Author: jbg

MOTHER OF THE BRIDE (2024)

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Directed By: Mark Waters 

Written By: Robin Bernheim

Cinematography: Ed Wu

Editor: Travis Sittard 

Cast: Brooke Shields, Benjamin Bratt, Miranda Cosgrove, Sean Teale, Chad Michael Murray, Rachael Harris, Michael McDonald, Wilson Cruz, Tasneek Roc, Dalip Sondhi 

Lana’s daughter Emma returns from London and announces that she’s getting married next month. Things become more complicated when Lana learns that the man who stole Emma’s heart is the son of the man who broke her years ago.

This is pretty much romance novel, a romantic comedy for an older audience as it shows. It’s never too late to find love. 

This tale starts out seeming like it’s for a younger audience. It slowly reveals itself to be more of a romance for the parents or the Older Crowd.

It’s nice to see many familiar faces amongst the cast who are clearly enjoying themselves. so that you can’t help but feel comfortable with the cast and characters. The film still feels a bit slight but then again I’m not the audience for this film. 

follow the formula of romantic comedies, seemingly to be aimed at older characters. I don’t know if it’s because feels like the air of Romantic comedy came and went and while there is an audience for it, it’s only the audience that was a fan of those movies in the 90s and 2000s, who are around the age of the characters in this movie?

Watching this film, you’re not going to see this for the filmmaking or the script you know what exactly is going to happen so you just sit there and wait for it or see how it’s going to happen on this beautiful foreign island with beautiful characters surrounded by nothing but opulence and money so that it is a fantasy come true.

The characters might seem ungrateful and annoying as mishaps happen throughout. As this is a film nothing offensive really happens and it feels like a more cinematic hallmark movie. As it has various cultures throughout and representation of most.

That is all positivity and hope and the problems that are brought up. Seems so minor that you wonder why the characters are making mountains out of molehills.

this is a pretty simple film and I believe you will enjoy it as long as you go with it and you will know if you’re a fan just by either watching the trailer or reading the synopsis because what you see is what you get with this movie.

Directed by Mark Waters, who also made the original MEAN GIRLS movie. He knows the territory. He knows the genre and he makes everything pretty and everyone looks amazing.

Grade: C- 

THE RE-EDUCATION OF MOLLY SINGER (2023)

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Directed By: Andy Palmer

Written By: Todd M. Friedman and Kevin Haskin 

Cinematography: Filip Vandewal 

Editor: Tim Rush 

Cast: Britt Robertson, Nico Santos, Ty Simpkins, Cierra Ramirez, Jamie Pressly, Holland Roden, Zach Scheerer, Paul Soter, Emma Holzer, Carlos Alazraqui, Jonathan Lipnicki, Wendie Malick

To save her job, a young lawyer must go undercover, enrolling as a freshman at her old alma mater, in order to resuscitate the well-being of her Boss’ terribly awkward teenage son.

This film does have similarities to the recent Jennifer Lawrence starring movie NO HARD FEELINGS” wow that one was certainly raunchy yet had a certain innocence. This one tries to be dirty but still comes out kind of more teen-friendly.

Have no idea whether this film came first or no hard feelings came first if one copied the other, though both films are very different. This one feels a little more generic. it’s like the no-frills brand. It feels like a carbon copy with no flare. It feels like it should be trying but it’s not and it really needs help. 

While the film does have its risky parts in trying to give a full version of a little bit of the party lifestyle of college. I was a bit shocked, considering who the audience for this film seems to be that it went to certain lengths. it still stays in certain perimeters that feel like it will most audiences. 

This is not a film you really watch for artistic quality it’s more of a feel-good movie that simply gets to the point it’s very predictable, but it entertains fully throughout.

Lead actress Britt Robertson is one of those actresses who always seems to play in these films. She always seems to be the lead and films that are OK, but not good, and usually, She’s one of the best things in them, but then when she’s in more of a studio film, she usually is in a supporting role and she shines. Even as she just can’t seem to find the right material that would truly make her a star that would. At least she’s solid in everything that she appears in.

Just like actor, Nico Torres always seems to play the wildly, gay, best friend, in all of these Netflix-branded films. I mean it works and he has one of the most hilarious scenes in the film. though, I wouldn’t mind seeing him play. A different role shows a bit of range, but get where you fit in.

This film does have or commits to a cliché, While I admire it for being risqué to a certain extent it also has this plot point where the romantic rival for the girl who the nice guy likes and has chemistry with is always a jerk, but the film doesn’t even try to make the jerk nuanced. He’s just bad news from frame one, so you don’t see any of the charms that made the girl fall for him in the first place and maybe only shows the side when he’s not around her or when there is a rival. it would be one thing if the film at least was truthful and maybe she sees attitude-wise why this guy doesn’t work and maybe even personality but she’s just attracted to him and is trying to find something deeper than that to justify her dating and staying.

 This happens all the time in high school in movies and even regular rom-coms when the guy is just attracted to a girl more physically and stays around even though eventually wises up, I just wonder why in these types of movies when the girl is dating a jerk it is always unexplainable other than looks why she stayed with him in the first place.

Even the montage makeover scene does not come off as fun, but kind of lame as it just seems like they just dress him more plaid than before. It also doesn’t help. The only thing that seems to be wrong with the man she’s here to make over is that he’s awkward and shy, but he has boy-good looks and looks way too old to be a college student like most of the cast. 

It is particularly funny in scenes when all the college students remark on the age of the two lead characters, even though they look about the same age themselves none of them college age. 

While most of the film’s material is generic it stays entertaining and the cast truly tries to liven it up. They give it their all you just wish that there was a film to match that energy and skill maybe some stronger jokes too. Even the third act feels so ridiculous.

Grade: C 

ALL OF US STRANGERS (2023)

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Written & Directed By: Andrew Haigh

Based on The Novel “STRANGERS” by: Taichi Yamada 

Cinematography: Jamie Ramsey 

Editor: Jonathan Alberts

Cast: Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Claire Foy, Jamie Bell

A screenwriter drawn back to his childhood home enters into a fledgling relationship with his downstairs neighbor while discovering a mysterious new way to heal from losing his parents 30 years ago.

First off before you even redistribute, this is a film that it’s best to go in blind to to get the most out of it. So please watch the film before you read this review as there will be some spoilers.

This is definitely a movie that would’ve been in my top five had I seen it in 2003 when it was released.

The film plays more like therapy sessions of unresolved issues that still exist, mentally, which can also be seen as a vivid confessional. Which might come across as a bit more theatrical or staged for some audience members. 

At heart, it’s a love story in the midst of all that develops like his relationship with his parents there’s an unknown history that is slowly brought to the forefront of its kind of acceptance, even though it does have its problems and issues by the end of the film it’s still heartbreaking nonetheless. As we witnessed the breakthrough more was revealed.

Director Andrew Haigh manages to make everything look like almost every frame could be a photograph in a museum.

Watching this film lead actor, Andrew Scott, as always can do no wrong as an actor for me at least he is similar to Sterling K. Brown, as he truly inhabits, their characters, deeper and deeper Sterling K is more of a chameleon who always has a different look with his roles and characters, Andrew Scott here the more his character opens up the more comfortable he becomes with himself, and also the more vivid the performance and memorable.

The director has a way of making the normal look extraordinary at times in simple ways.

It’s a story of nostalgia coming of age and finding peace within yourself as well as acceptance. 

At the end, it shows you can go home again not entirely. Always ghosts from the past waiting that need to be released no matter how much you want them to stay.

It’s truly hard to describe exactly the emotional strength of the film how powerful it is and where it leaves you at the end but it’s definitely worth watching. 

Grade: A 

BLUE JEAN (2022)

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Written & Directed By: Georgia Oakley 

Cinematography: Victor Seguin

Editor: Izabella Curry 

Cast: Rosy McEwen, Kerrie Hayes, Lucy Halliday, Lydia Page, Amy Booth-Steel, Stacy Abalogun, Lainey Shaw, Farrah Cave

England, 1988 – Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government is about to pass a law stigmatizing gays and lesbians, forcing Jean, a gym teacher, to live a double life. As pressure mounts from all sides, the arrival of a new girl at school catalyses a crisis that will challenge Jean to her core.

The film is about having to hide who you truly are, and the Lengths be forced to just to have peace in your life and peace of mind. 

As the main character sees a student of hers as a kind of kindred spirit, or a younger version of herself only much braver and not caring so much about what others think. However, she also feels the need kind of warn her and protect her against the problems, which she might be opening herself up to.

So that teacher is suspected of a rumor to be gay. She goes immediately into defense mode. alienates everyone around her and suspects that her student might be the one who is causing all of this suspicion. 

Even when she tries to act straight, it shows how bored she is and trapped, especially in a scene where she is stuck having a drink with coworkers, and there seems to be no escape yet when she’s out with her girlfriend or even her friends, we see how freeing and open they are.

The film is more about the teacher, but also the heart of the film is the student, just trying to live her life and seemingly being persecuted, especially by one girl at the school who kind of sets her up and definitely Hass to be one of the most villainous characters seen in a film in a while unexpectedly though, you also suspect that the villain might also actually be attracted herself to the other girl.

This is a film that is surprisingly affecting going in. You expect one thing, but by the end, you are just floored and are all excellent. The film is a tearjerker and kind of a heartbreaker but it’s also not an LGBTQ film that makes any character necessarily a martyr or makes the story come off more as traumatic than it needs to be.

There is tension throughout, and a lot of questioning of oneself morals and ethics in the people you surround yourself with add heart. It is also a film about embracing yourself, loving yourself, and truly letting others know your own definition, and not live up to theirs.

You must remember this film is based on recent political times not too long ago even though it works as a period piece there is still the history of prejudice and hatred that ran through countries’ governments and unfortunately people’s hearts and minds.

Grade: B 

BEFORE I CHANGE MY MIND (2022)

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Directed By: Trevor Anderson 

Written By: Trevor Anderson and Fish Griwkowsky

Cinematography: Wes Miron

Editor: Justin LaChance

Cast: Vaughn Murrae, Dominic Lippa, Lacey Oake, Shannon Blanchet, Matthew Rankin, Rohan Khane, Jhztyn Contado, Milana Bochiwski, Kaitlyn Haugen, Kristin Johnston

1987: While the other students wonder if new kid Robin is a boy or a girl, Robin forges a complicated bond with the school bully, making increasingly dangerous choices to fit in.

This is a coming-of-age tale involving, what seems to be an ambiguous character. That feels like a film that could have taken place in 1987 as just like the characters it’s awkward and seems a little directionless as far as characters go, but succeeds at building its own world.

The film is open-ended and doesn’t offer many answers, but it leaves you to make up your own mind and figure it out or come up with your own definitions and backstories. 

I give credit more truthful and not having the cookie-cutter kind of happy endings that usually come with this type of film.

The lead character is more of an outcast, because of the questionable sexuality, more than anything, rather than just some random quirk, and that would feel forced. the film feels mysterious, even to itself as it seems to float and its own haze, but presents a clear picture.

Also not the typical one minute and you could be enemies in the next either best of friends, or just plain old getting along 

Especially the contrast, between the main character and the Asian character, kind of discovering an identity of punk, and letting that be the definition to get help him through his alienation and pain, as others make fun of them and him being OK with it.

I also like that kind of delves into the parent’s and adults, life events to show them as characters who might be flawed and have their own problems just as the main character’s father might’ve moved on, but still isn’t ready to necessarily get into a relationship with someone new, and holding it together, is the best he can and then, when he finally does, it might not be the match that he or the audience had hoped for.

it’s a film that seems to keep on building, and by the end, some audience members might not be pleased with where it ends or how it ends but it does feel like a complete story and offers an ending. It’s just that you might want to see what happens after or find out where these characters go after the film has ended.

So not for everyone, there isn’t much I can see that would be offensive or alienating to a general audience.

Which shows to the audience strong, writing, and a strong story, even if led more by emotions than the filmmaking itself.

Grade: B 

DEATH ON THE BEACH (1991)

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Directed By: Enrique Gomez Vadillo

Written By: Enrique Gomez Vadillo and Carlos Valdemar

Cinematography: Santiago Navarrette

Editor: Carlos Puente

Cast: Sonia Infante, Andres Bonfiglio, Rodolfo De Anda, Antonio Eric, Humberto Lobato, Angela Alatriste, Martha Gema, Ileana Higueras 

The son of a wealthy businesswoman returns home from boarding school. His mother, always busy with business and with her ambitious lover, realizes that her son suffers from being a homosexual. Having killed a teacher who abused him, the trauma makes him keep killing.

This film was made in 1991 but watching it it feels older though it totally fits both the 1970s and 1990s as a way of creation as the film is at the heart, a thriller, but also a kind of LGBTQ plus romance of sorts. Definitely more of a cult film.

We are mildly sympathetic to the killer in this film, as it’s not a spoiler, but his character was raped by his teacher at a boarding school, and he secretly enjoyed it, which is how he found out that he was a homosexual, but also is repressed that he can’t readily admit it to his mother But is looking for someone to love and share his life with, but is so repressed that he kills those around him or also gay or threat to him

To try to fool the audience because the opening credits are of the lead female Sonia Infante swimming around her pool and staying in a state of toplessness until a man comes we find out is her soon-to-be husband and basically, they frolic together, and this opening scene and throughout the film that is shot like soft horn Haze

The stepfather seems like a Spanish right, Robert Mitchum. He looks and we don’t really know his deal because at first, it seems like he is a gold digger, but he seems like he does but also odds with the stepson, but the mother keeps trying to deny homosexuality Homosexuality is treated like some kind of disease or mental illness throughout this film. We’re having the main character be a serial killer of sorts doesn’t help.

It’s so hard to believe that the stepfather is the one who suspects him of it while also setting up a house fall who is meant for more things than he is presented with at the beginning 

In all of this, the sun finally finds a companion to confide in who has a girlfriend who I guess has always been straight most of his life but being a European he’s sexually the son is his friend and has treated him so well and this is his honeymoon to a certain extent or least bachelor party to get all his players and king out an intense romance between the two

The film has full frontal nudity of men and women, thing is that it represents a negative stereotype of homosexuals, but it also makes them the main character and gives representation at a time when it wasn’t really shown also the movie is a bee movie that is so ridiculous that you cannot believe The sun is getting away with all these murders, except for the fact that his mother is rich, but she even believes all of his excuses of all these deaths around ridiculous, especially when the murders are so blatant and done at the drop of a hat without any real thought or planning?

That is the beauty of the film is that it is such a bee movie and so ridiculously over the top, but for the most part, seriously it achieves the true beauty of being self-aware and not at the same time with questionable politics and motives that make the film, if not troubling at times And wondering how takes this film that it is obvious yet comic 

In the end, this is a fun yet bad film that has a ridiculous. The third act and ending despite it being bananas from the beginning Harkins back to a certain time no offer representation of good and bad. 

watching the film, you could tell that this was a bit homophobic and going into certain stereotypes while trying to have an open mind, though villainizing and having sympathy but also gives a backstory and understanding, even though throughout the film pretty much there is no set. Everything is said out of the open and no one seems to have, a sensor when it comes to their thoughts and saying them. it seems a vision of a homosexual story through a straight male gaze. 

Grade: C 

MONICA (2022)

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Directed By: Andrea Pallaoro

Written By: Andrea Pallaoro and Orlando Tirado

Cinematography: Katelin Arizmendi 

Editor: Paola Freddi

Cast: Trace Lysette, Patricia Clarkson, Joshua Close, Adriana Barraza, Emily Browning, Bobby Easley

The intimate portrait of a woman who returns home to care for her dying mother. A delicate and nuanced story of a fractured family, the story explores universal themes of abandonment, aging, acceptance, and redemption.

This is a slow, strong, subtle-moving film. 

As we watch the pain, the main character goes through taking care of a mother who doesn’t remember who she is especially after she changes her sex. 

There is a lot said in the silence of this film that we are left to read into, guess, and infer. No, they clearly speak loud and clear even when subtle.

There are a lot of close-ups that reflect a familiar distance between the characters that keeps them apart or at a certain length as we can quite see them fully and framed, in quite a few scenes.

Most of the characters are seen at odd angles and revealed slowly and only important to the character of Monica and the story

Trace Lysette as the title character is the only one always in focus and fully framed. She is beautiful and penetrating in a powerful performance, full of anger, sadness, and ultimately confidence.

I will admit, I have followed Trace Lysette career for a while, and online, and admit, I am a fan so getting to see her starring in a film and knock it out of the park. Also getting to be luminous brave strong, a little romantic at first victim, standing her ground and becoming a winner.

We see the pain of her having to watch her mother deteriorate and also lavish, loving feelings on her brother about family and how it’s important hello even though her mother gave her up to a certain extent. While she is there and not recognized and is being treated like a stranger, which seems to be a special kind of torture, especially when caring for a loved one. 

Helping support is a kind of adversary that she keeps trying to please or find a connection with or hopes to start reconnecting with. Revealing herself to a family and a new identity, but with the same old history between them.

Like the title, the film stays tightly focused on her never really allowing that much room for other characters or quite a bigger picture.

It seems that throughout this film. When it rains it pours before Monica as bad things just keep seeming to happen one after the other. 

Rejected by an ex Who constantly keeps trying to reach out to she’s desperate to find connections when her family seems not able to. She even has a one-night stand with a rather random male just to feel some pleasure and have someone care and desire her. The character is not sexless. 

Patricia Clarkson plays the slowly dying mother, and she is good here as she’s always been a good actress but never gets enough credit or work.

The second half is more like all the characters getting to know each other and the family more.

For some reason, the film reminds me of a Bon Iver album, peaceful with some sharp notes with a certain calm that occasionally gets disrupted by reality and time. Though for the most part stays in Its own place.  Does the film never feel like it’s a conventional movie or like anyone is truly acting.

The film dives into the depths of the agony of losing a parent, especially the second time as the first time you were banished and abandoned.

The film ends up being a character about facing the past and informing the present. As you fall in love with the family as well as her the character who is quite the bombshell, but whose emotions or emotional landscape might seem closed at first, but is always open. I can’t say this is enough Ms. Lysette is definitely a star.

 this film is quite personal in its material and effective 

Grade: B

MUTT (2023)

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Written & Directed By: Vuk Lungulov-Klotz

Cinematography: Matthew Pothier

Editor: Adam Dicterow

Cast: Lio Mehiel, Cole Doman, Mimi Ryder, Alejandro Goic, Jasai Chase Owens, Jari Jones, Ben Groh, Sarah Herrman 

Over the course of a single hectic day in New York City, three people from Feña’s past are thrust back into his life: his foreign father, his straight ex-boyfriend, and his 13-year-old half-sister. Having lost touch since transitioning from female to male, Feña must navigate the new dynamics of these old relationships while tackling the day-to-day challenges that come with living a life in between.

I’m gonna speak from the heart as this film is not necessarily raw, but enough to make an impact.

Though it reminds me of it. It’s Not quite the independent film of the 1990s maybe as it was when I was younger I felt things differently. I might’ve been a bit more naive to get deeper into a film and its subjects.

I didn’t know the world as much. So to me, the art or artist Seemed more sincere didn’t seem like we had seen it all, and definitely didn’t notice all the influences.

Though the films all came from the same place of Earnestness, and honesty, no matter the subject matter and storytelling in cinema they just knew how to make it look bigger not to mention the strength of visuals that one can admire.

In my younger years, I would’ve been all over this film rooting for it talking about it, and supporting it. Needless to say, I’m a fan as the film brings me back to my independent cinema of New York City days when I was all over the latest and newest releases. 

As one, I’m always interested in different in the different outsiders experimental, humanized, and delving into the cultures that I am not naturally privileged to be in.

In this film, in each section or act, we get to see the lead character’s experience with someone close from their past as well as a snapshot of their current relationship and lifestyle. So that it is a film of reveals. A coming of age story and a coming-out story.

This is a film that offers some understanding and hope and is not trauma-inducing, even with its constant hardships for the character. the only brutality on screen truly is the emotional ones

The character isn’t perfect, but is trying to be themselves, and why the world makes it so hard for them to achieve. While trying to make up for their past and be a better person.

Grade: B+

MAKING LOVE (1982)

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Directed By: Arthur Hiller

Written By: Barry Sandler

Story By: A. Scott Berg

Cinematography: David M. Walsh 

Editor: William Reynolds 

Cast: Harry Hamlin, Michael Ontkean, Kate Jackson, Terry Kiser, Wendy Hiller, Arthur Hill, Nancy Olson, John Dukakis, Dennis Howard, Asher Brauner

Follows a young, idealistic married couple, Zach and Claire. They seem to be the perfect couple: college sweethearts with similar tastes and opinions, they are each very intelligent, sensitive, and caring individuals who can be both fun-loving and serious, in turn. Zach and Claire like one another as people as well as lovers. Each one is rising in his/her career and they talk about having kids someday; Claire, especially, wants them to have a boy and name him Rupert. When Zach meets a guy named Bart, Zach has a very personal human crisis: Is he happy?

This movie is a dramatic romance from each point of view in an unknowing love triangle. 

This is one of the first films to show, gay male characters in a loving relationship. And being intimate the development of their relationship from meeting to being charmed to seduction to finally consummating and having feelings for one another. That might be love or might not be.

No, they have great chemistry.

 There are no villains here as each has their reasons for what happens and gets to explain their point of view. Captures great character moments throughout. 

You feel sorry for Kate Jackson as she and Michael Ontkean seem like a perfect couple and truly did love one another.

You can definitely feel the love story and dynamics. It’s simple and plain yet has its own clean-cut basic style. That offers a no-frills and conventional film. which leads to some blandness at times. Which makes it come across as a television movie material. That was directed by Arthur Hiller who also directed the movie LOVE STORY might be one of the reasons why it feels this way.

Also brings you back to a time when if you had a big enough budget star and offered a hook that material could still make it to movie theaters even if it seemed like a controversial subject which was a selling point.

The movie goes along with Kate Jackson’s character gaining success as her relationship deteriorates, though that is not what drives her husband into an affair. Even before happy times to flirt with homosexual feelings, though it seemed like it was more out of frustration. With his lover, can’t seem to get it up with her. As it seems he’s a romantic, and he can only be intimate like the one who intrigues him or where his heart or attraction lies.

Kate Jackson is a powerhouse in her role going through so many emotions and situations and she is so fetchingly beautiful throughout.

This was something new and different to general audiences and offered some representation of a community. It’s not all lovey-dovey so much but offers real communication and emotions that take their time with the material.

In particular, I was taken by the character’s love of movies and references throughout On a Roof as a constant reference and character working in the entertainment business.

This is actually the best role. The two male leads have come and they come off as more natural than anything. 

There are some strange twists in the film, like one of the characters’ reluctance, and afraid of being emotionally available. His lover has admitted his truth and love virtually destroying his marriage, which seems to scare Harry Hamlin’s character, the single writer off, especially when we learn of his past that might have damaged him. 

The psychobabble at the end, manages to let out the feelings, but feels a bit of an overkill as it explains too much rather than ambiguous and lets us make our own decisions and information. It offers an explanation.

Didn’t expect it to be more meaningful.  it’s not a true romance or love story. As it allows the characters to open up about something allowing each other to be truthful. Even if it gets overly saccharine probably due to a sensitive subject at the time. Also not looking to. Offend offers a too-safe love triangle. Leaving it to be meaningful if not, a grand romantic tale.

The ending is heartbreaking. as her husband ends up being her first love and best friend and you don’t feel like she truly is over him but must go on with her life, Just as he has.

Grade: B 

AM I OK (2022)

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Directed By: Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allynne 

Written By: Lauren Pomerantz 

Cinematography: Cristina Dunlap

Editor: Kayla Emter and Glen Scantlebury 

Cast: Dakota Johnson, Sonoya Mizuno, Kiersey Clemons, Jermaine Fowler, Molly Gordon, Sean Hayes, Whitmer Thomas, Tig Notaro, Odessa A’Zion 

Lucy and Jane have been best friends their entire lives. Only when Lucy embarks on a personal journey, will she face a test of her friendship, and her sense of self, on a path she may not be entirely ready to take.

Strangely, this film was delayed as it was finished in 2022 and Dakota Johnson filmed this movie back to back with THE LOST DAUGHTER & CHA-CHA REAL SMOOTH in which she gave acclaimed performances in the two other films here maybe this is where she started to feel fatigued as her performance here seems to falter in comparison to the other two. as this film only became available in 2024 HBO Max, bought it right out of Sundance and then waited two years to finally release it.

This film is pretty simple as you pretty much know what’s going to happen along the way you’re just wondering what kind of presentation you’re going to get.

One can appreciate that it deals with the situation more realistically, Where it takes big decisions, and instead of presenting them as that. It more tackles them a little more subtle and a little more minute detail.

That is the thing the film has going for it. The two protagonists, unfortunately, are a bit annoying as the one character by Dakota Johnson can’t seem to make any decisions in her life, and once she makes a big dramatic one she is still so wishy-washy her best friend winningly played by Sonoya Mizuno is the hipster who has a successful career who pretty much has taken care of her most of her life and now that a big changes land to separate the other is jealous. It seems that the other one is leaving and the more successful one finally realizes they don’t necessarily need the other person as they have all these other things going for them the date for the move comes more challenges come her way once she realizes who truly has always been there for her who truly is her friend.

Another aspect, I can appreciate about the film is that while it does deal with a character discovering their homosexuality, the film doesn’t become only about that or you know, finding love and romance, it shows the In and out of dating as a queer person. Also, what looks to be a love match could just be a hookup and Sometimes might just be looking for a good time or experimental.

Along the way, the film throws in quirky characters not so much situations, but weird reactions to situations. That makes it more like a movie or even just a story where little light touches are made to enhance the more dramatic or even comedic storylines.

The characters are supposed to be likable, but at least for this critic, I found them more annoying than anything, by the end. It only enhances that there for one another or one seems more like a mother and the other child, and even when one character comes to realize her sexuality, even then she goes into it so wishy-washy that at first, you believe the film is going to be her realizing she’s in love with her best friend and how her best friend deals with it but instead it’s just they are having midlife crisis, reaching different milestones. Though out of the two I could stand Mizuno’s character the most. When her character experiences a downfall, it is more truly felt and surprising.

the successful one feels more like he could’ve been a gay best friend type character as he seems to be there to drop in and tell a few jokes disappear and only adds drama for one scene when he decides conveniently to tell his girlfriend that he’s probably not going to move with her.

this phone just wasn’t for me. You have to be in the right mood and have the right amount of patience to watch this film, but it’s not horrible. It just wasn’t that great. 

The film does offer some prime California background and locations that all look modern and meditatively beautiful.

Grade: C