afkiff

I didn't intend to, but I binged the entire season in one sitting. Absolutely loved it. The cast was excellent, the concept was brilliant, and I tip my hat to the masterful production team. The way they conceived of how this would work and the numerous ways it could go down, without him ever figuring it out is extraordinary. And casting the ultimate Good Guy Greg...? A stroke of genius. Perhaps most remarkable was that pranking this guy wasn't done to embarrass him or shame him, and yet it was still side-splitting. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. I can't wait to find a close friend who hasn't seen it and binge it all over again with them. "Pacific Rim" LOLOLOL.

This is a really lovely film by a filmmaker I had not heard of. Never in a rush to get anywhere, Stephen Cone's film weaves its way so naturally through these intersecting lives, as they jump in and out of the pool at Henry Gamble's 17th Birthday Party. Everyone has a crush on someone else, no one is satisfied, and yet there's nothing melodramatic, just subtle body language, and flashes of accidental honesty. I was immediately intrigued - from the first innocent conversation between two teen boys casually exaggerating the size of their members, to the prophetic line Henry announces to his family, as he looks at the time on the morning of the party, "I was just born." The family is very Christian, dad is the local pastor so there's prayer before meals, and they don't touch alcohol, which makes the homosexual subtext (among other secrets) at the beginning of the movie all the more intriguing. Coming out movies had their heyday, and to do one nowadays requires it to be a lot more, which this movie is. Mr. Cone's delicate hand, and his subtle message of compassion is never overwhelmed by the enormous, talented, relatively unknown cast, or the inherent drama of teenage angst.