Boy Meets Boy

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 movie is clearly influenced by before sunrise and call me by your name but unfortunately that doesn't make the movie good! The conversations although realistic(I've had multiple conversations like the ones in the movie with complete strangers) are very boring. So that makes the script boring. It's very sad because before sunrise and cmbyn are two of my favourite movies and in my opinion they are both a 10 in their genres and I thought that a movie that has taken parts from these movies would be at least watchable but no. I cringed throughout the whole thing. Very superficial characters, with superficial points of views and when the movie is over at last instead of thinking about all the topics introduced you are left wondering if there was any point to get at all. What can I say maybe I missed it!

PS also what the hell is going on with the character that is supposed to be a dancer? The actor clearly cannot dance to save his life, I laughed throughout the opening scene! Why didn't anyone think to hire a body double?

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.

Very underrated film. We need more films that are "real". I loved how simple the film is and ultimately how profound in its simplicity as it describes what reality is and pretty much says how things are. This is not really about the originality of the storyline, but rather about how that story is told. It is about the authenticity of everything we see. Don't quite understand how anyone could think the acting in this film is bad as this is the only kind of acting that I would dare call "real acting". This is how real people talk and behave. The characters are multi-dimensional and very easy to relate to. Incredibly good ending too!