Strong and Moving!

As Good As It Gets

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Nice piece of work, great soundtrack, gripping storyline. At various points, the reality of the authentic and extraordinary story mixes with the dream or thought world.Intertwined actions develop a dynamic that lets almost all characters appear in the light of guilt and at the same time innocence. Especially between the mother and Oskar exists an untypical, "undercooled" connection, because she consoles with words - no embrace.From many directions, the adolescent boy is required to withstand the tensions, which at a climax when the wooden peg is discovered and then fades out in a melancholy, lonely harmony. Not easy, growing up staged with the farewell of the faithful companion - the hamster.Was rarely so excited. I especially like that the film does not serve a "mainstream". It is neither a superlative movie that saves the whole world, nor does the audience be admonished to morality, but lets digest the upset emotions at the calming ending.

Taking a leaf from Xavier Dolan's book, Canadian filmmaker (born in 1989, the same year of Mr. Dolan) Stephen Dunn's debut feature CLOSET MONSTER flourishes as a coruscating Bildungsroman of a young boy's coming to terms with his homosexuality, against its own threadbare script mired in corny dialogue and workaday characterization. An eight-year-old Oscar (Fulton) witnesses a horrific bullying of a gay boy which jolts him into building a carapace over his latent bent, things compound when his parents are getting a divorce, and he is mostly saddled with his homophobic father Peter (Abrams), who intends to chisel a macho man out of him (as if carpentry is the panacea). Ten years later, an adolescent Oscar (Jessup) spends most of his time creating special effects make-ups with his best friend Gemma (Banzhaf), and has his first crush on a new colleague Wilder (Schneider) in the hardware store where he works part-time (Oscar + Wilder, you don't say!). Battling his internal conflict (a hormone-driven sensation versus the stigmatized horror of getting aroused by a boy), Oscar takes it out on Gemma and the tension between him and Peter strains, after being rejected by the make- up school he applies for, he desperately needs to get out of the clutches of his parents and face his pestering inner demon, one way or another.Graphic visual effects are deployed to galvanize audience like a sub-Cronenberg's body-horror, there is something visibly churning inside Oscar's stomach whenever he is aroused, and later materializes itself as a metal pole perforating his belly, when he fumbles around his first sex attempt with a party boy, involuntarily he spews bolts, lots of bolts, of course, they are all figments of his heated imagination, including a talking pet hamster named Buffy (voiced by Isabella Rossellini), whom he cherishes more than anything else in the world since his childhood, because it is his only (imagined) friend knows his true colors. When Oscar finally takes the pole out of his body and is driven by a patricidal impulse, the slo-mo crescendo however, pans out like a bathetic bluff, the fear in his deadbeat father's eyes can hardly justify all the damage he has done. The psycho-sexual aspect bears down strongly on the story, but the rest is nothing but usual suspects, Connor Jessup makes for a passable lead and is at his best when the camera is floating around him rather than staring directly at him; both Aaron Abrams and Joanne Kelly appear too young to be parents of an 18-year-older, and the former fails miserably to even fake a fatherly affection when he is required. A solid start for an up-and-comer, but distinction is nevertheless a paucity in the end product, in the waves of a post-coming-out-of-closet fashion, Dunn's heartfelt story is blasé but mercifully grafts its emotional charge with something fluctuating between hope and honest.

PROS: The first thing that you need to mention with this movie is the acting. With a whole bunch of new faces you tend to assume the worst, and this was not the case here. This movie was filled with good actors, from small roles to big ones such as the main character Oscar played by Conner Jessup. Although this movie was not a horror, the strong message that the movie had was delivered in a horrific way. You really got to see the dark the scary side of being a gay kid in the closet. This was shown in a very poetic way as well. With every scene being a metaphor for something greater and all the metaphors added up to sending a strong message at the end. The final thing that I really appreciated was the transitions in the film. Each transition did more than go from one scene to the next, the transitions acted sort of like chapters in the main characters life. This gave the movie that lit bit of an extra touch.CONS: For me the few cons are greatly overshadowed by the film as a whole, but it doesn't mean they aren't there. The first problem I had was the one scene with the nuts and bolts. I won't give anything away, but this seen, although very deep and spine chilling, was very confusing. It was very brief and held no further context to the film. The other thing that bothered me was the ending. I completely understand that the ending needed to be simple to cope with the intense climax, but there is a difference between simple and boring. This movie forgot that.www.chorror.com

FIRST OF ALL I WOULD LIKE TO SAY I AM AN AVID WATCHER OF GAY MOVIES AND THIS ONE WAS ONE OF THE WORST ONES I'VE EVER SEEN, AND I'VE WATCHED MORE GAY MOVIES THAN YOU CAN COUNT ON BOTH HANDS AND FEET. first off, OK I was like "this is cute OK he got a hamster cause his mom and dad got divorced" BUT THEN WHAT????? THE HAMSTER CAN TALK? THE HELL? WHY? WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING? anyways sorry so then this kid sees a guy get raped in the butt with a pole idk OK. at this point I was like "well alright I guess I'll just keep watching." then from there on it was a downhill spiral of shitty acting, horrible dialogue and "artsy" cinematic devices that were frankly just creepy and not creative at all. OVERALL, that kiss was hot af. that's the only thing I enjoyed throughout the whole movie.also I have a few questions: why the talking hamster? What the hell was the director on and where can I get my hands on it? and Can someone please suggest to me some gay movies that aren't trash?