the audience applauded

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

Blistering performances.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

As one of the first of the Baby Boomers (i.e., an old guy) I found it difficult to watch this film about people born in the 1970s and college-educated in the 1990s without forcing myself to make allowances for generational differences.In the early 1960s, college women (then called girls) were still sexually modest and far too unassertive. The college women played by Maya Strange and Kathleen Robertson, Sam and Thea, are recklessly willful and without restraint in sexual matters--the exact opposite of their counterparts 30 years before. As a college man, meanwhile, Mark Ruffalo's character Coles has a certain charm and can be very affectionate but is essentially juvenile in his attitude toward women. As much as he seems to love Sam, nevertheless he has sex with her best friend Thea right before her eyes, as if to deny that his relationship with Sam is anything more than sex play. Thirty years earlier, he would have been regarded by his fellow males as--well, as an asshole.It turns out that in college, Coles was a slacker in training. Ten years later, he is bitter because his dream of a career as a movie-maker went nowhere, and he shows it in his contempt for the people in the ad agency where he works. He has entered the middle class without the responsibility that goes with middle-class living. He has lived for five years with a woman, Claire, who aspires to a grown-up life, with marriage and children, but he is unable to commit to her. They have a nicely furnished and decorated apartment (one imagines this is Claire's handiwork), and he has cleaned himself up a bit, but he is essentially the same feckless boy-man that he was in school. His perennial uniform continues to be the tee-shirt.No surprise that when Sam re-enters his life, it is not long before we are once again looking at Mark Ruffalo's buttocks as he has sex with Sam. Unfortunately, the worthy Claire accidentally happens upon the same scene.At the end, Sam marries someone else in haste, running away from the trouble that is sure to befall anyone who forms a relationship with the juvenile Coles. And Claire decides to give Coles another chance in order to salvage her five years with him and in hopes of having a permanent home and children. One doubts that she will be happy in the long run.Ultimately, Sam and Thea have at least made an attempt to lead grown-up lives,but Coles remains the same boy-man that he was in college. I expect that many Generation X women will not find this surprising.

From many comments about this film and the similar Closer, one would think all the characters were reckless libertine hedonists. They're not, they're unsuccessful serial monogamists like most of us in the modern western world. This one doesn't have the Oscar Wilde/Noel Coward wit or shocking vulgarity of Closer, but it does have amazing true-to-life performances, especially from Petra Wright (who has an aristocratic beauty similar to Mimi Rogers in Someone to Watch Over Me), Kathleen Robertson, who previously had a field day as an innocent bigamist in Gregg Araki's Splendor, Maya Strange (not Strange), who displays a vulnerability much like Natasha Gregson Wagner in some other independent films (what happened to her?). And of course Mark Ruffalo, an undecided everyman for our times, like the dog in Aesop who loses his bone because he thinks he sees a better one. And as someone remarked, this is definitely Eric Rohmer territory. Excellent writing, cinematography, and use of music, and not one redundant line or wasted shot.

If there's one thing I've learned from life (among the millions of other things, I mean) is that, by god, relationships are really hard. And you know what I've learned from movies that pertains to relationships? That they're really damn hard. Especially if your relationship happens to be a "Threesome" that just brings you "Closer" to the brink of insanity...This film stars Mark Ruffalo as a guy with, let's call it, "emotional problems." The story focuses on Ruffalo and a three-way relationship he had with two women in his college days. Eventually, his relationship with the two ladies becomes complicated with "feelings" and "emotions" and stuff and falls all apart. Years later, he runs into the one of his old sex-buddies--the one he was closer to--and eventually the three of them becomes friends again. Sort of. Everyone is in separate relationships by this time, so the idea of jump-starting old feelings and relationships becomes complicated. Well, then, of course, all kinds of craziness ensues--and I'll leave that up to you to see for yourself.Here's the breakdown:The Good:--The acting is great--especially from Mark Ruffalo.--Good music.--Good character development.--Interesting story.Didn't Hurt It, Didn't Help:--Decent cinematography.--Decent atmosphere--although "lonely"--as it focuses on Mark Ruffalo's character, we get the feeling that he's really unsatisfied with his life.--Character development rather uneven from the college days to the later days.The Bad:--The characters are pretty self-centered. Empathy doesn't exist here.--The film has kind of a negative tone, all-around, and the ending feels kind of unsatisfying--it didn't go out with a bang of any kind--more like a whimper. It worked alright for the story, but wasn't very strong.The Ugly:--Mark Ruffalo's hairy ass.Memorable Scene:--When Mark Ruffalo is approached by a "fan" who saw the film he made--and he tells Ruffalo what he actually thought of the film.Acting: 9/10 Story: 8/10 Atmosphere: 7/10 Cinematography: 7/10 Character Development: 8/10 Special Effects/Make-up: 0/10 (none) Nudity/Sexuality: 3/10 (decent sex scene in the beginning, one scene later) Violence/Gore: 0/10 (none) Dialogue: 8/10 Music: 8/10 (average for the time) Writing: 8/10 Direction: 8/10Cheesiness: 1/10 Crappiness: 0/10Overall: 8/10This is a far more somber and serious film than "Threesome" and doesn't quite have the character development of "Closer." If you like either or both of these films, you'll likely enjoy "XX/XY," and like I said, only the ending is kind of a let-down. It's somewhat slower-moving that those other two.www.ResidentHazard.com

'XX/XY' is an above-average examination of love and relationships, through college and then into adulthood. Mark Ruffalo, Maya Strange, and Kathleen Robertson star. They're 3 college kids who open the film with a menage a trois, then 10 years later when they've matured and changed. Or have they? Some characters seem to swap personas while another suffers from the Hamlet complex (ie. never being able to make up his mind).Petra Wright (Ruffalo's grown-up love interest) has a powerful speech which serves as the climax of the film. We find out that she was always just as in the know about things as we are. Both she and Ruffalo play this scene perfectly.When it's all over, this proves to be a successful character study. The characters seem real (and it doesn't hurt that they're all attractive) and they even reminded me of the characters in Mike Nichols' 'Carnal Knowledge'. Films like these seem to say that sex BETTER be fun if it's going to be worth all the trouble it brings.Plus, director Austin Chick never goes more than 10 minutes without a shot of Mark Ruffalo's bare behind. Any potential werewolves in sight would've turned into their hairiest selves with all the full moons in this movie.