Going Down in LA-LA Land

This is Casper's best effort to date. The film is beautifully shot and directed. While there may be a misstep here or there, they are easily ignored given the level of acting.

Candy (Allison Lane) and Adam (Matthew Ludwinski) make a warmly klutzy pair of friends who met in film school and have eventually landed in Hollywood. Candy has an apartment, paid for by her boy friend, with a room Adam can crash in until he's got a job.

While some the story is cliché, much of it is original, based on Andy Zeffer's semi-autobiographical novel. Again, while some of the plot points about getting involved in the porn industry aren't particularly new, the tale of a love affair gone awry, with the hope of redemption, rings true.

I found the connection between Adam and John quite convincing. Judy Tenuta as Zinnea, an old friend of John's with secrets of her own, is particularly comical, if over the top in Judy's trademarked manner.

This is not a heavily dramatic story, but is sufficiently entertaining that I heartily recommend it. Having Bruce Vilanch pop in for a cameo was an inspired bit of casting.

It is a mix of romantic comedy and serious drama. Which at points creates an interesting space of humor and tension that feels real and mimics true life. While at other points it's too funny to be serious while at the same point too serious to be funny, which creates a sense similar to look at modern abstract art and thinking either I am missing the point here or they failed to hit their target.

Overall it is a good movie that has a nice balance between sweet and tragic but it bothered me that some characters came into the story seeming to be important and then just kind of drop out of the story with little to no explanation as to why or what happens to them.

I liked the movie for being mostly light-hearted, but still posing some serious issues (coming out, entourage, drugs).

The film has its share of gay stereotypes, all in good fun. You have the fag hag, the gossipers at the bar, and the not-so-common hag-of-the-other- fag (more or less) which obviously starts on the wrong foot with the protagonist.

Still, the movie is not entirely predictable and the acting, while slightly over the top at times, makes it worthwhile.

It's not ground-breaking, yet not cheesy. A really good movie to watch at home on that day when you feel tired and need something to lift up your spirits.

At the beginning, I thought this movie was like any other from West Hollywood, but it ended nicely done a with a very romantic ending side (With Adam and John) and mixed with the witty personality of Adam's best friend Candy. The actors made good job and the connection among them was believable and made sense in that entertainment industry where economical power, lust, sexual desires and even drugs are present to end in a romantic relationship and even some scenes were not of my cup of tea, i continued watching it and the more i was getting to the end, this film became more interesting! Music background was right, direction and set up locations were good also and Acting was memorable. Very hard to find in these American Hollywood stories!

I'm not often kind to the genre and with good reason. Most gay themed movies are either over the top drama or or so poorly produced as to be unwatchable.

The storyline is a bit old with boy leaving New York believing he'll hit it big in LA but bites it big time. Porn is awfully enticing when you're broke and on the verge of starvation but nothing will ruin a career faster. The love interest here will tell you that.

Production values are pretty good here. The budget didn't break the bank but they did a great job with what they had. The acting is acceptable by most accounts. Lighting sound and direction are pretty solid.

Trust me. It takes a lot for me to be kind. I can count on one hand the number of quality American gay films and this just might qualify.