quietearth [Film Festival 06.14.09] movie review drama



Year: 2008
Directors: Gwen Wynne
Writers: Gwen Wynne & Mary Beth Fielder
IMDB: link
Trailer: link
Review by: quietearth
Rating: 3 out of 10

Setting the tone for my first film of the day were the kind of people that give Christians a bad name. You know, the ones who stand on the corner holding big signs, condescending and screaming about going to hell complete with no homo shirts. And then hilarity ensued when a guy showed up wearing a dress, red paint, horns and with a sign that said "God loves gays". Yeah, I got pictures. This leads me into American Primitive, a gay-themed feel good film which started off with great potential, then quickly deteriorated into infantile and derivative crap. I didn't come to the fest to watch Disney moral tales, I came to watch film.


Taking a cue from the eracism movement.. wait, scratch that. Stealing the entire formula from the eracism movement, this flick started as a coming of age tale about two teenage sisters who's mother had died and who's father, unbeknownst to them, has a "business partner" which is also his gay love. They move into a new house on Cape Code, and the partner lives with them, "in the back". The film is set in 1973, so the prejudice we eventually see is overwhelming, but I'll hold off on that for now.

The acting was top notch, the cast comprised of the likes of Josh Peck (The Wackness), and the beginning feeling and production style, fantastic. The starting theme, exploratory. as the girls go to a new school, as we find out the father's boyfriend is one cool and caring cat, as a whole new world opens up to them. Relationships bud, but then.. disaster as the arrangement is discovered. This is where the film went to hell. They threw in the evil Christian, the jeers of all the schoolchildren and the perfectly moral father and boyfriend stood strong while they watched hell surface.

To detail my distaste further without giving away the film should you choose to see it (which I'd recommend against), I don't want to watch something so obviously designed to tug at my heartstrings and make some moral point. They're already preaching to the converted so why couldn't they do something original? Otto; or Up With Dead People. with it's self-mocking comedy and gore, will do more to reach those missing the point of compassion and love then this drivel will. Don't waste your time.

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brenda (13 years ago) Reply

josh peck it`s a hottie!!

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