Monday, September 16, 2013

Review

I knew very little about this film when I went into it except that it was inspired in some way by a David Sedaris essay. It surpassed my expectations in a beautiful and lasting way. It's extraordinarily funny often in surprising ways. Like Sedaris' writing things just happen and it's the protagonist's reactions that allow the audience to enter this world of poignant meaninglessness. The characters and situations can be so absurd at times that you wonder what kind of world this is how realistic or how exaggerated or how cinematic but then you realize that life can really be like that... Groff does a stellar job playing with an openminded and humorous pretentiousness. But what I thought was most impressive was Kyle Patrick Alvarez's subtlybrilliant treatment of both sexuality and religion both of which are such matteroffact gray areas in the film that they leave the viewer wondering without ever asking him to. Great film definitely catch it when it comes out.