The Pass

I had the pleasure of watching this film during the 2017 Outfest Film Festival in Los Angeles and all I kept thinking to myself is WOW! This film was so well done and real to life. I actually know several personal friends who have chosen the path of career over finding true love. The results can be loneliness and missed opportunities. This film shows three different stages where love opportunities where missed over career goals. There are many levels to this film so I won't give anything from this film away. You MUST watch this film with an eye for details for there are many layers of story being told simultaneously. The actors were superb. Specially the main character who carried the film very well with conviction and authenticity. Kudos to him. Highly recommended. Beautifully done and executed.

Russell Tovey and Arinzé Kene are two young football players on the verge of having bigger careers when they share a hotel room the night before a big game. The titular moment happens, and then we see the fallout five and then ten years later in two different hotel rooms.

I was struck by the large disparity between how much I wanted to like this film and how little I really did. It was adapted by John Donnelly from his successful play, and it's one of the most clear "adapted from a play" films I have seen with three equal length acts involving a couple of people standing in small rooms and talking. It's a film where I really liked it's overall arc, but didn't really enjoy much of what it took to get there.

It does have a truly heroic amount of very ripped, shirtless men, so that will add an extra element for many viewers.

"The Pass" is extremely well-thought, well-written and well-acted; an EXTREMELY rare combination for a gay themed film. But times have certainly changed, in that we now have the benefit of openly gay actors (such as Russel Tovey) who don't shy away from such projects, and can apply their experience and skill unhindered. I felt the chemistry between the two characters of Jason and Ade at the beginning of the film was both real and forced...maybe the scenes were shot out of order, but at times I felt they were seriously best mates, and at other times it felt as if they were just playing stereotypical 2-dimensional English soccer players. I can also say this about the Jason character overall; we're supposed to believe he has an irresistible magnetism and charisma, which is why people deal with his narcissism (a very real phenomenon). Yet at the same time, the final scene crossed the barrier of disbelief, in that I can't see the Ade character would have stuck around to "participate" in whatever Jason had going on if he were still infatuated with him. However, I think the ending was a perfect way to express just how it might have brought Ade to make certain decisions in the beginning. All in all, this is one of the highest caliber gay-themed films I have seen (rivals "Brokeback Mountain") and definitely worth watching .

I really enjoyed the movie and the acting was great. The way it portrayed the range of emotions in the different relationships were very poignant and authentic. Russell Tovey was amazing and gave a layered performance. Arinze Kene should definitely be given more roles in the future. I hope UK cinema realizes what they have before he is forced to go to the US for work.

This was such a pleasant surprise. I truly did not know anything other than this being an LGBT- film, and boy was it more than that. It's not exactly an LGBT romance film, and surely not one of a couple blossoming. Instead, it's a quiet heavy and quiet dark character study of one broken man. Arinzé Kene is very good and I hope this helps him get more roles, but it's truly Russell Tovey's film and he delivers. I thought he was quite good in Looking, but I never knew he would be possible of the deeper places he goes to here. It's an incredibly performance that should stand as one of the year's best.