Baby Steps (2015)
Danny, a Taiwanese-American man, and his partner Tate want to have a baby, but the complex world of international surrogacy is further complicated by Danny's well-meaning but extremely meddlesome mother.
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If you don't like this, we can't be friends.
Don't Believe the Hype
At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Coming to iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play August 15, 2017, Oscar-winning producer Li-Kong Hsu ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon") and Stephen Israel ("Swimming With Sharks," "G.B.F.") present the Taiwanese-American LGBT indie film about international surrogacy, interracial gay relationships, and the need for mommy's love. Yea, I said all that in one breathe! Danny (director, writer, star) Barney Cheng ("Hollywood Endings" 2002) lives with his somewhat live-in boyfriend Tate (the handsome Michael Adam Hamilton -"The Ten Year Plan" 2014) miles from his very traditional Taiwanese mom Grace (Ya-Lei Kuei - "The Wedding Banquet" 1993). With Danny being gay, and his brother (Patrick Pei-hsu Lee) bucking stereotypes, Grace worries she'll never see grandkids. When Danny decides it's time to start a family, Grace hops on a plane to meet his wife and start planning for the baby. Over the next 1 3/4 hours we watch as Danny struggles to come clean about his relationship, as he works through the surrogacy process at home (with family friend Love Fang) and abroad, and deals with intrusive mom. As a direct digital release, and if the film focusing on the LGBT community, "Baby Steps" should find appeal. However, as presented, the story is long winded, at times confusing and the overall direction is a bit stagy. While all the actors do a nice job with what they are given, dialogue tends to be cumbersome and some characters inclusion aren't needed to move the story forward. With this being Cheng's directing debut, along with writing and staring in the film, for a first time endeavor it was too much. Thus, the films short comings rest on his shoulders.
It's a funny, entertaining, and solid film. I think the negative reviews are from 1) xenophobes, 2) homophobic people, and 3) anti-miscegenation purists (people who don't think different races should mix). All in all, I think the bigots are polluting the ratings. The ratings used to be much higher. IMDb, please note.I hope it will be widely released soon, as I think the current ratings are unfair.