Shut Up & Kiss Me

Ron Smith and Scott Gabelein are both good in this film and there is too much trashing of the script and the performances on this site. I saw it by accident and I was moved and interested in their emotional development. Yes, I do mean emotional because despite a brief bedroom scene there is nothing to see of their physical intimacy. I do not want to give away spoilers so I will simply mention that this is a love story in the true sense of the word. Attraction and then emotion are in the foreground and this is beautifully conveyed. It was clearly made on a small budget, but does that really matter if the heart of the film is two endearing and very believable characters ? There is a lot of talk and some of it is banal, but then so is some of the dialogue in a Rohmer film. There have been criticisms here about the writing, probably from people who would respect a Rohmer film and I think they are wrong. People do talk in this way, trying to be witty and falling flat. Often I found here that the clichés were accurate, but back to the central point. This film is well worth seeing as it reflects many problems in gay relationships and I will watch it again for its sincerity and its respect for love.

"oh, no, honey...no..." The funny thing here is I immediately saw the lead character, Ronnie Kerr and thought "wait...I just saw a total piece of crap/waste of time with this guy in it yesterday" and sure enough, went to IMDb and saw not only was he also the lead in the tragic assault to gay cinema called "Saltwater", but also wrote both of them. I'd say that was the only funny thing about this film at all, but I have to be completely honest and say there are a couple of really good performances which were obviously ad-lib-ed (no, not Mark Cirillo's same tired character he does in every performance that will give him a part because he will do full-frontal) but rather the opening scene with the director...yet even HER awesome performance was butchered through very bad editing and B-roll throughout-style camera-work. Look, I get that everyone needs a hobby...but at this point I'd say this niche genre of cheap, badly written/acted/filmed gay films is reaching saturation; no one gets a "pass" anymore, so come back when you have REAL and NEW to say (or at the very least entertaining).

I'm sorry, but as a gay man, I found this really, really bad. I mean, it's offensive, it's so bad. I feel sorry for anyone--especially inexperienced or young gay guys--who thinks that there's anything authentic about any of this.

It's fakey. The dialog is not only trite, it's boring. When it tries to be funny, it's cringe-making. But when the dialog is dealing with love, commitment, or just trying to show how two gay guys talk together, it's just fake. It's too writer-ish. People just don't talk that way.

And that's one of the big problems with this kind of movie. It's people *talking* about life. It's not a movie that *shows* people living a life. And if you've got a dialog-driven movie, you better have A+++ dialog or why bother?

It's not that this movie doesn't depict situations that gay guys deal with, it does. It's just doing it really, really badly.

A fresh take on familiar themes--this 78-minute movie packs a decent amount of humor and poignancy in a short amount of time. While the main plot evolved around dating, I really enjoyed the friendship between the main character (Ben) and his straight best friend/workout buddy (Vinnie).

There were a couple of brief sex scenes that may surprise (shock, delight, etc.) some viewers, but for the most part this film focuses on the importance of friendships and the challenges of dating in the gay world.

This indie flick was likely shot on a budget, and like many movies you need to be in the right space to get the most out of your viewing experience. If you can be patient and suspend your disbelief like a good movie-goer should, I think you'll find this to be an enjoyable film that examines a variety of friendships and romantic relationships.

P.S. I'm SOOOO glad this was available on Netflix Streaming!

I enjoyed this movie mostly because it portrayed a very real gay situation. The ending was the only part that seemed to be fake.