ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.
Dorathen Better Late Then Never
Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
jjnxn-1 Gunn has a holiday surprise for his folks and boy is it a big one!! A sweet and goofy film that has a fine message of acceptance but doesn't hit the viewer over the head with it. The male leads are endearing and attractive but this is stolen by Kelly Keaton as the mom who gets a natural high from the joy of Christmas and life in general. She and Derek Long have fun as the long married couple who accept each other as they are, she a motor mouthed dervish and he a semi clueless stoner. Hallee Hirsh is sprightly as the girl next door who is wilder than she appears and hey look its Nellie Olsen as her Mom! Speaking of Alison Arngrim she is having a ball as the randy next door neighbor who engages in veiled verbal jousting with Gunn's mom to the audience's delight.
johannes2000-1 Due to my own not-so-good experiences with my coming-out (thanks, mum and dad!!), I'm a real sucker for feel-good coming-out movies - they never fail to bring me to some heartfelt tears of shared happiness. So with these kind of movies I'm not that critical as to whether the script, the direction or the acting is really above par. That's a good thing with this movie, for it's rather balancing on the verge. Although I enjoyed it and it served it's purpose, there are many flaws.For starters: there seem to have been made some strange and awkward choices in the editing. At many, many points the movie comes to a stand-still, when the camera lingers far too long on the face of a person after he or she has said or done something. When you want to stress some Deap Meaning this can be quite functional, but in a comedy, or at least at moments when comedy is intended, it's killing: it not only effects the pace but it sucks the punch out-off every punch-line! This brings me to my next reservation: there are way too many double entendres in the script, it dangerously tilts the movie to the point of below-the-belt cheapness. Sure, I laughed at some of them (even at the beaver-joke), but it annoyed me too, this movie didn't need all that, since it's a situational comedy the fun should come out of the situation itself and the opposite characters.Another reservation concerns the side-characters (and thus again the script). When you have so few characters in the story (in fact there are only four important ones, apart from the girl next door), and two of them (both parents) are personified and pictured in such an extreme and surreal way, then in my opinion it becomes totally top-heavy and negatively affects the balance of the story. One lunatic parent, with maybe one or two lunatic neighbors would had been quite enough.A last negative remark to the script: although it's a comedy, there ought to be maintained - especially in this kind of situational comedy - some sort of basic feeling of reality. Here this was put to the test way too often. Can a renowned professor walk around for a whole professional career being perpetually stoned out of his wits? Are these parents (obviously from the 60's love-generation) blind as bats, not to see that their son's room-mate Nathan is gayer than gay?! Is the switch of the neighbor-girl from love-sick goody two-shoes to an almost professional foul-mouthing fag-hag not a tiny bit too abrupt and weird?? And is the almost utopian coolness of both parents at the eventual outing of their son not a tiny bit out-of sync with the beforehand constant hammering of at least mama with her son on the theme of girls, marriage, family etc.? Wouldn't such cool and unorthodox parents (who make out with each other almost publicly, have such loud sex that their son has to put a pillow over his head, and with a father who walks around the house with his morning-gown hanging open and in that state even opens the front door when a stranger calls) - wouldn't such cool and care-free parents have already brought up the topic of sex with their only son a long time ago?? Well, anyway, now for the good things. This is without any doubt a very sympathetic, warm and sincere movie. There is, thank god, not so much a Big Message that has to be drilled-in, it just keeps close to the real-life fears of a gay adolescent when being on the brink of revealing his true self to his family: will they accept me in this new light? will I disappoint them? will things change between us? The script doesn't provide a big plot - like in so many other comparable coming-of-age movies - with complicated misunderstandings, plot-shifts and all kinds of side-stories; no, it just sort of strolls along on it's basic theme and in this way gets a nice and quiet development. The comedy-elements are, as said, not of the most subtle kind, but in spite of the serious theme the lighthearted tone of the movie succeeds in making you smile all the time, and that is not a bad thing. The characters of the parents are unrealistic and over-the-top, so it must have been hard for the actors to make something out of it, but I have to give credit to Kelly Keaton who gives, within the limits and pitfalls of the script, a very good, enthusiastic and affectionate performance. The main characters are of course Olav and Nathan, both are given a fine and convincing portrayal by Keith Jordan resp. Adamo Ruggiero. I didn't know Ruggiero, I never saw "Degrassi", he's certainly beautiful and very cute and I thought that he grew in his role; he was supposed to be the gayish extrovert of the two boyfriends, but he proved that within that stereotype he could actually find his own nuances - for instance when father Gunnunderson finds him all alone on a sidewalk terrace, Ruggiero really succeeds in moving you. But I especially liked Keith Jordan, he had this subdued, under-cooled (as we say in Holland) way of acting that only enhanced the feeling of reality, and he is so cute and endearing in his seriousness, that it made me want to put his head on my shoulder and tell him that eventually everything would be okay!All in all the good things far outweighed the bad, and I vote it a heartfelt 8 out of 10!
dennis_chiu1 Writer / Director Rob Williams has created a pleasant and funny independent, small budget film that features a stand-out performance by Keith Jordan as Olaf 'Gunn' Gunnunderson, the main character who is a gay student leader at college, but stuck in the closet with his Midwestern family. Christmas time is the setting for a sometimes hilarious and touching coming out story.Jordan reaches a genuine honesty in every scene, and considering how fast the shooting schedule is for these low budget features, this is the mark of genuine talent. Jordan's performance is the heart and core of the film and keeps it grounded despite the screenplay by Rob Williams that is filled to the brim with sexual double entendres. However, through the miracle of Jordan's pitch perfect performance, no matter how many references there are to tops, bottoms, muffins, and penis size, the film stays on course. for Jordan's acting comes from Austin Wintory's low-key folksy songs and soundtrack that provides a grounded tone to each scene, and from a great ing role by Hallee Hirsh, who plays Jordan's ex-high school sweetheart. For "Star Trek: The Next Generation" fans, Gates "Beverly Crusher" McFadden has a brief but important role that is the catalyst for mayhem as the mother of Olaf's boyfriend, Nathan Stanford (played by Adamo Ruggiero), who abandons Nathan at Christmas, forcing him to seek refuge at his boyfriend's home -- thereby creating the pressure on Olaf to come out to his parents."Make the Yueltide Gay" was a surprisingly entertaining late night film ed from Neflix that held my attention. If you keep your expectations at the level of a campy low budget film, I think you will be pleasantly surprised. I recommend this film.
Dennis Hirschmann Actually I was hoping it would be something along the lines of "Home for the Holidays", you know, big family of goof balls in midst the already insane holiday crazy, only with the focus being the gay son. "Make the Yuletide gay" is anything but that. No holiday antics, no pestering relatives, in the end it's just a coming-out-story. Which isn't a bad thing at all, of course, but... OK, one step after another.The first thing we learn about the main character, "Gun" (actually Gustav - his family is Swedish, methinks), is that he's one hot dude, known in his college as the "Big Gun". Who tells us this? His philosophy professor! Who sort of hits on "Gun" after he has finished his last exam of the year. Whose also a pretty hot dude himself, because we all know how sexy philosophy profs are. OK, I was already prepared to hate that movie. So in comes Gun's boyfriend Nathan. Or should I rather say "flies in"? Like a fairy? Throughout their first romantic scene together, where they exchange gifts (well not exactly "exchange" - Nathan bought one for Gun and for himself and makes Gun give it to him, hahaha. How sweet.) my eyes were rolling as if they'd try to screw themselves out of my head.Anyway, Gun is going to stay at his parents over Christmas holiday, BUT he isn't out to them yet. Nathan was originally supposed to stay at his parents, but they won a Christmas cruise and decide to simply leave their son on his own over the holidays. So Nathan decides to stay with Gun's family. Much to the dismay of Gun, because he never told his boyfriend that his parents think he's straight. This, of course, is when things get more interesting, funny and occasionally even touching in an understated way.Now, Gun's parents are two very special people. At first I thought his father had Altzheimer because he constantly forgets things and mutters random nonsense, but it turns out he's just a weed head. A hardcore weed head. He hasn't a single scene where he's sober. Apparently Gun's mother isn't doing drugs, but then again... she's always giggling, always cracking weird jokes and I swear in one scene where Nathan's just in his underwear, she drops on her knees to take a closer look at Nathan's panties because there are monkeys on it! I can't believe she's sober! Well, OK, maybe kissing a guy who smokes weed 24/7 makes you stoned too, I don't know. Most scenes with those two turn out to be more awkward than funny, with many pauses and the camera lingers on them for far too long after they said anything substantial, adding to the already awkward atmosphere.Then there's also Abby the girl next door and mom's first choice for Gun's bride. Abby seems to be a nice, harmless, obnoxiously sweet girl at first, but as soon as she meets Nathan, she immediately finds out the two guys are gay and *snap* out of the blue turns into a freakish Paris Hilton-style fag hag, calling them bitches and all of that hilarious stuff. It's painful to watch. And finally there's Abby's mother, who is... just some obnoxious snob who has a feud with Gun's mother and has no real relevance to anything.Well, with the side characters out of the way, I'll finally get to the part that actually made the movie worthwhile. Our two heroes of course. It's undeniable, there is a good chemistry going on between these two. They're also by far the best actors in the movie. Keith Jordan as Gun does a good job conveying that irrational fear that makes it so hard for him to come out to his parents. He doesn't want to lose their love, because he's afraid that they might be not as liberal as they appear on the outside. That's a feeling a lot of homosexuals (either men or women) can relate to. His portrayal of this struggle within him is low-key and thus more convincing. But to my surprise it's Adamo Ruggiero as Nathan who is most interesting. Turns out he isn't the queen I figured him out to be. In the end he's by far the more mature of the two men, though he also has his fears and problems (i.e. his cold, unloving parents). It was fun to watch him as he watched Gun and his family in disbelief and actually touching when he gradually started to compare this family to his own. You can actually see how this feeling of loneliness unfolds in him.It's the moments the film spends exclusively on these two that made it worthwhile for me. And in a romantic comedy that's what counts the most.I didn't go much into the plot, because, frankly, there isn't one to speak of. It's more like an observation of this family's Christmas holidays with Gun's struggle as the red thread. I give the film credit for trying. Director Rob Williams captured that everyday feeling quite well and the movie never gets boring; the message is clear but not forced on you with schmaltz and although I didn't like any of the side characters, they're quite original. And it's humor is OK too - if you like humor that almost entirely consists of double entendre. I swear, they crammed every sexual innuendo into this movie the setting has to offer. Like loft-beds, Swedish sausages and... beavers? OK, I'm not so sure about this. Are beavers actually standard decoration in America on Christmas!? Well, as you can see it's quite lowbrow humor but it usually came so unexpected that I found it genuinely funny.All in all you won't lose anything from watching this movie. And especially with the holidays approaching, it's a nice way to spend an evening with your sweetheart. And I think I learned some lessons on tolerance myself as well.
