Matrimonium

I saw this film at the Philadelphia Gay & Lesbian Film Festival this summer, and it was honestly one of the funnest movies I've ever seen. It was kinda ridiculous how much we (the audience) loved it. I mean, I was laughing so hard it literally hurt (i hate when people say that, but we were truly holding our stomachs! Wiping tears!) It was a great big hit at the festival, and the mood afterwards was a jubilant party.

It's a take-off on the reality TV rage that's taken over television. Even the format of the film is drawn for TV, because the film unfolds in half-hour 'episodes', complete with intros and outros...it's just like watching the complete season of a TV show on DVD, one episode after another. Anyway, the cast is bizarre and odd, and just right. Sandon Berg delivers an endearing performance as the center of the mayhem, and hunky Rick Federman succeeds opposite him. There's a surprise twist at the end which I won't divulge, but it comes from a surprising person, and provides a nice reality check.

Michael Akers' direction is smooth and brisk, as it should be for this type of lark. Kudos to United Gay Network for producing a film that strives beyond the narrow market of 'gay interest'.

Interestingly, I don't really think it's strictly, a gay-interest film. Instead, it's a 'general audiences' film that happens to have a gay element, like "My Best Friend's Wedding", and many other recent films.

Get this DVD, invite a small crowd of friends over! It's just plain ol', silly romp, with lots of quotes you'll be throwing around for weeks afterward.

While watching, I kept asking myself why was I still viewing this incredibly bad movie. First off, the music reminded me of watching a 1970's after-school special. The characters and story lines were ridiculous and totally unbelievable. The actors did the best they could with the material provided. This is what a movie looks like without direction. I rated it two stars and was being overly generous with that. I gave one star for the actors and the embarrassment I felt for them. One star for what the story/movie could have been. I can't believe this got funding for production.I also had to wonder what the hell was up with Dre? Was she an alien playing a tranny or what? Her final poses in each of her scenes were what carried me through the movie as I couldn't believe how insane they were.

I also attended the North Carolina Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and I loved this cinematic gem. Matrimonium is a smartly written/improvised mocumentary satirizing reality TV while informing the current gay marriage debate in this country. It was thrilling to watch this comedy with an extremely supportive audience who got it. I, like most of the crowd, laughed from the beginning to the end.

Matrimonium is one of those few films that gets the formula right. The right script, the right pace, and the right cast, with a pitch perfect performance by Devon Green as "Dre" the vacuous TV show hostess.

Thank god for film festivals that prioritizes substance over style and creativity over cliché providing a platform for this kind of quality independent film.

I saw this movie based on the recommendation of a friend. I didn't have much hope it be worth watching. And, when I saw it was recorded in video tape, I grit my teeth.

But, it was a fun little film. It didn't try to be anything more than it was. The movie made fun of reality TV. It did that by using the same stereotypes that reality TV shows use.

The characters were over-the-top, but that is what satire does. It characterizes the people it's making fun of. Loretta was a perfect example of that. She was my favorite character by far.

Congratulations to the cast for using improv and a script to give a more reality-TV-like feel to the movie.

First off, let me say that I hate ALL reality TV. Because I harbor this intense, seething hatred, I tend to relish anything that skewers, derides, and/or basically pokes fun at the reality TV 'genre'. This movie does just all of this, which in itself is worthy of high praise.

But this movie is so much more than a "two-minutes hate" on Reality TV.

Matrimonium uses the reality theme to spotlight several deeper topics, such as gay marriage, the sanctity of all marriage, and the general 'appropriateness' demonstrated in most reality TV.

Of course, the political flavor is just an undercurrent to the over-the-top hilarity of the whole thing. The loosely-scripted, improvisational style of the movie provides some great one liners that will require multiple viewings to fully process.

The actors do an very credible job of being non-actorish, "real" individuals caught on the show's cameras. The camera-work (and the show's 'hostess') are spot-on imitations of REAL reality TV programs.

All in all, even if I were an elk or a piece of paper, I would highly recommend this film. I can't wait to get it on DVD!