August

I was a nice portrait of lost love The hurt The missing The Lust The Affection The crazy person who you can never get over with, I mean never. Movie started of with lost lover troy coming back to L.A cause he misses his old life, and for love of his life Jonathan. And Jonathan is living with his lover Raul, who's is an immigrant. And he's married to one of Jonathan BFF Nina. Movies takes is turns and kinda of slowly in the middle, but I enjoy the end feeling of the movie. And movies gives you a feeling that love never die that easy, and its never easy to let go for the person who you long for, the person who hurt you so much still does matter. And all you left is hurt, its a feeling that we never wanna let go.

I hate to disagree with the previous reviewers but I feel this story is all about Troy thinking he is going to find is lost youth by going back to L.A. and seeking out Jonathan!

What Troy fails to realize is that Jonathan went on with his life and found a like soul in Raul ... until Troy comes back on the scene. Jonathan is captivated by Troy and their memories and is willing to give him what he wants while not realizing Raul is incensed by this behavior.

This is a complex story as Raul has two things to possibly loose, Jonathan is crossing over into his 30th years and needs to grow up and Troy will never know what he wants in his life.

The story is expertly told with sudden short flash backs of what happened just before the scene we are watching. It's a movie that one must watch attentively - an expert job of editing and writing. It will leave you wondering just what will happen with Raul & Jonathan!

Jonathan, a shortish, homely-ish, 29-year-old, minimally employed nebbish in LA, has a tall, gorgeous (but shallow and manipulative), 40-ish ex-boyfriend, Troy - who dumped him five years earlier but for some reason has moved back from Barcelona just to get him back. BUT... Jonathan has an even MORE gorgeous (breathtakingly gorgeous) twentysomething current boyfriend, Raul - who is not only gorgeous but sweet, strong, sincere and totally devoted to him. Right away you say to yourself, this is just like real life, just like me and the two incredible hunks who can't get enough of me. What's a homely nebbish girl to do? That's the dilemma in this movie that I really wanted to hate but can't.

It's the actors' fault: they're very, very good - TOO good for this unbelievable story. Unfortunately, the weakest actor is the one playing Jonathan, who brings no sensuality or charisma or other hot quality to the role to compensate for his nebbishy homeliness and explain WHY the two hunks are so irresistibly attracted to him.

He was much more believable in Postmortem, the short this movie is based on (available on the compilation DVD Boys Briefs 3 in the US or Boys On Film 4 in the UK). Opposite the same actor as Troy (but a much less gorgeous actor as Raul, in an almost negligible role), he was sexy, and the attraction between him and Troy in Postmortem was palpable and totally believable; it's not in this movie (but Postmortem was set in sexy, dynamic NYC, not in sterile, boring LA, which may have a lot to do with it).

Self-defeating compulsion is the only motivation either Jonathan or Troy shows in this movie, which may be intentional. August is a lot grittier and more complex (and therefore more interesting) than Postmortem was, which is why I'm giving it six stars despite the lackluster performance by Daniel Dugan in the key role as Jonathan. He was great playing the same character in Postmortem, but he'd lost the fire or something when August was made; since that character is central in the story, August suffers for it.

Mostly good story about love, lust, indecision, trust. The time jumps were a little confusing. Forward back, forward back. Troy's hair is long, then short. Then long, then short again. Did you recognize murray bartlett from season one of white lotus ? He was the hotel manager. In "august", all three characters have flaws. Troy tries to get between his ex jonathan, (who HE dumped!) and the exotic new boyfriend. Jonathan strings along the ex, who has returned, and the new boyfriend. Raul is very patient, waiting for jonathan to make up his mind, but has his communication issues. And he's trying to get his papers to stay in the country, which may be adding elements to the story. Long pauses. Lots of dirty looks from raul to jonathan, when he probably should have been saying what's on his mind. The ending makes sense, but kind of just trails off... almost like there's going to be a sequel. A little confusing. Well done. It was good to see a film that just dealt with everyday issues, and nothing too deep. Directed by eldar rapaport.

(( BACKGROUND FOR VIEWERS: This Feature Length film is a reworking of Director Eldar Rapaport's 2005, well received Short, "Postmortem" ))

"August"....whatever is meant by that, you might ask? Well, rather than looking at the title as being merely some play on words, let's just assume what's meant is the "simmering"..."sweat-drenched"..."torridness"...of that particular time in the yearly weather cycle. In fact, this is what becomes visually and audibly obvious to us, as our actors/characters experience sometimes uncomfortably high temperatures---a condition reinforced by repeated soundtrack use of Los Angeles area weathercasts. So, indeed, this film does have "Heat"! ....But, it's not just that sort of "Hotness" which involves us...because "Lovemaking Action" makes up a significant part of what we are seeing in this film.

Still and all, IF a film director is going to expand an earlier released 16 minute Short into a 100 minute Feature Length work....and essentially retain the same storyline and same 2 lead characters (tho now 6 years older)....there has GOT to be more provided than "Heat"....more than "Hotness". Admittedly, a much lessor role in the short film's "triangle of 3 guys" has notably (and most SIZZLINGLY) been expanded in this 2011 production. For now we are seeing the character of "Raul" being torridly played by relative newcomer, Adrian Gonzalez (giving us something not weather-related which definitely IS HOT). Oh, and we also have added a female role in the form of B(Girl)FF (and Green Card facilitator) "Nina", played by Hillary Banks.

At this point, allow this Reviewer to give just a few closing thoughts involving the "old and new" productions, as coming from someone who's lived with the former for years...and with the latter for a couple of viewings:

• In the Short's early scene...involving former lovers meeting once again at an outdoor coffee house...there was an intimacy, a "Heat" between the 2, which burned off the screen and into the viewer. That is pretty much missing in today's re-tread scene and, for me, is due to one actor in particular.

• Adding several extraneous scenery and street-related shots may add minutes to a feature's length....but it does not necessarily add interest.

• I was sometimes left wondering which way writing and film direction were heading with the sex shots. There is an anal sex scene, with virtually a full length, nude shot of the 2 going at it. Yet, at another point we're given an after-sex scene---our leads still together in bed---BUT wearing underwear (even tho the camera is, obviously, avoiding any "crotch shots"). Are we advertising boxer briefs? Is this CBS or NBC network TV filming? Does our director expect this ever to be shown as a K-Thru-12 afternoon school special?

• What I would consider a production glitch involves occasional sound problems, due to music and background conversations drowning out conversation between lead characters (this is even with earphone listening). There is no captioning provided...at least in the Region 2 DVD release.

FINALLY -- Perhaps the best thing I can bring out of this comparison of Short vs. Feature Length film, is that the feature definitely gives us a FINAL Ending...one which cannot be misconstrued, or that is left up in the air. And even better than that....everyone gets what they deserve.

PS -- Writer/Director Rapaport strikes me as being particularly capable of developing intense and interesting story lines; he should stick to doing that...in all-new works. (I do acknowledge it is not easy for anyone to expand a short story into an acclaimed full-length novel...let alone achieve fully successful refilming of an earlier work.)

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