Spark

Don't want to spoil anything in the review but was absolutely blown away by Vico Ortiz whom you might recognise from Our Flag Means Death. They really give it everything and not going to lie was swooning over them.

And the concept of this film is so good, really inspired. Could definitely rewatch this a few times to catch every little detail. Some of this felt super close to home and felt really tense. You really get a sense of what the film maker was getting to achieve with this and it's great that this dropped during pride month so more people get a chance to see, share, and enjoy this film.

Nothing really happens in the movie - people talk and talk and talk and talk and then drive and drive and drive and drive. Could have been a good short film, but no, the director has to make it into a plotless, meandering feature film.

All the characters are boring and bland and not very interesting. The lead actor, in particular, is very annoying and his voice is unbearable - it's like a duck quacking. And he keeps talking and talking and talking and it gets more and more annoying and grating. I don't believe anything they say in the movie, none of them feels authentic, every one is synthetic and unreal.

Aaron is on his way to his birthday party, but has an afternoon pre-party detour, which turns out to be a blind date with Trevor. Along the way, he is given a choice of 3 options: have sex, hug, or talk. After choosing the sex option, he wakes up the morning where this begins. After multiple rounds of the time loop, trying hugging just defers the inevitable, to sex during the party. While Aaron finds snippets of information about Trevor over these time loops, they never have a deep discussion. Only when he fails to have sex with Trevor that the loop seems broken, but he enlists the help of his roommate / best friend / onetime lover to get back into the loop and find Trevor again.

I saw this at a film festival with the writer / director present. Besides the obvious Groundhog Day, his inspiration for the story came from 500 Days of Summer, a story of attraction / rejection. Despite Aaron's various attempts to curry favor with Trevor, the relationship does not seem to develop beyond sex - and the time loop. Aaron has to break out of that particular time loop to finally reach Trevor.

The principals are hot, and have chemistry, but the psychological wall between them is well-maintained. However, the ending jumps out in a rather sudden manner, which I am not keen on.