You Belong to Me

Gay theme + indie budget usually = the suck, and I tend to avoid them, but I get curious when they try to go against the grain and make such a movie a thriller (like this one) or horror. Still, I had recently given up on two gay indies 10 minutes in so I wasn't optimistic about this one's odds.

Well, it doesn't suck, though it doesn't rise above mediocre either. It's a fairly simple story about an obsessive gay man who moves into a new apartment complex because of a crush on his attached trick who lives there, but gets stalked instead by his landlady.

There isn't really much suspense to speak of - what keeps the story going is the little mystery of the landlady's motivations. The acting isn't too bad, at least not of the leads' - at least they have some resume and aren't acting students. The lead character is annoyingly stupid at times but then again, someone who moves to a new place chasing a crush isn't gonna be all that bright, and sadly, I think it's all too believable that some gay men might just do that.

I enjoyed this surprising film, which I saw at the SF Frameline festival this past weekend. Jeffrey is a gay architect who is enamored with a guy who won't spend the night or otherwise deepen their relationship. When he sees this guy letting himself into an apartment building (with another guy on his arm) and then sees an sign saying there's another apartment available, he lets the eager landlady show it to him. What starts out as clearly a bad idea turns into a nightmare. There's fun along the way, but it isn't really tongue-in-cheek. A good homage to lots of thrillers - yet it has its own plot twists. A good time was had by all. Recommended.

Kenyon

This has got to be one of the worst movies! LOOK it was a lot of great development but dammit!!! We need PROPER endings to movies nowadays, don't we!

Is this movie TRYING to art-house? It was stylish and pretty and started out almost Hitchcockian in its innocuousness...the cast of characters did a great job. It borrowed something from MISERY. And -

Sure it twisted and twisted and it felt great but dammit, I wouldn't watch the RING Trilogy and leave out the last 20 minutes???? THis movie sure had a lot of potential.

But paraphrasing someone who commented on a movement of a Brahms symphony..."this is where the director/writer RAN OUT of ideas".

What is the point of a cliffhanger/pat/confused ending!? What a ruined 90 minutes! geeezz!

The best way to see "You Belong to Me," Sam Zalutsky's only full-length feature to date (a shame) is to go into it completely blind, expecting just another lo-fi gay indie drama. You will then be blown entirely on your ass, when the plot suddenly takes a hard left about halfway into it. But I'll try to talk around that...

It starts out as a typically gritty New York low-budget picture...NY actors, NY locations. It captures the feel, look, and vibe of Brooklyn quite well. Jeffrey (Daniel Sauli) is a gay architect who has fallen hard for a one night stand named Rene (Julian Lucas) who doesn't give him the time of day. He's tired of living with his best friend Niki (Heather Simms) and, on an impulse crossed with vague stalking tendencies, rents out an apartment in Rene's building.

He quickly becomes the object of landlady Gladys' slightly overbearing attentions. And this is a good place to give Patti D'Arbanville, the consummate New York actress, her just deserved props. D'Arbanville has been around a LONG time, and she usually winds up playing a part that is a "type" --- usually The Slut, The Hard-Edged Girl, The Bitchy Wife. In YBTM she's older, and still plays a type, but the part is so well-written and well-rounded, that D'Arbanville really makes it her own with a palette of emotions that range from vulnerable to pathetic to abjectly terrifying.

Mr. Sauli brings a nicely laconic, coolly mysterious presence to Jeffrey as well. His character starts out as a cypher and then gradually becomes very immediate and real.

I think the intimate tone and style of this film makes it so good. It's an ideal match for the material and Zalutsky has a very finely tuned sense of what works and what doesn't. "You Belong to Me" is one of those films that is so engaging, you almost don't want it to end, and at about 80 minutes, it zips by. A good ride, if not to everyone's tastes.

This movie sometimes is really scary. All the usual aspects are there: a big house with a lot of rooms, a creepy landlady and some other strange people walking around.

The main character (Jeffrey) is a decent young man with a job as architect. His is in love with a unpredictable guy (Rene). To be close with the guy Jeffrey rents a apartment in the same building without letting him know that. The previous tenant left suddenly, leaving his belongings in the apartment. Then things become interesting. The landlady has a handyman available who can't speak and is deaf. And since Rene isn't interested in Jeffrey anymore he has time to work at the building finding some strange things.

Since this is a thriller a lot of things happen where anybody with a clear view would say: keep out and get away. But that won't make a long and interesting movie.

Overall the acting in the movie is good. The story is a little bit thin, but not annoying. Don't think too much and just enjoy.