Streaming non-tip: Raffaello Degruttola's tiresome TRANSFERENCE: A LOVE STORY

The movie begins with a quote from the French teacher/philosopher/ religious mystic Simone Weil -- "A hurtful act is the transference to others of the degradation we bear in ourselves" -- which then plays out in the tale told by Raffaello Degruttola, who directed and also stars in the film as its very beleaguered non-hero. Interestingly, no actual writing credit is given here; instead, the end credits note "story devised and directed by" Mr. Degruttola, which could help account for the generally lame dialog.

Another bit of interest: In the film's opening and closing credits, its title is given as simply TRANSFERENCE. However, the U.S. distributor, 1091 Pictures, is calling it TRANSFERENCE: A LOVE STORY, while on the IMDB, you can find it labeled TRANSFERENCE: A BIPOLAR LOVE STORY. Further, the IMDB also lists the film as running 90 minutes, rather than the way overlong 107 that the current version lasts.

The biggest problem here is that Degruttola (above) has given us a movie filled with very attractive people who have too little to do, not much to think about, even less to say, and almost nothing to offer so that an attentive audience will want to stick around. Instead we meet a very young and pretty caregiver (Emilie Sofie Johannesen, below) working in a palliative care facility in England who meets and mates with an older but hunkily attractive male nurse (played by Degruttola). He refrains from telling her the most important information about him (his medical condition and the fact that he has stopped taking the proper medication for this), so their affair is fraught with general unpleasantness (and a whole lot of boredom, unless you are very new to the love-story genre) throughout, as we wait impatiently for his "big secret," which we've pretty much already guessed, to be revealed.

The lovers' dialog is filled with those kind of "sweet nothings" that add up to just about zero, and the film is filled with typically long stares into space by the pair as they lie in bed. The soundtrack is full of sloppy pop songs meant to stand in for missing content, and the movie's funniest moment comes toward the end as he exclaims to her, "I don't want you to see me like this!" Like what,? you'll want to ask Degruttola, since he looks and acts exactly as he has throughout the entire movie, save for one silly anger scene more than midway along. He is not, TrustMovies fears, a very versatile actor.

But on and on it goes until those 107 minutes are over and done with and relief is at hand. Somehow, I doubt that Simone Weil would approve. Transference: Whatever Kind of Love Story You Want to Call It hits home video streaming this Tuesday, November 10, for purchase, and the following Tuesday, November 17, for rental. Click here for details.

Unhealthy obsession dominates Yuval Hadadi's Israeli mid-life-crisis-themed 15 YEARS

Dani is obsessed with Yoav, his lover of the titular 15 YEARS, and so is Alma, Yoav's best friend since childhood. Yoav is obsessed, too. With himself. And TrustMovies' best guess is that Yuval Hadadi (shown below), the writer/director of this new Israeli film, is also obsessed -- with the middle-aged but extremely hot-looking actor, Oded Leopold, who plays Yoav and who bears a rather striking resemblance in face, body and age,  to the filmmaker himself.

Mr. Leopold, shown below and further below, appears in nearly every scene of this film and is also prominent in every single publicity still I could find for this movie. Thankfully, he's a decent enough actor and is a consistent pleasure to look at, clothed or nude, throughout.

Because of all this, one might be tempted to imagine that 15 Years is possibly auto-biographical, but since I know nothing about Mr. Hadadi, I'll bring the subject up then leave it alone and concentrate on the movie itself.

15 Years is worth seeing for its extremely attractive cast, its look at haut-bourgeois gay life in Tel Aviv, and its often quite beautiful visuals: There's one composition featuring a plate of green apples and bright oranges that you'll want to immediately capture on canvas (its the image seen to the right of the screen through a window, not the later, less interesting image where the plate is centered). The expert, often gorgeous cinematography here is via Yaniv Linton.

The movie's plot, such as it is, concerns the sudden announcement regarding the pregnancy of Alma (Rute Asarsai, below, left) and how this affects the relationship between Dani, who might want a child of his own, and Yoav, who definitely does not. The idea of becoming a parent unleashes all sorts of negativity in Yoav.

Along the way we learn -- via a dying father whom Yoav does not want to visit and a scrapbook/wall of photographs -- about this fellow's problematic childhood. While no details are offered, we are meant to conclude that "family" is not a particularly positive part of Yoav's history. And this is the film's major problem: No details are offered about much of anything.

Late in the game Dani (Udi Persi, below, right) has an angry speech in which he lets Yoav know that their relationship has been mostly bad -- for Dani, at least. But we've seen little of this. Likewise, the bond between Alma and Yoav must be taken on faith. The performance are as good as they can be, given that character-creation does not appear an important part of the filmmaker's plan. The movie simply sets out its characters and situations and then does not go deep enough.

There are a couple of good sex scenes along the way, one of which -- simultaneously hot and creepy -- brings to the fore Yoav's capability for dominance and pain, even as his sex object seem to revel in the possibility of his own demise.

For all of the filmmaker's obsessing over Yoav, this too-loosely-drawn character seems far too narcissistic and egotistical to be worth this much attention (from the other characters or from us viewers) -- despite Mr. Leopold's enormous sexual charisma, which is on view consistently.

The film's most intelligent and upbeat character, a possible love interest for Dani (played with a graceful charm by Tamir Ginsberg), gives the movie a much-needed lift, but then we're back again with Yoav and his dire, dour problems. Sorry, but obsessions -- unless they're handled with the kind of skill Hitchcock could manage -- are more often than not difficult for an audience to fully share.

From Breaking Glass Pictures, in Hebrew with English subtitles and running 89 minutes, 15 Years hits DVD and VOD this coming Tuesday, April 28 -- for purchase and/or rental.

On digital: Tom Cullen's PINK WALL highlights the ups and down of a six-year relationship

"Who are these people?" you may ask yourself during the initial scene of PINK WALL, as two characters begin babbling on in ways that appear improvised but also seem more than a little "off." Unfortunately, this babbling never stops, and while the two actors involved -- Tatiana Maslany and Jay Duplass -- have fine track records, given the tired and tiresome situations and dialog they are given here, try as they might (and they mightily do), characters we care about, empathize with or even believe are real never finally or fully materialize.

The fellow most responsible for this would be the writer/director, Tom Cullen (shown at left), who also happens to be, according to the IMDB, the long-term partner of Ms Maslany (shown above and below), which goes a distance in explaining her involvement here. Mr. Cullen made a large and positive mark as one of the lead actors in Andrew Haigh's Weekend, and he has graced some other good films.

This is Cullen's first foray into writing and directing however, and he clearly did not learn much from Weekend's spare and on-the-mark disalog. The chattering here is near-constant and often grating as all hell.

"Don't they ever shut up?" TrustMovies wondered from time to time as this 82-minute (but still too long) movie unfurled. No, they don't, but if the subjects this pair of long-time lovers discuss did not seem so typical and if the discussion rose above mostly cliché, we might better appreciate it. The most interesting section involves open relationships, and here, for a change, a few other characters are also involved. Even this extended scene gives us little new to ponder concerning the age-old question -- except maybe the first cock-size-à-propos-cunt-size exploration I've seen on screen.

I suspect the movie wants more than anything else to be "cool," as one of its characters accuses the other of always trying to be. It may indeed manage this, depending on your definition of the word. Time-wise the film moves back and forth between year six and year one of this relationship, with each of its half-dozen scenes meant to show us more of this fraught relationship. Finally, though, it all fudges together into the single non-stop talk-fest of two good actors trapped in poor material.

By way of recent companison, however, this movie is way better than Entangled. From 1091, Pink Wall hits digital tomorrow, Tuesday, November 12 -- for purchase and/or rental.

HOSTILE: Mathieu Turi's creature-feature-and-would-be-love-story hits home video market

Hmmm... Is there something antithetic about the use of the word hostile, or any variation of it, in your movie's title? Last year we had Hostiles, one of the year's worst, which had the theatrical audience with whom I saw the film actually cat-calling to the screen. Now this year comes HOSTILE, a post-apocalyptic sci-fi love story combo that is the worst film I've had to sit thru so far in 2018.  Bypassing theaters, where it would surely have sunk without a trace (except for angry patrons probably demanding their money back), it arrives on home video this coming Tuesday, September 4.

Written and directed by a fellow named Mathieu Turi (shown at left and with whose work I was not formerly acquainted), the movie offers us a seemingly lone survivor (below) in a post-apocalyptic desert setting, whom we eventually discover is a woman. She appears to be out stalking... what? Aliens, maybe. Clearly, there is something very bad going on out there.

Soon, an utterly unbelievable moment occurs involving a seemingly treasured photograph and the wind. This leads to the sudden crash of her vehicle, after which our heroine is injured and stranded, and spends the rest of the film reminiscing about her lost love (which we see in flashback after flashback after flashback) and/or fighting off intruders.

This is a dreadful idea, and the movie that contains it proves even worse. Those flashbacks are mostly awful -- the first one (a meet-cute in an art gallery, shown below) isn't half bad -- cliche-ridden and ultra-obvious. Further, they drain much of the suspense from the present-day goings-on.

The love of our heroine's life turns out to be none other than Grégory Fitoussi (above and below, left), that tall-dark-and-handsome hunk from French TV's Spiral series. M. Fitoussi provides the most professional performance, though even he cannot rise above the so-so-to-not-so script.

Leading lady Brittany Ashworth (above and below) is also faced with the problem of surmounting a bad idea, badly done. In the present-day mode, she mostly suffers and threatens, rather tiresomely; the flashbacks are even worse.

To the writer/director's credit, he does not spell out every last detail but allows us to piece together what has happened to the former world. Unfortunately, what we do put together doesn't seen all that plausible: a "gas" accident has turned much of the population into these weirdo creatures? Oh, well. At least they're not zombies. (Well, not exactly...)

The surprise ending will probably have given itself away (to some of you, at least) earlier on, and instead of being at all moving will seem merely ridiculous. Reading the end credit "thank-yous" from the director, however, may make you kind of sad. He seems genuinely grateful to so many people. If only the result were a better film.

From 4DIGITAL MEDIA (but good luck trying to find the film on the company's web site) and running 83 minutes, Hostile hits the street this coming Tuesday, September 4 -- for purchase and/or rental.

It's Romeo & Juliet time again in Blademil Grullon's uber-violent A MIAMI LOVE STORY

Yes, it's those Montagues and Capulets, at war once more, this time as Haitians-vs-Dominicans in the new kill-and-thrill-fest masquerading under the title of A MIAMI LOVE STORY.

Co-written (with Max J. Gabriel and Marco Molinet) and directed by Blademil Grullon, this is one of those movies in which the love story begins after about 30 minutes (the entire film lasts only 78) and is prefaced by violence, torture, murder and rape, most of which continues throughout, except for the minor time devoted to our would-be Romeo and his Juliet.

As co-writer, co-editor and director, Mr. Grullon (shown at left) does offer some flashy, fast camerawork along the way, and there is also a nice musical score via Wyclif Jean. Otherwise, though, the movie is a total head-scratcher, beginning to end -- from its first scene, in which a lone man running for his life down a country road is chased by an automobile. Instead of getting off that road and into the overgrown fields on either side (where a car might have trouble following him), he stays right on that road, bringing the bad guys home with him and into the lap of his waiting wife (whom they rape) and young son. What a smart move!

Then movie never recovers from this nonsense but we do move ahead around 20 years to present-day Miami, where we're immediately steeped in street violence and gang warfare between the Haitians and Dominicans, broken up (but barely) by the budding romance between a young Dominican kid (Miguel Fuego Duran, above) who wants to leave gang life to become an artist, and the college-student girl, played by Lexi Delarosa, below, left (whose brother, of course, runs the opposing Haitian gang).

While much of the dialog sounds street-wise and dumb-ugly, it is so burdened with exposition that you may wonder if all these character were born yesterday: That's how much needs to be explained to them all. The whole dueling gangs plot is so secondhand and tired that there is nary a surprise or  fresh moment to be seen nor heard. There are, however, the necessary best friend (below) and sex scene (two photos below). Neither adds much to the proceedings.

As for our hero Sandy's great artwork, it looks like the next step up for him might be painting Elvis on velvet, and when sister asks her gang-lord brother what he really does for a living, you can only wonder where the hell she has been all their life. The film's funniest line comes as one of the villains suddenly notes, "It's the same déjà vu all over again!" Yes, sweetie: That's what déjà vu is.

Much more interested in giving us violence than in offering up love, the finale -- in which past and present come together -- provides enough corpses to people a couple of Hamlets but with only about 1/1000th of the intelligence necessary. And the final voice-over explaining how very important love is and how it can conquer all should have you -- considering what you've just had to sit through -- grinding your teeth to the point where you can spit them out.

Distributed by TRICOAST, A Miami Love Story, in English and Haitian (with English subtitles) and running 78 minutes, arrives on VOD this coming Monday, April 16, with a DVD release scheduled for July. 

Vanity, thy name is James Fanizza, who writes, directs and stars in new GLBT film, SEBASTIAN

Yes, SEBASTIAN does indeed smack of what we used to call a "vanity" production -- having been written, directed, starred in and co-produced by one, James Fanizza. Mr. Fanizza (shown on poster at left, top, and at bottom, right) is an attractive blond fellow and not a bad actor if only a so-so writer and director. His co-star, the chunky/hunky Alex House, who plays the eponymous secondary character, comes off a bit better because he has been given less "acting" to do and does what he has with a certain appealing reticence.

Adequately shot on video by Kalen Artinian, this Toronto-set tale is basically the same-old/same-old so far as way too many gay movies are concerned. Coincidence-prone and featuring a "hero" who is pretty much a shallow, lying asshole (who seems totally unaware of this fact), the movie does finally provide some sort of an explanation of why this guy is the way he is. Trouble is, that explanation seems every bit as manufactured as the rest of the movie.

In its way, Sebastian represents a side of gay life that's all too present and is, I suppose, a kind of reaction to the past hundred or so years of repression, transgression and adjustment to being "different." Even so, the movie remains a bit of a bore, especially when set against so many other, better GLBT films of recent times. One of its supporting actors is Katya Zamolodchikova (aka Brian McCook, below), who starred as Katya on RuPaul'sDrag Race.

Although there is some witty dialog on display, too much of the talk sounds like it came from a self-help manual. At time the film appears to be counting down every last gay cliché in the book, coupled to a bunch of self-improvement tropes and (as even its own characters point out) a tele-novela -- but without any of the latter's high gloss. Toward the finale, which provides enough angst to fill a dozen films, Fanizza's film descends into full-out melodrama.

At best Sebastian is a adequate time-waster. At worst, it's yet another reason some of us gays often avoid "gay" movies. Oh, yes, and about that quote atop the DVD box art, "And it does get steamy", don't get your hopes up. This one's about as "steamy" as that pasta from yesterday that you've just taken out of the fridge. From Wolfe Video, the movie hits the street on DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, February 6 -- for both purchase and rental.

DVDebut: Taron Lexton's IN SEARCH OF FELLINI proves (very) light on the Fellini

Can a movie get by almost exclusively on charm and visual beauty at the expense of any kind believable story line? Prior to seeing IN SEARCH OF FELLINI, the first full-length film from South  African-born Taron Lexton (below), I would have thought this pretty doubtful, but after viewing his said-to-be-based-"mostly"-on-a-true-tale movie, I've got to admit the film works well enough to garner an OK rating.  As gloriously shot by Kevin Garrison in Verona, Milan, Rome and Venice, Italy (oh, yeah -- and in Ohio, too), the cinematography is often so breathtakingly beautiful that you'll be swept away long enough to forget, or maybe just ignore, the rather saccharine and unbelievable tale told here.

As written by Nancy Cartwright and Peter Kjenaas, that story is one of a young girl (played in adulthood by the very lovely Ksenia Solo, below), so pampered and secluded from real life by her mother (Maria Bello, shown at bottom, right) that the poor thing is completely unsuited for autonomous adulthood. So what does she do? She leaves her dying mother to head for Italy all by her lonesome and there to somehow meet her new hero, famed filmmaker Federico Fellini, whose movies she has suddenly discovered via a Fellini festival in her home town. (The film takes place a couple of decades back, as Fellini died in 1993.)

Too dumb to get to Rome where the filmmaker resides, she ends up in Verona, then Venice, before finally arriving at her real destination. But that's all to the good because, along the way, she and we get to view a raft of fabulous locations and also meet and fall in love with what must be the sweetest and most handsome straight male in all of Italy (Enrico Oetiker, below, with Ms Solo).

But onward she must go toward Signore Fellini, and so she also almost gets raped-while-being-filmed by a nasty hunk named (against type) Placido. Not to worry, despite its R rating, this is a feel-good movie par excellence, so when our heroine finally does encounter her hero, it is in perhaps via the most gorgeously lit and filmed restaurant scene in movie history -- with no dialog yet, so that we can instead imagine what is being shared by the two.

Yes, indeed, this is all so silly that it would defy belief -- were it not so lovely to look at. All the leads are super-attractive, and Italy, well, come on: You know how visually enchanting that country can be. So I would suggest placing you brain on hold for the film's 103 minutes and just giving yourself over to its many visual pleasures.

Inter-cut into the film are many moments from the real Fellini catalog. And while Mr. Lexton's work apes the master's, he has filmed his movie with mostly gorgeous actors, while Fellini preferred much more bizarre-looking casts. Both filmmakers give us fantasy based on reality. The master created his films from someplace deep and humane, while Lexton, whose view may be prettier, offers up what might best be called Fellini-light.

From Spotted Cow Entertainment and running 103 minutes, the movie -- after hitting VOD and digital outlets last month -- reaches DVD this coming Tuesday, January 23.

Religion as the "closet" in Jennifer Gerber's interesting gay melodrama, THE REVIVIAL

The gay closet, as it turns out, can take a number of forms with which we might not immediately associate it. One of these is religion, particularly when the gay in question happens to be a preacher of it. Such a fellow is our non-hero, Eli, who has taken over his little town's church (Baptist, I think) from his late father, who was -- from all we hear -- much more popular, offering up the fire-and-brimstone kind of sermon our country's Southern folk love to hear. Eli, who is married to a wife who is soon to be a mother, prefers a more thoughtful and, well, "progressive" kind of preaching. You can imagine how well that goes down with his congregation.

As adapted (from his own stage play) by Samuel Brett Williams, shown below, and directed with intelligent, straight-ahead force by Jennifer Gerber (shown at left: This is her first full-length work), THE REVIVAL proves to be one of the better gay-themed melodramas we've seen of late. Mr. Williams, with his intelligently withholding writing that does not allow us to understand or fully know most of these characters until the finals scenes (the execution of which Ms Gerber's restraint and skill helps mightily), has concocted a very interesting melodrama

that explores the lengths to which a man will go in using his religion to better hide his sexuality.

Most organized religions, particularly in the Southern USA, do not accept homosexuality as something natural and good, but there are all kinds of ways around this -- as so many of our Southern "preachers" and their past scandals have shown us -- from out-and-out lying and hypocrisy to burying this "sin" so deeply within that even the sinner can sometimes ignore it.

Nothing works forever, of course, and truth, as they say, will out.

When a good-looking young drifter (Zachary Booth, above) appears at church one day -- not for the sermon but for the pot-luck lunch held afterward -- our "kindly" minister (David Rysdahl, below) of course wants to help. First offering that meal and then later a temporary roof over the fellow's head, before you can say, "But I'm not gay," this new twosome is locking lips and then other parts of the anatomy.

Now, if this part of the tale were all that's on offer, we could yawn and say been there/done that. We also meet and spend time with some interesting subsidiary characters, too, such as Trevor (nice job by Raymond McAnally, below), the good-'ol-boy pal who consistently tries to get Eli to preach what the congregation wants. Trevor is , in fact, raising money for a big "revival" style meeting at the church -- which Eli is dead set against.

Eli's put-upon wife -- a low-key but very smart performance from Lucy Faust, below -- comes into her own during the course of the film, as well. It is her character of whom we learn perhaps the most about by film's end.

There is even one member of the congregation -- played with off-key charm by Stephen Ellis, below -- who is desperately in love with his first cousin. While this situation might initially seem merely a bit of comic relief, it serves a deeper purpose in showing us how poor (uncaring, really) a minister our anti-hero actually is.

By the time the "gay love" situation has worked itself out -- and not probably in either of the ways you will expect -- several other situations and characters have come heavily and surprisingly into play. The Revival is a much stronger and more forceful piece of gay-themed film-making than TrustMovies expected. Take a chance on it.

From Breaking Glass Pictures and running just 85 minutes, the movie opens this Friday, January 19, in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Music Hall 3. The DVD will be released the following week on Tuesday, January 23.