall a great film. I have no idea why Un Bacio (One kiss) hasn't boomed in the LGBT community yet. It definitely should get more attention.

Do NOT quit this movie!!

[swedeboi · 10/10 · 12 September 2019]

I've never seen a movie with a gay theme that holds as much entertainment value for straights, gays, men, or women as this movie. It has it all, and it ends most remarkably.

Imagine, if you can, a Italian (English subtitled) movie featuring all the qualities of a flip gay musical that suddenly turns into a traumatic and beautifully-scored but star-crossed love affair, and then ends with power, pathos, and a strong message. That's Un Bacio.

The actors are superb--a gay boy Lorenzo played by the almost too pretty Rimau Grillo Ritzberger, a girl Blu played by the beautiful Valentina Romani, and a straight boy Antonio played by the stunningly handsome Leonardo Pazzagli (pronounced pahtz-EYE-ee). They play three best-of-friends, more or less outsiders at their high school. But Lorenzo falls in love with Antonio, who falls in love with Blu, who loves an another man out of school. It's obviously complicated, and it only gets more so when Lorenzo finally shows his affection for an unreceptive Antonio. The drama builds from there in traumatic scenes that anyone who has suffered unrequited love can understand. The heaviest scenes are scored perfectly to songs like Hurts and Read All About It...so perfectly that you will want re-watch these scenes many times.

Here I must stop. An enormous spoiler is possible, and I will not go there. I will say only that is a movie with beautiful sets, beautiful music, beautiful faces, powerful acting, sadness, tragedy, love, joy, and a message. Ask yourself how often you see a movie with all of that.

Just don't quit at the butterflies and musical interludes. They'll make more sense in retrospect. This movie is...what is the Italian word?....oh, yes...

FANTASTICO!!