After Louie

As a lot of movies of hiv has been made the majority leaves me depressed. After Loui for me is different : I really liked the story

This film tells the story of a passionate gay activist who spent years to fight for gay rights. He is stuck in the past, and finds himself clashing with the ideals and the way of life in the modern gay world that he has helped to shape.

"After Louie" perhaps is very personal to the director and the producers. It focuses on the activist who is still very much in the fighting mode,unable to enjoy the fruits of his labour. The story unfortunately is told in a very slow pace and in a rather uninteresting manner. The only scene that is poignant is the argument scene at the dinner gathering. Those five minutes are really the only minutes that stand out from the rest. I find myself wondering when the film is ending, and indeed why the film is not ending. The film feels very long, and drags on and on at the end. The film could have stopped right after the party started. We did not need to see the birthday cake, the bathroom scene and then the woman talking about not helping to clean up. There are a lot of redundant scenes, which may be important to the filmmakers but they do not add to the film unfortunately.

Do good people do bad things or bad people do good things? Who knows? We do expect our heroes to be perfect. The main character is not a perfect man, but he was an activist. If you take this movie as a documentary or full examination of activism, you will be disappointed. If you look at it as a man's middle-aged struggle, you might get it. The story starts out slow; it takes a while to get to know the characters. Nobody in the movie is great or perfect; neither is the movie. However, it's enjoyable if you sit back, watch, and listen. It's inter-generational.

If you hate gay movies or are a prude, don't watch it. If you're looking for an action movie, this isn't it. Although, I believe the movie is worth watching even if it isn't the greatest movie.

This is a pretty great A-list movie that in my opinion is super underrated. Seems like it didn't get any publicity AT ALL. I wonder why... Well, it's a simple story, a character study, but it I loved it. It has beautiful cinematography, very believable acting and it made me feel for the main character. And Zachary Booth is such a sweetheart... Nostalgic and very human and relatable, not just if you're a gay man. It makes you think about the meaning of life and death, relationships with your friends, growing older etc. Highly recommened if love a good moody film.

Sam (Alan Cumming) is a self-centred artist working on a video tribute to a friend long-dead of AIDS. Sam's homosexuality is very political: a veteran of the gay rights protests and anti-bigotry campaigns of decades ago, he embraces the self-imposed outsider, 'rage against the machine' status it affords him, as witnessed by his tirade against a gay couple who marry. But it's not all politics: one night he takes home a young man (Zachary Booth) he meets in a bar. Their relationship is the hook on which the film hangs a wider examination of Sam's life.

So far, so talky American gay movie. What saves the film is the acting. I agree with Samuel L Jackson - why hire a Briton to play an American - were all the American actors busy? But there is no doubt Cumming is good in this, eschewing the queenliness he sometimes uses and instead delivering a character who is a strong, opinionated, not-particularly-likable ordinary guy. As for Booth, while he has the looks of a vapid Valley boy, he turns in a natural, realistic performance as the younger man intrigued by the older man, but not blinkered to the latter's faults. Amongst the supporting roles, Everett Quinton has fun as the ageing, gently flamboyant queen who is the oldest of the circle of friends.

So full marks for the acting, but considerably fewer for originality.