More Than Only

I stumbled upon this movie wile browsing on YouTube and thought I'd give it watch. As with many other low-budget gay movies, it did start off being cheesy and daytime soap-ish. But as the movie progressed the story was pretty sweet and endearing.

I was in love with both Justin and Michael; with Justin's persistent courting antic in getting Michael out for a date from the start might come across as being too sweet but I loved it.

As with many other Rom-Com's, I was expecting the drama or conflict to set in halfway and I was like wondering if this movie is for real? But the conflict did actually start about two-third into the movie.

But I was afraid that the conflict might leave me unsettled but as it turned out the movie ended the way I like it - a fantasy that I myself am not able to achieve but at least it gave me that escapism of true love.

In conclusion, I don't mind if the performances were wooden or not even Oscar-worthy for that matter. What matters was the warmth that it gave me.

My biggest criticism is that it's obvious this film was directed and written by a woman. The plot and interaction between the gay leads did not ring true. It felt like a Hallmark movie, and was not at all a realistic representation of young gay men falling in love.

I see a post or 3, that it was too long - the movie is literally 67 minutes Others post that it is boring, not realistic, over acted, etc... - the actor playing Justin Jhonson plays his quirky character to a T, as it was written. He is acting out against his father. His father calls 2 times a semester & afterwards Justin ends up in the ER.

At a bar night out, Justin spots a piano player & falls in love. The rest of the movie is about Justin fending off his father's judgments & him trying to prove to Michael how much he loves him.

I've spent the last 2 years, after I cut the cable "cable", watching mostly gay content, Prime, Netflix, HereTV, Strand Releasing, Dekko, YouTube - anything I could find. This film falls into my top 5 faves.

It might be low budget, but it does a great job. It reminds me of Defying Gravity's low budget/success (in my opinion).

I very highly recommend it

It's just too contrived, too melodramatic and overacted for what it is, and the music/singing is just bad.

I really wanted to like the story, in spite of its sophomoric contrivance, but the painful, wooden acting had me checking the progress bar again and again to see how much more there remained to endure. The characters don't engage in dialogue (or convincingly engage, period), they speechify *AT* one another. What might otherwise have been seamless, natural conversations were instead a litany of jarring transactions, periodically punctuated by the plot device of notebook scribbling accompanied by a preachy, anodyne voice-over. Given the commendable cinematography, the most enjoyable parts of the film are when the characters aren't saying anything.