Steel (2015)

One of my all time favorites.

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

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.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

I have watched this movie several times and every time, it pulls at my heart strings. I cannot make it past one of the final scenes without getting teary-eyed and to this day I keep finding little clues that I have missed in the previous viewings. This movie is similar to The 6th Sense, you need to go back and watch closely so you can see how many things make sense once you know what actually is happening. I was not like many people who figured out the plot from the beginning and the first time I watched it, it took me completely by surprise. Of course, the eye candy doesn't hurt either!

I found the film to be somewhat of a psychological mystery, quite good and not what I expected. I had not read any reviews/story line synopsis beforehand, but only had watched the trailer. So, I was not aware of a major aspect of the story line which played out at the end as an unusual, but intriguing twist for me. The main character Daniel, played by Chad Connell, appeared to be a damaged individual with heavy childhood guilt. He is attractive, has a successful career, but is emotionally stunted. A few of the scenes, whether directed as so, appeared a little awkward, but overall I was impressed with much of Chad Connell's portrayal. One other aspect of the film was that I thought some of the music reminded me of a bygone era and didn't sit right with me. I just thought different music might have been better. If you are not seeking an action-oriented film, but more of a character study with eye candy, then I would recommend this film as most gay- themed films have vapid characters and unimaginative plots.

You really can tell a Canadian indie movie; there's always that overriding vernier of slow-pace coupled with extremely bad bed music. This writing and plot is very weak, and the entire story could have been told in 30 minutes; enough time to expose and resolve the lead character's entire background story, add in a few tawdry gratuitous sex scenes...and yeah, that's pretty much it. The long pan-outs of scenery and mugging for the camera are beyond superfluous. And without spoilers, I pretty much "got" who Alexander was after their third interaction (yes...it was that predictable). The one good thing I can say is the filmography is well done and ranges from the hand-held/shaky technique to give the air of tension to some very elaborate shots which must have required some expensive equipment. In fact, I seriously don't know how the producer got the money to create this movie with such polish (then again, this is a Canadian film, so I'm sure they got a public grant for their required quota of gay films per year). If you have an hour to kill, watch this movie with a remote control so you can fast-forward through the slow parts...you'll need it.

OK so I thought to myself "hmmm gay films are never usually that good." But this one is!It deals with depression, anxiety attacks and loneliness in a way no other film to my mind ever has! Yes the full-frontal was a bonus I agree there.My only issue and it is a major one, was that this guy that helps him through almost the entire film ends up being imaginary! That was a really big 'up yours' to me and I have to say I would have preferred it if the film ended right after they got home from shopping. Alexander could say 'I love you' for the billionth time (lol) and finally Daniel could say it back. The end.Don't get me wrong, I totally get why they did this and I'm not saying it didn't make sense because it did, but it just hit me in the gut when they revealed it.Guys a lot of gay films out there suck. I know this for a fact. But this one, NOT AT ALL!Well done to Sven Matten and Vincent Ho on piecing together nothing short of a masterpiece.