Sick Product of a Sick System

One of the worst movies I've ever seen

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

The drama in Henry Gamble's Birthday Party is mostly low key and lurks under the surface of the carefully honed smiling faces of a family and group of friends all tied to a conservative megachurch.The Wise Kids, a previous film by the same director, looked at the lives of a trio of friends associated with a small conservative church. Henry Gamble addresses similar issues but with the glossy smoothness of the mega church devotees. This film will probably be most interesting to people who grew up on the church. You'll recognize the pleasant platitudes, the various types of characters, the awkwardness of dealing with situations people would rather not address, the underlying tensions of feelings that can't be expressed.The film is incredibly well acted and a looks good. The family's house, the perfection of the pool, and the whiteness of most of the characters are all important elements of the film. The only flaw was a bit of melodrama near the end which seemed more like a we-have-to-put-something-major-here decision. But even with that bump Henry Gamble's Birthday Party is masterful examination of an aspect of American culture.

Unwatchable piece of excrement.I am puzzled about who made this movie and why? Is it supposed to be somehow entertaining (and if so, to whom)? Enlightening (ditto)? Somewhere between takes of (mostly) attractive young people in a pool for so long its amazing their skin isn't shriveled beyond recognition, the idea of having a plot or telling a story got lost. Even creating a coherent atmosphere quickly goes missing.All that's left is stereotypical Christian yammering with such original lines as "Hate the sin, love the sinner." And - gasp! - hiding wine-in-a-cardboard-box under the kitchen sink and - gasp! - drinking it! And don't let the insanely-overemphasized gay angle fool you: it account for about two minutes.Go forth and seek redemption: watch a decent film made for adults with brains. Don't waste the 82 minutes of which this mess can rob you unless you are really quick on the fast-forward button.

If you're looking to see a lot of character actors do some great work, this is the film for you. This movie has more characters and subplots than "The Poseidon Adventure." The opening scene with birthday boy Henry Gamble and his BFF Gabe seems promising for the first 2 minutes, but then goes nowhere. And even though he's the title character, we'll see less and less of Henry as the film drags on. Most of the characters are likable enough, but we don't spend enough time with any of them to care. There's probably a message about intolerance or unconditional love here, but its lost in a cacophony of clichés: "God love everyone: criminals, addicts, gays ... " or something to that effect. The actors and crew turn in a beautiful piece of work, but the script seems to have been written by a committee intent on being all things to all people. Too bad because the premise is fresh and interesting.

It seems that Mr. Cone has seen too many movies he liked because he is trying to use camera angles that seem to make no sense what so ever. I mean... interesting they are but that is all about them. To start a movie with the conversation about the size of the d**k without having anything to start from in the first place, to me is porn. 'Wannabe' art but ends up being porn. And that's bad enough. But when you involve actors or 'wannabe' actors in it then I can only think the director has a hidden message that the only person to have access to... might be just himself. I truly hope this is not true! I truly hope the actors or the team, at least, know about this message. If this is not the case then Mr. Cone does movies to be paid for. And my questions is: what happened with Mr. Cone we know from 'Wise kids'? Was that a mistaken-art-success? Because we see there as well the 'Mr. Cone wannabe director' but he shows love for the script and for the characters and building of the characters. He shows love for the plots and pure courage in creating them! Where did all that go?The story of the movie: the birthday of a Christian teenage. The rest of the story is so incoherent that only Mr. Cone might be able to put it here but I am not sure about that either, now that the movie is out. I have a special sensibility for the collaboration between gay-Christian themes. And of course, there is a certain conservative respect that has to come with this collaboration. Which existed in the aforementioned 'Wise kids' movie. I have no clue what happened with this here either. The respect for the conservative Christianism disappeared. There is a feeling that covers the movie and is very exaggerated in some small parts of it: that feeling is 'the bad is coming'! And indeed, it comes!