Pretty Good

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

and probably this movie will fly away in panic. Do you want the other in a purely organic, holistic way? Sure, just make sure he is decaffeinated and harmless.For what is the price the two boys pay for coming together in the perfect threesome, if there was ever one? Well, they take sex out. Fairytale or not, this film has an ideological agenda, guys, sorry to say. Why not take the more fleshed-out dilemma, that is love the one we desire, and desire sexually, with all the pathos and antagonism this has, rather than a bleached out version of Plato, that fits, oh so holistically and conveniently with healthy organic diet, love for animals, procreation and yoga? Remembrance is the royal way to love, to the platonic "good"? Remember then Whitman, remember Frank O'Hara, two sublime poets who sang carnal love, or as Walt said "I sing the body electric"! What is happening to you America, land of the roughs? Are you passing from blow-jobs to searching for feel-good kittens, bypassing the obvious desire for man-to-man copulation? If as Doug says at some point, having Guy laying on his back is like having wings, why then they fly nowhere. This exclamation being surrounded by the pap of "would you not love me if I had no penis?" is all the more insidious because this obfuscates the fact that, well, their relationship does not seem consummated, to put it that way...America, remember your male camaraderie and give us a film worthy of man's beauty as he sweats his face in the work of love! Or, as Frank O'Hara put it better than I ever will, here is his simply called "Poem": Twin spheres full of fur and noise/rolling softly up my belly beddening on my chest/and then my mouth is full of suns/that softness seems so anterior to that hardness/that mouth that is used to talking too much/speaks at last of the tenderness of Ancient China/and the love of form the Odyssies/each tendril is covered with seed pearls/your hair is like a tree in an ice storm/jetting I commit the immortal spark jetting/you give that form to my life the Ancients loved/those suns are smiling as they move across the sky/and as your chariot I soon become a myth/which heaven is it that we inhabit for so long a time/it must be discovered soon and disappear

For a love story, this movie is oddly formal, stylized and cold. It is a lot like kabuki, the highly formal, highly stylized classical Japanese dance/drama. It is the most tightly scripted and choreographed movie I have ever seen: not one word, not one gesture by either character is spontaneous. It feels more like very expertly executed computer animation than like two human men falling in love.I think the basic problem is the Platonic philosophy that dominates and runs insistently through the whole play. That philosophy - that the body is only a shallow, essentially meaningless reflection of spiritual reality - is itself so cold and so formal that it practically demands a treatment like this.That is sad. This could have been touching and meaningful, but it ends up being just very well executed technique on the part of everyone involved: the director, actors, set designer, cinematographer, etc. Like kabuki, it is fascinating to watch, but the fascination is purely intellectual, just like Plato. It is a peculiar and unsatisfying way to tell a love story.

.........ending. And you know what? We deserve it!Having seen years of gay film productions (particularly romances) on video tape, Laser and DVD, for me most have been crap (any disagreement?). BUT....this one can take a proud and high position in the Top-12 of gay dramas. Excellent writing/conversion to screen, great staging.......they're in here. Still and all, it's Matthew Jaeger (Guy / Guido) and Robert Mammana (Doug) who breathe life into this work and into Us as we watch. Captivated and drawn into their simple lives, we see them become Us---you and me. That's right, who out here wouldn't want a man of openness, raw needs, funniness......wouldn't "physically" want such a man as Doug? Would anyone of us turn down a Guy's perceptiveness, depth of feeling, and indefinable ability to draw us out of ourselves?So in the end, this whole thing (this "Just Say Love") has fallen to and been carried on the shoulders of these two amazing actors---actors who didn't just learn lines....but who lived their parts. In tribute to them, I feel compelled to say I can think of no past performers in gay filmdom who could have done better. Can you?PS--Oh...and if Guy wasn't "disappointed".....how could we be?(( I awarded "Brokeback" a 9/10. This work is close in satisfaction given ))

This movie may have its issues (the dialogue can be somewhat painful at times, as can the direction) but there are two big saving graces in this film that make it worth a watch: Matthew Jaeger and Robert Mammana. Both actors fit into their roles wonderfully and their chemistry feels very genuine; simple, natural, and therefore, it is easy to invest in their characters' main conflict - that is, the idea of love that transcends socially constructed sexual definitions.The art direction is also fairly interesting - rather than the standard, the film is shot in a direct stage-to-film aesthetic - one set, dramatic lighting, and the simplicity works in it's favour, though it can seem heavy-handed at times.Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Something different, with two amazing performances that will stay with you.