Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

jpiccone-87844 When you have a schlubby guy get the almost unbelievably attractive guy, you need to show WHY it happened. Being a whiny stalker for an entire year generally doesn't produce this result, and one has to wonder why, if he found the protagonist so attractive, the barista waited a year to make a move. Maybe he had to make absolutely sure the man of his dreams was an unemployed complete loser first?There is a lot of experimentation with the filming - but unfortunately they are all failures. If you have to show half your film in fast-motion, it probably means the material is too tiresome to leave in at all, and other than the fixed shots, it looked like it was filmed on 80s video tape by an epileptic.The only reason I have it the second star is that the lead is very convincing in his role - which unfortunately is to be the most annoying person possible, but you can't deny his commitment.

jm10701 Some of my favorite reviews are ones that advise something like "stick with it to the end." I like movies that require an investment, that challenge me to do something I wouldn't normally do. So that's what I did with this movie.It started out bad, as some reviews warned it would, so I stuck with it. And stuck with it. And stuck with it - all the way to the end. And it did change, suddenly, after about an hour (a longer wait than I had expected), only it got worse instead of better. What other reviewers liked so much I did not like at all.SPOILERS AHEAD!I do not like totally unbelievable, fairy-tale developments - like princesses falling in love with frogs and living happily together ever after. That kind of thing does not make me all giddy inside and weepy outside. It makes me angry, because never in any possible universe (except Hollywood) does that EVER happen.That it appeals so strongly to gay audiences is pretty disturbing, because it means an awful lot of gay men still despise themselves and rush headlong into any impossible fantasy that slithers their way. It's a drug, an addiction to something unnatural and unreal because real life is just too horrible.That's what this movie is: a sick fantasy. It's even constructed that way, with VERY frequent flashbacks and fantasy sequences and whiny or cutesy asides to the audience by the protagonist.The first hour is almost unbearably tiresome, with its aggressive homophobia, presenting gays as lonely, desperate, driven, bitchy, self-loathing creeps; shifting into fairy-tale nonsense for the last half-hour is NOT the cure for such relentless self-hatred.This whole movie is about as phony and disgusting as a movie can be. Shame on James Vasquez for writing such sick crap and on Carrie Preston for turning it into a movie!

flowerboy This is another of a new genre of "self indulgent" gay films where the writer or director also casts himself as the lead actor. He's usually not very attractive, but hey, he's in every frame of the movie, trying to be endearing instead. He's definitely clever, in a Woody Allen kind of way, but ultimately gets so annoying as the film drags on and on, you want to punch his face. One peculiarity of this genre is that the looser hero invariably gets the young dream hunk in the end, without even trying. In this film, it's a gorgeous coffee shop waiter. Through most of the film our looser just pines for him but can't summon up the guts to speak. In the end, this hunk seems to just fall in love with our blabbering looser. Why? Because it so happens that he wrote the script!

fourstevens This "no-budget" film was a labor of love, clearly, but the warmth and sense of humor of the writer/star James and his friend and director Carrie Preston shine through in every single moment of this adorable film. I saw it at the NC Gay and Lesbian Film Festival...it is showing at BAM Rose Cinemas this weekend and has been accepted at the Seattle Film Fest. It is worth a peek and then definitely worth distribution.The film is chaste enough for straight audiences but has enough gay cheek and some right-on bar scenes that will appeal to the G&L crowd. James is so sweet and funny you'll wish you knew him, and his friends are Will and Grace with an edge. The local San Diego scene is shot with love and the special effects are pretty impressive considering that, we were told at the NC festival, the money for the project came out of the stars' pockets.