Things Like This

I'm sitting in a living room with 8 other homosexuals, and we can't stop laughing at how bad this is. The dialogue is so contrived and immediate that it almost feels like it was written by AI. The second-hand embarrassment from the dialogue is some of the most intense I've ever felt. Anyone that sees this movie and think that it's AT MOST a 1/10 is being way too nice. The boss lady in it is so hilariously bad. It was like if a rural high school drama club wrote and directed their own play after discussing how they wanted to "change the world and perceptions."

Max Talisman playing Zack Anthony the struggling writer is all this is wrong about this movie. The Feel of the movie is well crafted for a small romantic comedy, Zack Mandel played by Joey Pollari really carries the movie all by himself. And the other roles in the movie are generally decent acting too. Joey pollari in his character feels like he is genuine, the emotional, frustrated, sad, and the way he carries himself in the movie feels like the right cast, he feels real. As opposed to Max Talisman who lacks to provide any kind of genuine emotion. Let me say right away that it's not because he is overweight, he just has no charisma, the way he delivers his lines are not believable, he kinda feels like a stand up comedian trying to hit his line one after another (which are not funny or genuine). There's absolutely NO CHEMISTRY between him and Joey Pollari which in the movie Joey is charismatic and his lines feels like he is living in this movie for real. This was bad casting, it sure would have been easy to find any other actor to play Zack Anthony. Whenever Max Talisman tries to act and be emotional it just all feels flat. It's a one sided well acted character by Joey Pollari, but I'm having a difficult time to get through the movie because of the hollowness of Max Talisman's Actiing. Such a shame with a different actor where Joey could have chemistry with the character of Zack Anthony, this could have been a really sweet rom-com. I gave it 2 stars for Joey's well acting and good story line. But the Director should have seen the problem with Max Talisman not belonging into this movie and have a recast for the character of Zack Anthony.

Okay... so the premise was promising but this just really missed the mark. The writing was bad at times and the pacing of the movie felt so rushed and the "obstacles" or lake there of was hard to understand why they were in the positions they were in. Max's Zach is such a horrible person to everyone around him. Max did write and direct the film so making him own character this unlikable was a bold choice. His acting was very middle school theater performance. However, can we talk about joeys performance? He was brilliant and was the standout of the film and did an amazing job with the horrible script he was given. I won't say much more to not spoil anything but I do have to ask why someone didn't ask for a rewrite on some scenes.

There's a rule in screenwriting that if you're going to have a character who's a bit extra/annoying/difficult, they need to do something unquestionably good early into the script, like saving a cat. That never happens for either of the two romantic leads. One is annoying, the other is slightly less annoying... and while I want more plus-size representation in queer cinema, certainly we can do better than this. Apart from making each other laugh, I never understood why either of them found the other attractive. I only realized that one of the actors who plays the romantic lead also wrote and starred in it when we got to the end. So... was this supposed to be some sort of fantasy about getting the hottie? But the thing is, the supposed "hottie" wasn't that attractive because he's such a jerk to the people around him. We can do better than this...

Such a good opportunity missed. This could have been great, but it felt unbelievable and contrived. I did wonder if it was written by someone with autism because it doesn't really seem aware of any social cues about how life works.

This isn't believable in the slightest. Bit of a fantasy world of some gay teen, with no grounding in reality. Oh look, a sexy man going through some stuff, being vulnerable, falling for someone not conventionally attractive. Always with the tormented gay character. Come on, we really can do better these days. This isn't the 90s any more where we just lap up any old tosh because of 'representation'. Needs a better script, more believable characters and a stronger base. How did this film even get made?