C.O.G.

Just saw this with a friend and ended up in the lobby of the theater discussing it with 3 other people for about 30 minutes afterward. People we'd never met.

We all agreed the film is ambiguous in every way. Uncomfortably so. The film is about a young man who is green. One is reminded of Ben from The Graduate. He appears to be a lost soul with no anchor. He reaches out to people for assistance but appears to be only mildly interested in them or what their lives are about. He tends to adopt whatever interests they have in order to remain in their employ or care. He is completely unprepared for the people he meets in his journey to find himself.

The acting is excellent by everyone. For that I give this film a high rating. I'm not sure everyone will enjoy the film but there is no denying the talent here. Just be prepared that not every character in this film is happy and full of joy. It isn't a joyful experience.

The movie seems very promising in trailers and even when one starts watching it, almost until the end... when loose ends are left hanging and all of one's hopes for the movie's potential to communicate relevant and illuminating ideas collapse.

Moreover, their referring to many problematic notions and expressions remains unchecked. The use of "retard," "faggot" and "slut" is never explained or condemned. The idea of homosexuality as a sickness--is left unchecked, too; and so are the presentations of immigrant workers as thieves and of menial workers as stupid and not at the level of a college graduate. We are never told or shown how we are supposed to feel about any of these issues. And while the ambiguity of religion is largely okay in a world of various religious convictions (or lack thereof), I don't see how the rest of the topics can responsibly be treated as a matter of contention.

Yet, I loved Jonathan Groff's acting. I also loved the post-graduate attitude, which signified the place from which the emotional journey of the character began. I can really relate to it, too: the way your own struggles and successes make you feel superior to others. Which is why I was hoping David would learn to appreciate people and see them as his equals--which he partly, arguably, maybe did. But then, what was the point of religion? Why the ambiguity surrounding his sexuality? Did he have a problem with his sexual orientation?

I am just confused by the way the movie ended.

Although Jonathan Groff was brilliant, and C.O.G. was mostly well-written and filmed, I felt that it was cut short. Only 10 concluding minutes could clear a lot of my concerns, if included. But, as it stands, the movie is aesthetically, narratively, philosophically and socio-politically unresolved.

The instant I saw the boy from Glee on the screen with his college sweater, against a score of staccato claps, I knew this film and the word 'Pretentious' were already entwined till the credits with the muted plucking music.

So as the Backlash B-tch I am, I decided to watch the whole film just to spite that particular stereotype.

God, I'm glad I did! I was born in a religious cult...called C.O.G. So it's kind of unsurprising that I resonated with it. But this film has so much that is human, and raw, and true about it that it has to have some impact on the rest of you. Groff's performance goes from cocky and superior in the most honest portrayal of the usual American postgrad I've seen, to so vulnerable and naive and yearning that my heart felt like it was being crushed. He's as lost, disenfranchised and confused as every other 20-something I know - but it seeps out of his pores and swims in his eyes in a way that's very hard to watch. I guess that's the Millenial Generation, stripped bare and made fun of, yet not looked down on. David is just a boy, not a polarising symbol of a Lost Generation, and the film knows this.

Just a boy. That's why it hurt to see him be taken advantage of, time and again. It hurt even more, for me, to watch him try to find himself and cure his sexual 'sickness' in religion. I have known people like John. They exist. Everyone in this film exists.

I'm not being coherent. This film impacted me that much.

I think you should watch it.

For those who admire the writings of David Sedaris (essays and short stories - Barrel Fever, Naked (1997), Holidays on Ice (1997), Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000), Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim (2004), and When You Are Engulfed in Flames (2008, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary, and Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls (2013) and thus know that much of Sedaris's humor is autobiographical and self-deprecating, and often concerns his family life, his middle-class upbringing in the suburbs of Raleigh, North Carolina, Greek heritage, being out as a gay man, jobs, education, drug use, obsessive behaviors and his life in France, London, and the English South Downs) will be pleased to see his humor translated to the screen by writer/director Kyle Patrick Alvarez. The other aspect of this at times controversial film that makes it important is the choice of casting Jonathan Groff, the gay actor who begins the television series 'Looking' this spring. The choices make the film even more enjoyable because the emphasis is not on the gay aspect but instead on the trials of coming of age and struggling with all the bulwarks society places in our way.

David (meant to be David Sedaris) is a cocky young man who graduates from Yale, yet to escape his dysfunctional family and see the world as it really is, travels to Oregon to work on an apple farm run by Hobbs (Dean Stockwell). Struggling as a non-Hispanic worker he is befriended by a driver named Curly (Corey Stoll) who picks up on David's sexual ambiguity and attempts to seal his fate. David escapes, falls under the wing Jon (Denis O'Hare), a evangelistic Christian who has a history of alcohol addition and anger management all of which he hides under the cloak of being a C.O.G. (Child of God). David joins Jon in making jade clocks in the shape of Oregon to sell at the fair. He 'sees the light' and decides to become a C.O.G. and from there the story plays out in very strange ways. Out of his element, he finds his lifestyle and notions being picked apart by everyone who crosses his path. And his final coming out realization is gently subtle.

The cast is uniformly excellent, but the major kudos go to Jonathan Groff who demonstrates his fine acting skills and magnetic screen presence. The film is after all just a story about a boy of our times. It resonates well.

Grady Harp

A rueful, seriocomic D. Sedaris memoir minus D. Sedaris—his unique authorial voice and his unmatched ability to see his goofus younger self as others must have seen him—doesn't sound like it would have much going for it, but "C.O.G." is actually a pretty good film. David, an East Coast grad student estranged from his family and otherwise at loose ends, has been persuaded by a flighty friend that this would be an excellent time for him "to get his hands dirty" picking apples in Oregon; when a tough-looking apple packer (Dale Dickey) says she'd like to "knock that f—r union rep from here to Tokyo," David asks brightly, "Have any of you actually ever been to Japan? It's a beautiful place." Clearly David's going to have some problems adjusting to life in the Hood River fruit-growing region. Writer-director Kyle Patrick Alvarez was well advised to lose the traditional coming-of-age-film voice-over; DS's unpredictable and thoroughly engaging storyline works perfectly well on its own, and the unSedarislike Jonathan Groff does just fine as David. Good work by all concerned, in fact, especially Corey Stoll and Denis O'Hare as strangers with candy. The Steve Reich percussion pieces are a little distracting at times, but mostly used to good effect.