Boy Meets Boy

This movie is very similar to Before Sunrise, but it doesn't make the movie good. The dialogs are unconvincing, and the actors' decisions are unconvincing. I find the story rather pointless, and the film boring.

I expected a cute little romance film as I got into the film and well into the middle point. Nice summer day in Berlin, two cute young men hang around and flirt together before the time one of them should catch his plane back home.

But as their day and conversation progress and their mutual attraction grows, they get to reevaluate what they thought they believed and knew about their life.

Now, the transition from the light hearted flirt to seriousness is a bit too sudden, and the conversation IS bit pretentious... but these boys are young, and I'm pretty sure I talked with the same kind of hollow assurance and misplaced cynicism when I was young. The point is they get to learn something about themselves through the encounter, that was neither a big romance nor a quick shag.

It's not a masterpiece, a lot could have been better, from the script to acting, but it's worth a watch especially if you're young and gay.

After sharing a kiss while inside a 24-hour dance club, Berliner Johannes and weekend visitor Harry meet outside, and Johannes offers to show Harry around, on Harry's last day in town. In between various incidents, they explore their pasts, their dreams, and their divergent life philosophies, even if they both enjoy dancing in a music booth to an instrumental Ode to Joy..

This film reminds me of Paris: 05:59: Theo and Hugo, except that it is 2/3rd the length, and the incidents more random, so it gets a lower rating. I did like the double bookends: the (ironically selected) song Please Don't Go for the opening dance sequence and final credits, and within that the bathroom scenes.

I was very happy to see this in digital format, at the Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ film festival. Not only could I rewind / re-view, but I turned on the optional extra subtitles (for when Johannes was not speaking German) and found out more of what was going on. By also paying close attention to the end credits, I finally figured out Harry's opening scene.

This starts off rather unpromisingly as we see a man leaving the hotel room of "Harry" (Matthew Morrison) after a chat-free random hook up. Unsated, he heads to a club where he meets "Johannes" (Alexandros Koutsoulis) and the two hit it off. It's been a two-day bender for the former man and when his flight home to London is pulled forward, he's in need of some help to print off his boarding pass. His new friend offers to help him to find an internet café and as the two men then still have some time to spare, they spend the day together exploring, chatting, eating and generally getting to know one anther in quite an engaging fashion which we share. There is actually a semblance of chemistry between these actors that I found worth the watch for 75 minutes as their characters develop. (OK, and there's a wee bit of not at all graphic sex too!). A bit of effort has gone into the (maybe a bit too plentiful) dialogue and though it doesn't always hit the mark, the delivery and ease of the pair with each other helps nudge this just a bit north of the mediocrity bar. Some nice photography of Berlin does it no harm either, and though I'll admit I won't recall it in a fortnight, it was an easy watch.

It is easy to figure out why this movie is so bad. It is not about acting (which was surprisingly very good), nor is it about its intention to bring to the front some really important issues faced by the gay communities around the world. It is about the storyline or, better, the lack of it. There was nothing to keep you interested, there was no feeling, no mystery, no romance, nothing. Just plain boredom.