This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

An unexpected masterpiece

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

. . . that the other reviewers give this movie such glowing reviews. I thought it was an OK film, but certainly not great. This is basically a story about a gay man seeking to personally avenge the gay-bashing murder of his lover. That plot alone would be a little bleak, so I can buy the introduction of the quirky street characters. Adds a sense of realism to the NYC setting. The bartender getting paid a couple hundred buck to expose himself to a woman, and then inheriting a a large insurance payment when she dies in an airplane crash - OK, we're starting to stretch things a little. But, the introduction of the Urban Legends stuff. C'mon - that's clearly brought in to try to camouflage the main plot & attract a wider audience, and an excuse to name the movie something sexier than "The Gay Bashing Avenger." This movie has nothing to do about Urban Ledgends, and the title is misleading.

U will cry and ull love this by the end of the movie. Futterman is excellent in this odyssey and misleads u quite often as to what the real plot is.As I was watching the film, I must admit I was tempted to stop it as I couldn't see where it was going. U will not understand until the very end what did really happen. Its like a present wrapped in too much paper and taken different shape than what it really was. A very different approach of homophobia in NYC that will make you think....Again. Well done Dan Futterman! keep up the good work.

I'd had this taped but unwatched on my Tivo several times over the past two years, because its reviews during its theatrical release described it as so dark and depressing. It appeared again this week on IFC, and this time I trusted my Tivo's suggestions. It's dark and ambiguous: both a noirish exercise in style and a surprisingly poignant, necessarily non-linear, study of loss and grief, with excellent performances by Dan Futterman as Charlie, a skilled supporting cast, and an all-too-brief appearance by Alan Cumming (whom I usually don't care for when he's playing Britoid fey, sexually ambiguous roles as in Julie Taymor's _Titus_). Anyone who can quote Glenda Jackson from _Sunday, Bloody Sunday_ and invite Charlie to stay and watch _Women in Love_ with him is a friend of mine. Given that Cumming's native Scottish accent verges on outtakes from _Trainspotting_, I appreciated how perfectly he sounded as a NYC aesthete.[potential spoilers]It may be simplistic to treat this as a revenge fantasy, and this may sound cold (and defiantly oblivious to the real-life cases) but gay bashing as a dramatic theme requires all the artistry a writer can muster, and after seeing it treated mawkishly 24 or so years ago in NYC in Torch Song Trilogy (with Harvey F. and Matthew B.), I'm inclined to view every attempt since as another exercise in agitprop. I'm not sure that Urbania completely avoids this, though it wins points for its indirection.The final scenes in his former lover Chris' "apartment" seemed like eerily prescient outtakes from today's _Dead Like Me_ or _Six Feet Under_, and the symbolism was surprisingly unsubtle. And I would swear that that Chris' tufted off-white Mies Van Der Rohe chaise-longue was featured in this week's NYTimes.Finally, maybe it's deliberate or just me, but I thought that both his former lover and the neighbor upstairs looked exactly like tidied-up versions of the street thug and were all played by the same actor. Even though they weren't, you might appreciate all three of them as variants of Charlie's "type" (would they be "Charlie's Angels"?)

I just caught "Urbania" on IFC. What a terrific surprise! I had no idea this film even existed."Urbania" is one of those rare films that grabs you by the back of the neck and holds holds you hostage until the final credits. It's as if one were shadowing the lead character as he plays out the fate of a lonely and harrowing night, facing demons of circumstance as well as a few monsters he creates himself.Watching this film, I felt as if I was being forced to examine some disturbing sides of life when all I wanted to do was turn my head and look another direction. Much like driving upon a tragic car accident, it's hard not to stare but, by the brute force of some macabre fascination that lives deep in the human psyche, one feels compelled to do just that.While "Urbania" is a tragedy, the content is handled with a sense of grace and humility. During the final frames, one is left with a feeling of relief and healing, although tainted with the bitterness of loss.The direction, screenplay and style of "Urbania" is superb. The acting is fantastic. This film is a must see!