Un secret de trop

A very touching story of two young college boys who find each other at a football game played in the mud. Unfortunately they share a dark past when both boys were 4 or 5. Benny the very cute Hispanic boy's older 6 year old brother is killed when he runs out after a soccer ball and is killed in front of a mini van. As one of the professional reviewers says Benny's Family is not stereotypical. His family is very supportive and loving. The tension of the past places stress on the boys relationship and families. The supporting cast is phenomenal the actors who play Benny's mother and father and Christopher's mother are very Noteworthy not to mention Benny's little sister and the small roll of Christopher' s best friend Played by Cailin Rose all make for a very good movie.

If you saw every gay movie made since 1950, you'd never see one as good as Akron. It's not only the best gay movie made so far, it's one of the best movies period. You have to look at the very best ever--movies like Gone with the Wind and The Godfather--to find any that are better than Akron.

Benny and Christopher meet as college freshmen. They get very close very fast. They're both extremely comfortable being gay, loved and fully supported by their friends and families, and they freely demonstrate their affection everywhere they go. It's marvelous to see.

There is no homophobia anywhere in this movie, thank God. No bullies, no bashing, no parental disapproval, no coming-out angst. No hiding. No HIV. None of the other "curses" that most gay dramas wallow in. Critics may say Akron is unrealistic, but it's no less real than the negative crap we've already seen plenty of in gay movies.

Akron shows a beautifully healthy and positive side of the gay experience that has been completely neglected in movies until now. There ARE families like this--lots of them--we just haven't seen them on screen before. There also is no melodrama in Akron, which is even more remarkable. Nobody overacts or over-reacts. Nobody ever does anything that doesn't feel completely genuine and true and natural and normal.

There IS drama, but it's not centered on being gay. It turns out that the two families' paths had crossed in a terrible tragedy many years earlier, and when they discover that connection everything blows apart. The last half of the movie shows how each person in the two families (not just the lovers) deals with the newly-awakened pain.

Small, unpretentious movies like this, about human beings relating to each other, don't win awards or sell tickets any more, but they're the only movies worth seeing. If you love blockbusters, you'll hate Akron; but if you love movies, you'll love this one. It's as nearly perfect in every way as a movie can be.

As of this writing, I have 2,371 movies in my library. And while having and having watched repeatedly many of the 2,371 movies in my library, I am not a professional movie reviewer. But I believe that I do have an informed opinion about what is good and what is not good in movies overall.

The number of low and lowest ratings that some gave "Akron" (2015) surprised me, in part because I have given "Akron" a "10". So when I was recently visiting relations in Akron, Ohio, I asked several of my Latino relations about the allegations that a heavily Latino local church may have organized a number of the church's congregants to write IMDb for the purpose of slamming Akron (2015) because Matthew Frias was Latino and had competently played a gay young man in a very favorable light, within a story line that was very favorable to a gay love affair.

One of my relations turned out to be one of the church congregants who participated in this fraud, and then happily detailed just how this fraud on IMDb was orchestrated within the church itself. This relation stated that apparently none of the congregants had actually watched "Akron" or Matthew Frias, or if they had, they had only done so for a few minutes.

The moral of this is very simple, as far as I can see. Be very careful when using the ratings assigned to movies that some might find politically charged. And be very, very careful when religious groups target movies like "Akron" (2015) for whatever reason.

"Akron" (2015) deserves a "10" rating for all of the right cinematic reasons.

3 1/2 Stars. Although a simple story, it is told quite well and is unique in the way it handles a gay couple. The fact that the couple consists of two boys is not of any great importance to the actual story itself. It would be the exact same story if it were a boy and girl or two girls. That's a refreshing change from the usual. The plot does have a couple of holes, but not enough to detract from the overall enjoyment of the film. The young actors do a credible job of seeming a good match. The parents seem quite realistic in their attitudes and actions based on the plot. I give this a thumbs up.

It's that sort of movies that you feel happy and refreshed after watching them. The actors played their roles pretty good especially Edmund Donovan his face expressions were perfect as well as his using of body language and the tone of his voice...I see a bright future for him in acting (hopefully). I just really liked the movie, it's a film displaying the life of two gay couple living a NORMAL life not like other movies where something tragic must happen eventually.