Antarctica

The film begins with a serial depiction of pick-ups by one of the film's characters, that appears promising - then, oh no, the character cries in the shower: the emptiness of his life, we gather, and also that the film is fishy.

One bold leap three years ahead.

Dear director, do not attempt such things if you have not foregrounded a story, however elliptic.

Actually there is no story, just amateurish shots of characters that confuse our endeavors to figure what happens, why this one appears, if it is central or peripheral to what is going on, then a female character appears played by a male actor, and the film by that point becomes "inferential" at best: we "infer" that this "transvestitism" is an Almodovar-like take; that the film shows the givings and misgivings of destiny in a group of people that meet, or fail to do so, in the end; we "infer" that the "alien thing" is comic, and stands for tenderness in the very end.

But the transvestitism is actually a travesty: a travesty for comedy, for relief, for enacting any sense of locality; the "alien thing" not only fails to engage in locality as well, but actually forecloses any sense of geographical specificity, and becomes a psychotic symptom for avoiding to do so (another film from Israel, that met with critical success, "The Bubble" engaged in the specificity of time and place, though it presented a nihilistic political point of view that, combined with its cinematic tendentiousness, turned it into hypocrisy).

It is a sad, expansive phenomenon that such uninformed sense of engagement masquerades as a kind of hurt sensibility, and a plea for sentimental and spiritual gathering of souls, a plea for love beyond our shortcomings, be them racial, sexual, ethnic ones. The film reads like a juvenile attempt at themes it fails to attack: what it means to be lonely and insecure and crave for it or be well-poised etc. but all this is to "infer"; let alone the preposterous thing going on between the journalist and the salesman: a journalist that has a humane streak falling for a gossipy, cliché-carved little nelly? There is no plausibility concerning the hovering, changing sentiments and this is so severe that comes off depressively and in the end, with the actually mad closure, pathologically I dare say.

Or,the three years leap is slumped on us for signaling the older dancer's reawakening of feelings for the young dancer? For the story we did not see in the beginning? That, OK, could be evolved in a later part of the film for bigger dramatic effect, but for what? So that we learn they passed three weeks together? This is the kind of thing the late Quentin Crisp serenely and acerbically mocked as three weeks of "meaningful relationship". This must also be the writer/director's sense of meaningful film-making.

I just saw this film in the Philadelphia gay and lesbian film festival. I thought it was a pretty decent movie.

The film starts with a guy bringing different men every night in his apartment. Every man has shown to be with some peculiar features. After first five minutes the film moves 3 years and starts showing life of few people in the city of Tel Aviv some of whom eventually turn out to be men whom this character sleeps with. Omer, a young guy soon to turn 30 works as a librarian and is looking for his love. He meets Danny for a blind date which goes well but he thinks that Danny is too young for him. Danny lives with Ronen, his ex-boyfriend who is a journalist and often visits the library. Omer and Ronen have noticed each other. Then we have Shirley, Omer's little sister. Aside from being Omer's greatest annoyance, she is in an unconventional relationship with, Michal, owner of the city's hippest coffeehouse and her boss. She breaks u her wedding with Michal at the last moment because she wants to travel the world specially Antarctica. Omer's best friend goes on a date with Ronen and have god time and sex. One day in library Ronen invite Omer to go with him to a meeting They realize that they have lots in common with each other but cant do anything about it. Finally the day comes when Omer's mother invites Omer, Shirley, Michal and Omer's friend for his birthday. His friend invites along Ronen and thats where Omer and Ronen realize that they are meant for each other. There are some side stories about Danny, his 3 year old hook up and now his dance instructor and about a crazy writer who believes that aliens talk to her. The film ends with how some people win their love and how some people are just left alone.

The performances in the film were really good. I thought it was something different but the only problem was there were too many characters and their relationship with each other became confusing after a certain point. Ronen was very hot looking and Omer was like the boy next door. I thought he was cute to. The film was with good production values. Its hard to point any flaws in the movie but at the same time it did not make me clap for it.

Another time, another day, I might watch it again.

i always enjoy watching foreign films, it is fascinating to watch people in other countries live and love.

i think that this gay film is one of the best. i saw the unrated version, so at the beginning, it felt like a hot gay porn. three years later, the film returned to "normal." unlike some other gay films with weak stories, bad actors, etc, this film has an riveting storyline, and good actors. it seems that the male actors are all gay, i wonder if they are gays in real life. because there were not afraid of doing any male to male actions.

and i have never watched a gay film from israel before, very fascinating. i truly enjoyed it. so i rated it a 9.

Unclear as to why Israel has such a repertoire of gay films, but they all seem to have one thing in common: a very conceited, shallow, self-centered protagonist. In this case, the writer attempts to have the hedonistic protagonist come off as having a "heart" or soft-spot, when he allows an old "fling" (who was apparently the first guy the young lad had ever hooked up with) stay with him. The dialogue is pretty meaningless, but as they say in Hebrew, "it sounds funnier in Yiddish". But mostly, the film is just a bunch of blurry fast-paced sex-scenes with hairy Jewish men. If that's your thing, then this is the film for you.

I had pretty high expectations of this movie after reading a very short synopsis; I really like ensemble movies and 'Antarctica' being a gay movie and from Israel added to the attraction (I see a lot of Hollywood movies as well). I came out pretty disappointed.

There was very little story in this and hardly any substance. I found it rather shallow while the premise was full of possibilities for an engrossing film. There is great potential in ensemble movies but only when a director and/or a writer know what to do with it… clearly in this case there could have been much more of a plot if the writer had left out a couple of characters and had focused on the remaining ones for some depth and background.

I am somebody who enjoys striking images - by which I do not mean pictures of sunsets and lavish homes, but images that, whether they are pretty of ugly, enhance the story - but there was no beauty at all to be found in this movie. I am not referring to the cast because some of them were actually rather handsome, but the sets: apartments, kitchens, streets, surroundings… nothing spoke to me. It looked like nobody had been hired for cinematography. Now I am aware of the budget factor but there is a big gap between lush Hollywood sets and cramped TL-lit spaces. From where I was sitting a little more attention to imagery would not have distracted from the story; it would probably have enhanced it.

But the one thing I could not get over was the casting of the character 'Omer's Mother'. This person was so ridiculously out of place that it hurt. I sincerely wonder what the deal was here because I cannot believe that any casting director who takes themselves seriously would voluntarily cast this character the way it was done, destroying any credibility the movie had to begin with.

'Antarctica' in my view is mediocre at best, I give it 5 out of 10.