Holding Trevor (2007)

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The experiences of Trevor and his friends felt very real to me. I enjoyed experiencing their friendship and banter and found the three main characters very likable. Though Trevor's romantic relationships are central to the film, it felt much more as though it was about a point in Trevor's life where he needs to find a way to grow and move forward. The music was excellent. I thought the director made some nice touches, in particular with the scene involving looking at the lights and the good-bye party at the hospital. Overall, the emotions of the film rang true to me, the characters were people I found I cared about, and the humor unforced and good-natured.

A small film about love but though it is interesting, there are many shortcomings.The first one is that there are a great number of scenes in very dark atmosphere, I mean lacking lighting and that creates a sombre atmosphere that is not in touch with the subject.The second is that Trevor's psychology is not very constructive. He seems to be going through a rejection phase. He has made a choice and that choice turns sour. So he rejects everything and everyone when he is most needed and as if he had no responsibility in what is happening around him. In other words he is an escapist.One of his friend and, ex-boyfriend, is on drugs and Trevor is satisfied with knowing that he is on methadone and he does not want to have anything to do with him any more, and he is brutal about it. His brutality ruins the party of his female room mate and he does not seem to give a damn and he even insults this room mate when she protests.Another shortcoming is the fact that the gay scene, and more widely the young people's sex scene is seen as being intertwined with binge drinking and drug addiction, with irresponsibility in such states that makes you take risks and play it bareback instead of safe. It is the female room mate who falls in that trap and she gets HIV positive of course. Slightly superficial and easy and hardly pedagogical about the problem.Trevor insists, even too much, on his father as a negative castrater and depriver and frustrater, etc, that forced him all the time to leave what he liked behind and yet this father is magically regenerated when it is needed with a sentence that is more than surprising: when you go away you don't have to leave things behind, or something like that. And he feels justified to go away from Los Angeles to New York with his lover who might be a life affair and leave behind without one thought about it all those who were his friends, shared his life and helped him in many ways to be what he is and even to meet his new and maybe lasting love of his, the doctor taking care of his drug addicted ex-boyfriend.It is in a way an interesting romance, but it is less shiny and beautiful than it should be. It is based too much on cutting off branches, pruning off limbs. One cannot live with no recollections of and no connections with one's past. That's either purely egotistic, and then love is a sham, or it is in many ways leading to schizophrenia and that is a shame.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

This starts off with a straight woman masturbating in bed where she's disturbed by a gay male friend phoning her . The gay male friend then has his partner perform fellatio on him and then the partner suffers a drugs OD . Have I mentioned that the opening credits haven't finished at this point ?Oh dear yet another feature from independent cinema . Maybe there is a market for this type of very limited release . Maybe there isn't . Or maybe the whole film's function is to make a film so the production team can hone their film making skills before moving on to better things . I've got to brutally honest and say the production team on HOLDING TREVOR still have a long way to go The fundamental problem is that very little of note happens in the film . Characters spout existentialist dialogue in a totally unconvincing pretentious manner . There is not one sympathetic character in the movie and for a film that supposedly is made to appeal to a gay audience the gay characters are acted in a totally camp way which makes for a totally uninvolving film regardless of your sexuality

I was fortunate enough to catch HOLDING TREVOR today at OUTFEST, the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. I think it is really charming. It is beautifully directed, very funny and ultimately very moving. I thought a group of 20-somethings was going to bore me to tears. But the characters are vivid and interesting. The directing and acting are superb. Brent Gorski, the writer and star, is really a wonderfully talented filmmaker. And he is very, very easy on the eyes. One of the sexiest screen actors I have seen in ages. The camera loves him and so will audiences who catch this delightful movie.It's funny because now that I think of it no one in the movie really does "hold" Trevor. But I realize the title is a metaphor for Trevor being adrift in life. So, never mind.BRAVO!!!