Sebastian

Really enjoyed this film, ok it's not Oscar worthy but it does what is says its a romantic gay movie an I really enjoyed it.

Written, directed, and starring james fanizza. It's the extended version of the short released in 2014. When alex and sebastian meet, the sparks fly. But alex has a boyfriend. Who happens to be sebastian's cousin! A web of intrigue. Alex's boyfriend comes home in a week, and sebastian is only in town for a short time. So complicated. Of course, it'll all hit the fan at some point, but... who will be happy and who will be sad? At about 48 minutes, the camera is shaky for a couple minutes. It's a bit distracting, during a very serious moment. But it's mostly good! Some good acting, and some not so good acting. But mostly good. It's a week in the life of this circle of friends. And cousins.

This was one of those nights when I took a chance to watch a movie not expecting much but honestly, I was quite taken by the simple yet effective story. To me, the chemistry between Alex House as Sebastian and writer/director lead actor James Fanizza as Alex is the saving grace here.

Obviously, this is a very low budget movie and I could feel that Fanizza gave it his all so I can really respect that and sure enough, I started to enjoy it for what was intended, a nice and light concoction aiming at showing us a slice of life from those 2 characters. The acting wasn't bad at all, nothing great or major but still effective.

The flaws I found were mostly technical, obviously due to a lack of funds but some of them could have been corrected easily. For instance, many scenes are static with no camera moves so I don't understand why most of them would shake in jerky motions like a cameraman trying to stay still when in fact, most of those scenes were meant to be static so a tripod would have been advisable.

If this was intentional, I think it was not a good choice because it detracts from the story pulling us out as a viewer. I tend to hate those movies that use the cliched hand held camera shake too much but in this case, it didn't look intentional. Reality shows usually features those a lot but it's because the cameramen have to shoot stuff on the spur of the moment but in a movie like this, even a low budget shouldn't have impaired the stability of the shots.

Yet, I still enjoyed myself to give this 7 stars. I tend to favor movies that are lighter on message and heavier on entertainment values and I got sucked in the charm of the story and the chemistry of the leads made me care to see if they would end up together. The ending was rather too abrupt for my tastes and I usually prefer a slightly more tied up plot but I can forgive cause I had a good time. Give it a chance and maybe you will also find something to like in this nice little concoction.

This came across as a low-budget, poorly written, produced, and acted movie. One always has to be wary when the Director is also the writer and the lead actor. It just doesn't work. Poor audio also seemed to plague the movie and firmly place it in the rank of amateurish productions.

They clearly wanted to make "Weekend", but lacked the writing, directing and acting skill to do so. The main character is instantly and intensely unlikable and the title character doesn't fare much better, but is, at least, attractive. Katya is alright in this, but his inclusion seems gimmicky.