Such a frustrating disappointment

Great Film overall

Absolutely Fantastic

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

As other user reviews have pointed out, this story went nowhere. Gay films constantly focus on how hard it is coming to terms with your sexuality. The only difference here is that the character doesn't come to terms with his sexuality. He doesn't come to terms with anything. So why bother watch this film? Complete waste of time.

I was really excited to see the movie given the pitch and the actors, especially the lead. He's young, sexy and manly.Unfortunately, the movie turned a pain to watch on an endless series of painfully useless scenes. Who cares about seeing someone putting a cigarette in a bin, or bringing the garbage out?Only about 20% or so of the movie brings any value. What a waste!Really interesting story plots should have been explored. What about his coming out to his friends? How could he have done that (one by one, all at once)? Or maybe they could have discovered it by chance? Then, what about their reactions? This would have made excellent materials.Also, one of the lead's friend could seem ambiguous (given the way he looks), but it is hard to assess whether there is anything. The movie could have explored this path.But it's true that developing captivating stories is more difficult than filming someone walking on a street or smoking a cigarette...At the end of the day, a really frustrating experience with great materials (pitch + actors) thrown away...

The third act could be more revealing, the actors are not quite believable, and Jackie's struggle could be a lot more highlighted. But I love how the story is told in subtle and not in spoon-feeding ways.

Most reviewers seem to give this film lots of stars, or nearly none. I'm going to break from the herd and give it 5 out of 10. I'm awarding 2 stars for Harris Dickinson's body, and 3 more for attempting to tell a story that hasn't been given its due. The film industry (both US and foreign) would have you believe that a gay man discovers his sexuality by meeting someone special and spending quality time with him, whether herding sheep on a mountain or playing volleyball at an Italian villa. In truth, even in this day and age the vast majority of gay men go through an often desperate and anguished journey of discovery and self-acceptance alone, with no one to lend a hand aside from the occasional hookup. It's a story that should be told. Sadly, this film does a pretty awful job of telling it.It's hard to imagine at what point writer/director Eliza Hittman, a straight female, thought she understood the struggle of young gay men well enough to invest herself in making this film. Moreover, I can't figure out what audience it was intended for - the gay men who'd quickly spot its obvious flaws, or the straight people who'd have no interest in a story that revolves around gay sex with random strangers.It's painful to sit and watch Frankie make one bad decision after the next for an entire film, and just as painful that he never really suffers as a result. The things he does to ingratiate himself to his worthless friends are maddening - he steals his dying father's pain medication so they can get high, steals his mother's earrings to buy them tickets to a party, sets up the film's lone arguably nice guy to be beaten and robbed, all with no negative personal consequences. Meanwhile, these three guys he's so eager to please seem to bring absolutely nothing to the table. It's a complete mystery why he wants to hang out with them at all. And an even bigger mystery why he'd risk exposing his secret life to these troglodytes just to supply them with weed.The central premise of having Frankie meet men for hookups in an online video chat room specific to the Brooklyn area shows a laughable unfamiliarity with the way these things work. Video chat rooms are for guys to jerk off together on camera, not for guys to arrange meetups. If such localized video chat rooms ever existed they're long gone in this age of Grindr and similar cell phone apps, but I guess a laptop screen is more cinematic than a smartphone. The way Frankie's more seasoned hookup Jeremy reacts to his inexperience and self-repression also reveals a genuine ignorance of the way a gay man would handle that situation ("It's okay, I like a challenge" - seriously??).It's perhaps most telling of all that every single male character in the film is sleazy, and almost all of the gay men are physically repulsive. Jeremy comes off in the best light, but he tries to lure Frankie with pot and admittedly uses the hookup site "a lot". The sole arguably positive gay role models are a couple Frankie spots holding hands on the subway - but the hands are all we see; the camera doesn't even show us their faces. Meanwhile, the three female characters (Frankie's mother, sister, and girlfriend) are all ostensibly good people with no significant flaws.I don't know if this film was meant for a gay audience, but it definitely should not have been made by someone who doesn't know what it's like to be gay.