The Seminarian

For reasons passing understanding, virtually every scene in this movie was too long. If the guy's phone rang, the camera would linger on it for what seemed like days. The back and forth of an ordinary telephone conversation was punctuated by extra long periods of nothing. No matter what scene began, there was an extra long establishing shot. Otherwise, it was a decently acted story that was more or less believable.

Watching this movie was like Watching a hamster run around on a wheel going nowhere.... I kid you not....from beginning to end...

I bought this movie somewhat on a whim after reading reviews on several sites, and I'm glad I did. "The Seminarian" is a thoughtful -- and thought-provoking -- study not only of main character Ryan's quest for love, but of how each person has to find his or her own path to happiness. Some people try to find this through religion, others through friendship, others through romantic relationships, others through purely sexual encounters. Ryan is trying to balance all of these, and sometimes his intense focus on one makes him lose sight of the importance of the others. The other characters represent these different parts of Ryan's existence -- Eugene & Kelli are God's love; Gerald & Anthony are friendship; Bradley is romance; and Kevin is sex. As an allegory, then, these interrelationships worked well for me. Other reviewers have commented on the slow pace, and they're right that this isn't exactly an action flick. But it wasn't meant to be. Some reviews mention the brief nudity in a couple of scenes, and yes, it was probably put there by the director solely to titillate certain audiences. But it was also realistic... No one wears clothes 24/7, so why should the characters in a movie? Bottom line: Take "The Seminarian" for what it is, accept it for what it's not, and I think most people will find it worth their time.

This has to be one of the worst LGBTQ films that have ever been made. Directed by Joshua Lim, it's a cookie cutter gay man vs his religious guilt vs his unrequited love and afraid to share who he is with his mother, with whom he's close. If one can believe that mommy didn't figure out the true nature of her son's sexuality when it's abundantly clear, then one has to be exceptionally gullible. The characters are boring in that they're so terribly stereotypical. These LALa landers have no character definition beyond being gay. The writing is horrible as well, so one can't completely blame the actors. They're given so little to work with. 'The Seminarian' offers nothing new with respect to the conflict that many LGBTQ+ folks experience with the conflicts of their religious upbringing. This picture is rated 'DWYT', (Don't Waste Your Time).

Full disclaimer; I actually started watching this believing it was another movie with the same title, yet within seconds of the opening sequence and hearing that whiny "gay voice", I knew exactly what this film would be about; a self-indulgent, boring gay-themed movie where type-cast Mark Cirillo proves (yet again) that full frontal nudity in a gay indie does wonders for any actor's career (he keeps his towel on for a full 50 seconds this time). If anyone really had the writing skills to explore this theme (i.e. a gay evangelical Christian in seminary) there would be ample fodder for entertainment, but of course the writer/director relied on Mark's willingness to essentially do anything in front of the camera, hoping that someone would find it titillating enough to forget the script and acting is complete crap. Too many cases of long pauses, contrived dialogue and meaningless scenes to count. Surprisingly, out of a cast of horribly bad actors, Javier Montoya stood out as being exceptionally bad; I didn't believe he had a pulse, let alone that he was gay seminarian. In fact, other than some theological quotes and questions thrown in here and there, this is just another low-budget, badly made film about gay angst. I would not recommend this movie to anyone.