Good movie but grossly overrated

good back-story, and good acting

Fantastic!

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Having been the the Village in the 1960's, I can vouch for the accuracy of this film and the depiction of the Village during that era, except for a sort of inaccurate image of the exterior of the Stonewall bar.The characters are representations of real people (the head of the Mattachine Society, the leader of the Daughters of Bilitis, the mafioso and the queen coming out) that I knew in the movement back then.Being gay or trans gender back then was very rough: the scenes of police brutality are frank and graphic, especially the cops' dunking La Miranda's head under water... The cops did a similar thing to me.If you want to see how far the LGBT movement has progressed, see this film.

A young gay man from the sticks comes to New York City in 1969 hoping for a better life, but finds the homosexual lifestyle just as stifled in the big city under police pressure, corruption and harassment. The legendary gay riots near the Stonewall Inn take up just five minutes of the film's running-time, the final five minutes. This low-budget, brightly-colored film is more interested in the lives that would soon be affected by the riots than in the aftermath of the violence--and so we get stock characters like the naive blond cowboy, the underworld group controlling the club, the straight-seeming activists for a Homosexual Alliance, and lots and lots of drag queens. Director Nigel Finch seems to make a concerted effort to equate homosexuality with drag behavior, and drag behavior with (ultimately) prostitution. Perhaps this was true of the times, but Finch's presentation (though not campy) has cartoonish leanings and nostalgic overtures that don't express anything more than what most people already realize: the cops were corrupt, the gays were not saints, and they clashed. There's a good movie to be made about Stonewall, but this one just scratches the surface. There are some sweet moments (a sing-along on a bus, a dance between a drag queen and a gay conservative), but just as many scenes where the tone intended hasn't a hope in hell of coming through. ** from ****

I love this movie! The mixture of fact & fiction works very well. The music of the girl group The Shangri-Las immersed into the storyline is also an asset. These characters are so appealing & they feel like friends, so you just can't wait to see what happens next. The acting of Guillermo Diaz as La Miranda is so natural & relaxed it makes him so likable. Sexy Fred Weller as Maddy Dean is adorable. His character's faults make him all the more appealing. I get choked up every time I see him sing & play the guitar, with the others on the bus coming back from their rally, not exactly defeated, but far from being winners either. Mizz Moxie & Helen Wheels add just the right touch of campy, comic relief. Duane Boutte as Bostonia is excellent & insightful. His interaction with his homophobic homosexual lover, the Italian/American Vinny & owner of The Stonewall Inn, is passionate & sparks fly between them when they are confronting each other concerning their relationship issues circa 1969. The only character I'm not too crazy about is Brandan Corbalis as Ethan. I found him pretentious & condescending. Aside from his nice butt in the shower (if in fact that was his butt) there's nothing appealing about him really. The riot scene is fast & somewhat clumsy, yet it's electrifying & very exciting to view. All gay people should watch this film & get a feel for what happened on that hot summer night in '69. It gives you a sense of your history & what others before you endured. (The premature death of icon Judy Garland adds a bittersweet footnote to the precedings).

The night they raided the NYC underground bar Stonewall was the night gay pride exploded into the mainstream. This film tells the story of that night through a group of characters who each shine with their own unique story. There's La Miranda and Matty Dean, the central fictional figures of this film, and their struggle to find love, respect and honour in 1969 against numerous odds. But there are many other important stories told in this beautiful film. Dazzling, bright, strong and rousing are just four words but they settle easily into any sentence describing Stonewall - the movie. Its one of the most colourful and well designed films I've seen - so lush and grand in its set design and the musical numbers blaze. This delicious film is an aching, sweet transport into another time and place and provides a jaunty historical summation of the pride and intensity the name Stonewall still retains in the twentieth century history of the gay experience. Its a love story, a political tale, a drag odyssey and a wonderful expression of the powerful bonds that dark times promote and cement. Most of all, its a film to share with people you care about and want to grow through life with - so march to see it now.