L'amour au temps de la guerre civile

I knew this would be a rough and brutal ride as soon as I saw that it was filmed on the streets of Montreal... in the dead of winter. Brilliant choice by the director to film this while the streets are covered with ice and snow is making the plights of the junkies so much harder... The critics who call this "ugly" are incapable of seeing the strange beauty in ugliness and the raw innocence of these apparently jaded individuals who inhabit this world.. Those looking for a linear "story" will be lost with this film, which is more a glimpse into the world of addiction. Much like addiction there is no structure, just "score, get high, get sick, hustle up cash, score, get high, repeat...." The main character of the movie, Alex was someone who, in real life I would have wanted to help, or at least show some much needed "Humanity..." Also this isn't really a "gay themed" film but rather a film about people who lack boundaries, who search out any kind of pleasure that will make them forget the pain and reality of their lives.. The sex is raw, animalistic, desperate and cruel... And that is exactly what a film about addiction should be :if you are getting good vibes or feelings of optimism from a film like this then the movie has failed at its goal to show reality.. As drug movies go "Love In the Time of Civil War" is one of the strongest of its genre, however it still does not reach the nightmarish Hellscape of the Czech masterpiece of drug addiction in the world of male prostitutes, "Mandragora" which is even more harrowing...

Profoundly pointless but a gut-wrenching scraping of the bottom of a garbage can! I kept watching thinking that eventually something would let us see what the reason was for just putting this trash on film. This is nothing but raw Sadism and extreme Masochism! Just one unending plunge into depravity after another. The visual state of the characters alone was enough to make a statue vomit! They were as physically slimy as were their souls. There was no attempt at even the smallest degree of relief. The obvious feeling of inevitable doom made me feel like a self-imposed voyeur. This film should never have been made!

I saw this movie about a week ago and it kind of stuck with me. Anyone who has spent time with junkies and crackheads know the furtive endless cycle of obliteration that makes up their lives. But that didn't really matter with this film. I didn't feel like their lives were shameful and I didn't waste any time hoping anyone would get better. What struck me is that there was no judgment at all about the characters or what they were doing. The camera simply followed them around, usually in a very close claustrophobic manner that added a weird edge to each scene. It was usually impossible to figure out what the interior rooms were like, as though everything took place in a couple of corners or against a wall. A lot of the initial scenes took place in a car which conveyed a strong feeling of having no escape or being lost. The sex was unexciting and the drugs were constant. It was almost like watching animals in the wild, tracking their movements and behavior. Really a beautiful film unless you have strong opinions about gays or drug addicts, in which case you might want to watch something else.

Aimless, slow and dreadful film without any discernable plot. Absolutely nothing interesting here. It felt like the same 10-minute meaningless short was being played over and over and over. And after two hours of this nonsense, you're left with NO ENDING!!

No doubt that repetition bit might be one of the things the movie tries to hit home. It doesn't make for an interesting movie though. After a while, I found I had to use my media player to speed up the "action". Tracking shots going on for minutes on end with somebody just walking and walking. Towards the end I was actually watching at 8x and 16x speed and could follow what was going on, if "going on" is the correct term. Nothing of value here, for me anyway. Simply no story, or, at the very best, the bare bones of one. It amazes me that they thought 120 minutes of this was a good idea. Pass.