BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

BallWubba Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Bodo A simple setup: One boy's birthday pool party. Everybody plays along and pretends to be happy. But beneath the surface, people's emotions are boiling. While people are having a fun time, deep secret come to light.HENRY GAMBLE'S BIRTHDAY PARTY manages to make statements about religion and about homosexuality without becoming overly political. It manages to convince you of the dark power of peer pressure and church without becoming overly judgmental. It manages to make you feel sexual oppression first-hand, focusing on a subjective perspective of what people really feel rather than what they show to feel. The movie weaves lots of different characters together without becoming incoherent. Many of the characters are just there for a few lines, but they seem real nonetheless. Some of them look like you would want to get to know them better. Others make you feel pity.Throughout all of this, HENRY GAMBLE'S BIRTHDAY PARTY breathes with life and flows from one thing to the next without becoming trite. Watching this movie truly feels like being at a day's long summer party that slowly progresses through people's complex interactions. Carried by superb acting and a vision of what it means to be human, everything comes together in a grandiose yet subtle fashion. Mind blown.

plotzilla I wanted to write a review. It was 3 pages long but was not allowed because it had too many "prohibited" words. As a gay man, I watch a lot of gay films. As a soon-to-be indie film maker, I have been watching TONS of indie gay films. This was complete garbage and EVERYTHING I want to avoid on my films.

leewstone If you grew up gay in the South at least semi-recently, this movie will probably resonate with you. I watched this movie on a whim while bored and looking for something a little more risqué, and though this movie certainly failed to fulfill on the latter, it more than captured my attention otherwise. The movie was visually intriguing, the music incredible, and the artful combination of the two left me feeling completely immersed in some beautiful, quasi-reminiscent experience. I'm actually quite stunned by how deftly the writer and director were able to echo my own experiences growing up in a family that both loves you and is in many ways disgusted by you as well. It's intriguing that other reviewers find this movie dated or otherwise inaccurate. I'm not sure what churches they go to, but very few clergymen these days go without. We have pastors with million-dollar homes, with fleets of cars, heck there are more than a few pastors with private airplanes. Also, I'm only 32 and 17yo me would have felt perfectly at home in this movie.This movie isn't for the average viewer these days that likes to be spoon-fed every single detail. On the contrary, I found that HGBD challenged the viewer to reexamine their subconscious biases regarding these stereotypes and perhaps give the 'other side' another look. Great job!

Paul Creeden I watched this on Netflix as a lark. I was quite surprised to find it both enjoyable and meaningful. It is atypical of gay-content films as a genre. The 'gay' is more 'by the way' than 'hey, Mary". Really liked the beginning and end. Cole Doman's face holds all the innocence of a somewhat pampered and conflicted middle class boy his age. The contrast between Henry and Logan, the awkward and out gay boy, is well done. The balance provided by smart-ass lesbian characters is not overplayed. The contrast between the twisted lives of the adults and the openness of the youngsters is also well written. The way Henry's older sister acts out that contrast is quite good.This film is outstanding for its quiet subtlety about religious bias and its constriction of human vision and compassion. It unfolds gently with the exception of a slightly contrived crisis involving an ostracized gay man. I recommend it to non-religious people (like me) who may lump all religious folks into a single category.