Instant Favorite.

Admirable film.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

This film is an absolute gem. The cast is perfect. The story is sublime yet very real and touching. Lea Coco as the straight brother is a revelation and after looking him up on Google I can see that he is a serious actor who is going places - lots of stage work. But the entire cast is so uniformly good and works so well together that it really is hard to pin-point any particular actor other than Coco who is just a knock-out and impossible to keep your eyes off. He has a way of stealing every scene he's in especially when he runs into some buddies in his brother's favorite NYC bar. The important thing about this film is that it really gets to the core of truth without preaching or pontificating. And this is rarely as successful as it is here.

OK. It's a small indy film with small indy production values. However, it is cleverly written and quite funny. I laughed through most of it. I will admit that the story line mirrors my own adolescence (20 years earlier than the time in the movie). So, I am prejudiced. Michael McMillian, brilliantly playing the intelligent gay boy who confronts the straight patriarchy with searing wit and flat affect, is simply spot on. His delivery is flawless. Steve Fletcher does a great job as the overbearing father who dotes on the jock of the family and tries to run down Dorian. The dynamic between these two characters is very well done. The characters are fairly well developed. The mother is a bit dimensionless, but maybe that was accurate too. Frankly, in its league of smaller gay films, this one really stands out.

Writer/director/producer Tennyson Bardwell is definitely a talent to watch. In his first venture into film, DORIAN BLUES, he has created an intelligent script with razor sharp dialogue, witty and acerbic and touching depending on the moment, and has cast his film with a fine groups of actors who obviously hold him in great respect, as the final product is a polished film that is always entertaining as well as informative. Few 'coming out' films flesh out the territory as succinctly and realistically as this.Dorian Lagatos (a fresh and talented Michael McMillian) is sour on the world that doesn't understand him. His family is the microscope on his world: a right wing radical father Tom (Charles Fletcher), a seemingly ditsy but subservient mother Maria (Mo Quigley), and a brother Nicky (another bright and hunky talent Lea Coco) who is everything Dorian isn't - a jock, a ladies' man, and a happy-go-lucky high schooler. Dorian has an 'epiphany': he discovers the reason he doesn't fit in is that he is gay! With his discovery he finds some solace from another edgy gay friend Spooky (Austin Basis) but still feels he must remain in the closet. Finally he confides in Nicky who surprisingly listens to him and accepts him - just so long as Dorian doesn't act out. Frustrated, Dorian leaves for New York for college while Nicky wins a sports scholarship to another college. In New York Dorian finds the gay life, feels 'normal' at last, falls in love, confronts rejection and the games people play, and then lives a despondent life until Nicky visits him: Nicky has lost his scholarship. The two brothers make the rounds of Dorian's milieu until they receive a phone call that their father has died. Returning home Dorian must still face his anger at his father, though dead, and it is this anger that his mother (far more sensitive than Dorian ever knew) confronts Dorian and the message of the movie is completed in a very realistic and understanding way. Life's philosophy is not wholly bound to one's sexual preferences.Michael McMillian and Lea Coco both give notice of being young gifted actors to watch. And the apparently 'film inexperienced' Charles Fletcher and Mo Quigley deliver radiant cameo roles. Indeed the entire supporting cast is excellent, perhaps due to the fact the Bardwell is a fine director! This is a gay coming out film that is intelligent, free of the usual visuals that distract the general audience, and one that has more healthy bits of psychology scattered throughout than many a feature film.Highly recommended. Grady Harp

I loved this movie. Eighteen-year-old Dorian (played by the adorable 27 year-old Michael McMillian) reminds me of most of the guys I've been in love with in my life – brooding, artistic, cynical, and GAY. But more importantly, he's miserable. Dorian wants to come out of the closet, but it's virtually impossible when he lives in a small town, has no gay friends, his brother is the high school star football player, and his father is a judgmental neo-con. Dorian Blues may sound like a depressing drama, but it's actually a hilarious script! When Dorian tells his therapist that he's fallen in love with him, the therapist casually replies, "I love you, too." Dorian says, "No, not like that. Not like you love all of humanity, and I just happen to be one of them." When a kind and sympathetic stripper asks Dorian if he has any gifts, he quickly assures her, "No, not one… not unless you count melancholy, I've got a gift for that." I love this boy! I swear, all the good ones are either taken or gay.