Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Kidskycom It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Motompa Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

Verity Robins Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Irishchatter So we met a very conservative Mormon guy called Aaron Davis and a wild party guy who is a waiter Christian. Aaron technically doesn't want to be found out by his parents that he is gay and Christian is so in love with him. Even though we know that both guys made but the best thing of this movie was they were talking and honestly showed compassion for each other! I wish all gay movies would consider this as its just so mind-blowing! However what put me off with the film was that the next day, Aaron just left Christian without saying goodbye and went back to his parents like he did say that he doesn't want to be a member anymore! Then as Christian was trying to ring Aaron and the mother picked it up, she said ' I lost my son because of you'. I thought is she saying Aaron died from cut wounds. This was not the case at all, they put him in a asylum and we only found out near the end like! Excellent movie but can be confusing at times!

Graham Hinlicky So I watched this movie because Netflix was like, "Hey, you liked Ponyo and Prince if Persia, you'll like Latter Days!"To be honest, I have no idea how Netflix figures out their suggestions, but this one was too weird for me, so I watched it, and seriously, there were moments of "aww," or laughter (one point, don't judge me, where I couldn't stop laughing after the one guy's mother hit him and then he started crying, but in between the touching and the comical, it was suck, suck, suck, suck, suck. I was irritated, at time, at the fact that I was actually watching the whole thing... Just needed to see how it ended, and the ending, yeah, pretty sucky...Sorry, had potential, but really kinda missed the mark.

Scott Amundsen Gay romances are rare. Fortunately, that is changing, but slowly. Good gay romances are even rarer; MAKING LOVE (1982) was a good gay romance, but a certain blandness in the script made it fall short of greatness.Great gay romances are virtually impossible to find; Hollywood, even in this day and age, is not shelling out the big bucks for love stories between members of the same sex. So it has been left to the independents to tell the stories of our lives, and LATTER DAYS is a triumphant example of making great art on a shoestring budget.Filmed in just 24 days on a budget of about $850,000.00, LATTER DAYS does not even qualify as a "small" picture in Hollywood parlance, with the average movie budget in Hollywood in the tens of millions. But what they produced with that relatively small amount of money is a gem of a romance in which the lovers just happen to be two men.It must be conceded that there are quite a few clichés floating around here. The story of opposites attracting is as old as time, and the two leads couldn't be more opposite. Christian Markelli (Wes Ramsey) is your basic West Hollywood party boy, who divides his time between working as a waiter at an upscale restaurant called Lila's (a radiant Jacqueline Bisset) and in his free time, getting laid as often as he can, and by as many men. He isn't stupid enough to be unsafe, but he is most definitely a player when we first see him.Enter Elder Aaron Davis of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Steve Sandvoss), and three other young men, doing their required two years of "mission," which consists mostly of knocking on doors and getting rebuffed not just daily, but several times a day. The four move into an apartment in Christian's building and go about their business. Christian takes note of the new arrivals, and something about Aaron makes his gaydar ping.In a typical player move, Christian maneuvers his roommate, an aspiring musician named Julie Taylor (Rebekah Jordan), as well as the rest of the wait staff at Lila's, into a fifty-dollar bet that he can get Aaron Davis into bed within a week.Meanwhile, the young Mormons are not having much fun. They knock on one door and are horrified to find themselves confronted with a gay couple. And in a charming side scene, Aaron stops to comfort Lila, who he sees weeping at a grave in the cemetery.It is a lonely life, and perhaps that makes Aaron susceptible, so when Christian puts the moves on him, he hesitates, but his loneliness has made him vulnerable, so it does not take much effort for Christian to get close to him.Then the unthinkable happens. Alone in the Mormons' apartment, Christian and Aaron kiss, and are discovered by the rest of the mission team. Aaron is immediately sent home "in shame." Christian, who has come to realize that he has fallen in love with Aaron, follows him as far as the airport in Salt Lake City, which gets shut down due to a snowstorm, and the two young men give in to the inevitable and spend the night in a hotel.Aaron's treatment at the hands of his family and his church once he gets home is not pretty. At one point, he says desperately to his angry mother (Mary Kay Place, great as usual), "What if it's not something I did; what if it's who I am?" Her response is a hard slap across the face; she then informs Aaron about the fifty-dollar bet.I won't go any further. Suffice it to say that the two young men change each other in more ways than anyone could expect, and in the end, love does win out. (In this kind of movie it almost has to.) There is also a scathing indictment in here of the LDS Church, in which writer/director C Jay Cox was raised. He knows the milieu, and he pulls no punches.All in all a remarkable achievement for a low-budget independent film; the cast is splendid, the script is wonderful not in spite of, but BECAUSE of all the love-story clichés, and Cox's direction is sure-footed.And if you don't shed tears when you watch this one, check your pulse.

gradyharp LATTER DAYS is a classy little film that holds its own among the light love stories out today. And yet it is more: some unique phobias and prejudices are examined very genuinely and the result is a movie that gives us not only characters about whom we care but enlightens us as to both sides of an ongoing issue: homophobia. Bright, crisp writing and directing by C. Jay Cox, LATTER DAYS presents a tale of a West Hollywood effervescent young man who plays the bar scene and one night stands joie de vivre to the hilt. Christian (Wes Ramsey) lives in a bungalow apartment setting with his roommate Traci (Amber Benson) who is a singer (and a fine one!). Into their rather wild life atmosphere enters a group of Mormon missionaries, out from Utah to spend their requisite two years converting the world to the Church of the Latter Day Saints. All but one are homophobic, redneck types, but one of them, Aaron (Steve Sandvoss), is a closet case gay man. Julie and Christian establish a bet about Christian's able to seduce Aaron and the games begin. The courtship is actually mutual and once the two have been together it is Aaron who feels the anguish and Christian who re-examines his motives and feelings. The rest of the story is tender, deals with many interpersonal issues not at all restricted to the gay world, and revealing the ending would be unfair to the complete enjoyment that this movie offers. Suffice it to say that the cast is excellent and includes wonderful roles as Jacqueline Bissett as owner of the bar/restaurant were Christian works, and Mary Kay Place as Aaron's died-in- the-wool Mormon mother. The pacing is brisk, the acting is top notch, the cinematography is first rate, and the music score is well integrated. But the overall reason to see this film (and see it again) is the sophisticated manner in which C. Jay Cox explores one set of religious issues in the complex pattern of same sex relationships. This is an intelligent, funny, tender, and inspiring movie.Grady Harp