Adam & Steve (2005)

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Why have I never heard of this film? This is stupid! I'm sort of a gay film buff right now, since I'm researching a novel - and I only recently came across this gem. I'm laughing out loud at almost every scene - this film is fantastic! In your face and subtle at the same time, attention to detail and a clean write.Why was this not the next Birdcage? This is so hilarious! People are missing out! Fire some executive, goddamn it!Sharp and sensitive writing, and playful directing, inspired acting and very, very good music. Clever, silly, sensual, serious, gross - all my fave ingredients!What went wrong? Somebody should be kicking themselves in the balls for not pushing this film harder.Thank you for creating this beautiful comedy and funny drama! My kind of thing. I offer my creative embrace, but it feels it's too little.

Love is Touch Touch is love Love is reaching Reaching is loveNo one could sum up this film better than this nearly final music. But the film is going a long way beyond the simple words in these four lines and two verses. It is not enough to just touch the other and be touched by the other. We must understand that touching is a very complex activity. You have to touch the mind of the other and vice versa be touched by the mind of the other and in the same way your mind is supposed to touched the other and the other is supposed to touch your mind. But speaking of the mind, everything must be included and sorted out not in any way to judge or try what is good or bad but just to know who the other is and vice versa and to accept the other the way he is and to be accepted by the other the way you are. And that's what is meant by reaching.Straight sex erases this dual relation since one is a man and one is a woman and everything is reduced to that difference, but when the two persons are two men, or two women, the differences are so much deeper and more secret, less visible and more complicated. They cannot be reduced to a simple difference in sex since the two people are of the same sex. The differences are mental, intellectual, artistic, physical and of course the past of the people is different, their heritage is different and so many other things are different, but not the sex and nothing can be reduced to that circumstantial difference. It is so easy to forget all these things in a straight couple, to reduce the whole thing to a simple difference in sex. Actually the sex difference, or similitude, itself is the least important element in a love relation that can be even just as strong and yet not lead to sex. Love does not have to be realized in sex though sex should be a continuation of love, which it is not all the time.This film is touching at that level, emotionally strong and it really takes a whole village to bring two people together against all the odds that accumulate against them, especially when the two people are of the same sex. And when you live in East Village, New York, it takes the whole neighbourhood to do it and doing it changes the whole neighbourhood. That gives a tremendous density to this two human roads crossing and the two travellers coming together and little by little settling together. The story is complex and at the end we sure know there is no Bernstein curse of any sort, just a pile of unluckily coincidences that can be ended when you deeply believe that there is no curse on you.To conclude let me say that bringing together a Jewish birdwatcher from New York and a Christian psychiatrist from Texas is not that obvious, and we have to keep in mind that "the end is in the beginning and yet you go on" as Samuel Beckett said and he knew all the details of the curse of being different in a world that accepts only absolute uniformity and homogeneity. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

I'm getting really tired of people who don't like a particular film genre giving bad reviews of movies belonging to that genre. I don't like gory horror films, so I wouldn't review (or see) something like Hostel or Saw. But somehow people (and reviewers) delight in putting down romcoms, not because there's anything wrong with the films, but because it would have to be something absolutely extraordinary to even merit a "satisfactory" from them.That's why it pisses me off that Adam and Steve hasn't gotten the critical acclaim that it deserves. I honestly feel that most of the bad reviews were of people predisposed to dislike it just as they'd be predisposed to dislike any new romantic comedy, gay or straight. (That's not to say that it hasn't gotten its fair share of good reviews, and deservedly so!)Yes, the romantic comedy genre has been done and done again, and not always well, but I can count the number of GAY romantic comedies on the fingers of one hand. All Over the Guy, and Adam and Steve, and...? How many others follow the formula of two people who meet cute, fall in love, face some kind of crisis, and then overcome it in a tear and laughter filled climactic scene? Yes, I'll admit it. I'm a sucker for a good romcom. I can see While You Were Sleeping any day of the week. But as a gay man I've been cheated of this genre, always having to superimpose my own boy/boy couple over the boy/girl couple in the film.Adam and Steve is the film I (and others I'm sure) have been waiting for. One of the funniest (admittedly crude at times, Thank you Farrely bros) and at the same time most gloriously romantic romcoms ever, and this time it's a boy meets boy, boy loses boy, boy gets boy back story! The chemistry between Craig Chester and Malcolm Gets is palpable, and thank you openly gay hero Chester for casting another gay man to play opposite. As Chester says in the film commentary, he and Gets don't have to worry about "playing gay" but can simply play the characters, and when they are in bed together or sharing a romantic moment (lots of kissing in this film), you don't have to wonder if they felt odd or uncomfortable. It's obvious that they didn't and don't.Parker Posey and Chris Kattan are along for the ride, Ms. Posey giving yet another lovable quirky performance that's made her the indie queen, and Mr. Kattan showing himself a real actor and real person, something that his usual over the top roles don't allow him to do.If you don't like romantic comedies, don't see this movie. But if you're like me, someone who loves the genre but has felt cheated out of his own romcom, by all means BUY the DVD because this is a movie you'll be watching again and again.

along comes this DVD, which i picked up and bought on impulse. i'm not sure if the film was ever released in my city, and if it was, i wasn't aware. at any rate, i did want to see it after reading about it in "metro". i'm not going to blather on about the plot, storyline, etc., but i am going to throw in my 2 cents.1. yes, it's formulaic and predictable on the whole, but it makes the viewer comfortable by giving enough of the formula for it to be familiar -- that's a good thing.2. the movie is a comedy, so a certain amount of levity is expected. what's unexpected is that it is riddled with wit and off-the-wall situations. it also tackles some really serious stereotypes and spins them into things that are really just plain silly (again, the whole comfort thing seems to be the underlying theme). it touches on subjects like homophobia and presents it as something other than hateful, rather just plain stupid; that revealing a gay relationship to your loved ones will not necessarily mean that the sky will fall, etc. it presents these things, among others, without being preachy, patronizing, or totally unrealistic.3. how can one not want to watch this movie? though only supporting, one of the best actresses working is in it -- Ms. Parker Posey -- she should be enough of a reason to see it. also while Chris Kattan was okay in the movie, i wonder (in light of the recent pepsi commercials), if the movie would have been funnier had Jimmy Fallon played Chris's character...(the mind wanders)...and Malcolm Gets...*sigh/swoon*kudos to Craig Chester for writing and directing this very friendly and comfortable movie. it was over-the-top, yes, but that serves *not* to alienate the viewer: there are no icky affection scenes or situations (though some may disagree), and really the movie just gives you permission and license to take some things at face value. not everything needs to be dissected and that being gay (even with all its baggage and burdens) does not have to be serious all the time. it is definitely a gay movie in more ways than one. just watch it. =)