Denied

I was rooting for this movie, even as my every hope was smashed the whole way through: all the elements of a truly engaging, affecting, sophisticated picture are here, but they are botched beyond belief. Maybe somebody could give director David Scott a bigger budget and a staff and they could try it again from scratch.

The basic premise of the movie--requited but unacknowledged love--will ring true with a lot of queer folk: "You make love to me all the time. Why can't we just be boyfriends?" (That may have been one of the lines, actually, but the sound on this movie is so very dreadful I suspect I caught less than a third of the dialog.) There's no reason this film shouldn't resonate with anyone who's been in the position to rue their beloved's denial of acceptable, respectable, publicly avowed togetherness. And I suppose it does, with those more forgiving of its many distracting flaws. Am I unrealistic in expecting a certain basic level of competence from a movie?

The young actors are not without talent; or, at any rate, they are much better at what they do than the director, who frames extremely long static shots (such as that of Troy and Merrick discussing their issues in the living room) with no visual relief, no character movement, and no particular tension-building purpose. Not to mention the astonishing percentage of frames in the movie that feature Troy's obliquely downcast, unchanging stare-into-the-abyss! (Perhaps we should be thankful that Scott did not devote equal time to capturing the abyss staring back into Troy.) One is reminded of The Brown Bunny, which was built of 8 sentences, a blow job, and 80 minutes of Vincent Gallo alone and looking like he's just eaten a fistful of bear scat.

Our writer-director allows his protagonist the dignity of doing the only responsible thing by the end of the movie: growing up and getting over Merrick. He even permits a cloudy, ambiguous split between them, in which the lingering affection is just as obvious as the need for separation. All this could turn a film golden, win awards, and jerk tears like nobody's business--if only there were the tiniest shard of coherent film technique backing it up.

It's a shame the production is somewhat student-y and that some of the dialogue is muffled and inaudible, because this is a film that rings true. Two straight-acting friends, a hunk and a dropout, move in together, and we slowly start to piece together just what kind of relationship they have - which is appropriate, since they don't appear to know either. This is what I liked best about this film - no neat resolutions, no flashes of insight, just a realistic and sometimes painful muddle of emotions and situations that have to be dealt with as best as can be, which usually isn't very well at all. That's certainly been my experience of dealing with sexuality, outside of the commercial gay ghetto anyway - real-life grappling with queer issues isn't neatly resolved in three acts and buying a Pride T-shirt doesn't make it all better. So this is definitely worth seeing, if you're not expecting Dolby stereo and answers to all your questions.

This movie wanted to be better than it is. College dropouts Troy and Merrick share an apartment in a dead-end town. They appear to sleep together sometimes, but their own mental issues plus a psychotic former girlfriend sabotage their chances at a relationship. Narrative question: do they end up together?

The plot is well done. The story is familiar (or at least believable) enough that the dramatic tension works. Character development was decent. Some of the dialog falls flat, mostly due to the poor lighting and over-aggressive Foley editing. The leads are quite attractive, but the sex scenes are only in the PG13 range.

Cinematography is weak. Consistently under-lit throughout. The voice track is nearly inaudible at several key points. A couple of awkward edits too. Overall, would have been an entirely competent movie in the hands of a more experienced director.

I suppose I can understand why many people dislike Denied, but my response to it is very much different. Poor lighting and sound do not kill a movie for me if there is something valuable in it to dig for through those defects, and there is much of value in Denied. Except for the sound and lighting (and possibly the music), it is an excellent movie, much better than 99% of gay movies.

The screenplay is intelligent, subtle, compassionate, never clichéd, and often surprising. Characters talk in the sometimes disjointed way people really talk, switching from one point to another with no warning or explanation. That may be too much for viewers accustomed to the clean, logical, familiar, easy-to-follow way everyone talks in most movies but no one talks in real life. Every line in this movie rings true.

The acting is some of the best I've ever seen in any movie, and certainly much better than in most gay movies. Lee Rumohr in the lead as Troy is especially good, but Matt Austin as Merrick is not far behind; and, in a much smaller role as Fowler, Troy's gentle but troubled fellow ex-jock, Matthew Finlason is amazing.

I would almost recommend watching only the last half hour of the movie, from around the 1:05:00 mark (which unfortunately does not correspond with a chapter marker on the DVD - if you see a man standing alone on a lighted sports field at night, you're in the right place) to the very end. By that point, all the tedious stuff with Merrick's EXTREMELY tedious girlfriend Stacey is over, and all that's left is Troy's resolving his relationships with Fowler (which takes about 8 minutes) and then with Merrick (the last 20 minutes or so). That's when this movie really starts to shine, when it takes off and soars far above any other gay movie I can think of. But watching only the end would deprive you of its context, of understanding why Troy and his friends make the choices they make and how much those choices cost them.

So here's what I recommend: If you can't stand working at watching a movie, if you prefer to have everything laid before you in order and easy to get without any work on your part, everything easy to see and every sound clear as a bell, then forget Denied. Stick with conventional, slickly professional and familiarly produced movies like Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss.

If you love gay movies, particularly gritty, realistic movies about people like us, then give Denied a shot. But hold on through about an hour of relatively tedious stuff; it will make your enjoyment of the treasures at the end richer than it would be without it.

But if you can't do that - if you can't or won't slog your way through an hour of tedium to get to a half hour of great beauty - then skip immediately to 1:05:00 and pay close attention, adjusting the video on your TV and replaying bits as necessary to get what people are saying. It will be well worth the effort. Even knowing nothing about the characters, seeing how they act and interact is profoundly satisfying in a way all movies should be but very few are.

Denied truly is a diamond in the rough; if you're a diamond hunter like me, go for it, and don't give up until you're holding it in your grubby little hands. You may find in the process that it has worked its way into your heart to stay.

This movie has going for it what very few 'gay movies' have; the characters and the plot are realistic. The principle actors were very good in their roles. The only real problem was getting the acting down on film. Lots of the scenes are pretty dark, and sometimes it's hard to hear exactly what's being said. But, these are problems that lots of low-budget films, and, again, the story makes up for it.

Some people I know say that the long shots of one character during a scene, or the periods of silence between the actors make them uncomfortable, but that's why i like the movie. It's very realistic. People don't talk like they do in Kevin Smith films. Sometimes you just sit with your boyfriend and don't know what to say for a while.

Again, Acting-Good, Story-Good, Cinematography-Medium. If nothing else, see it because Matt Austin, who plays Merrick here, is the Green Ranger in the current Power Rangers Show. Small World.