Race You to the Bottom

2005 "Maybe their boyfriends should worry..."
5| 1h13m| R| en
Details

Nathan and Maggie are in the throes of a passionate affair. They're young, good-looking, and both have boyfriends. When Nathan is assigned to write a travel article on romantic hot-spots in Napa Valley, these unconventional lovers test the limits of the sensuality and fantasy that bond them.

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Reviews

GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.
Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
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.
ambersknight This review will contain spoilers in general terms but if you do not want to know I give the 2 stars purely for the performance of Amber Benson who somehow manages to make her deeply unsympathetic character watchable.However, that aside the movie is truly depressing. In essence we have two thoroughly unlikable, hedonistic people who are so shallow and self destructive that they are having an affair which given how self-centred they are can't possibly go anywhere meanwhile hurting their boyfriends who for some reason like them. I could almost accept this if the characters learned something from the experience, but the ending seems to hint at the real possibility that they've learned nothing. So we have a very long, depressing 70+ minutes with nothing to show for it. Long travel, no distance.The acting, Miss Benson aside, is pretty bad. Cole Williams simply lacks any charisma as the leading man and none of the support cast come across with anything to raise above woeful in the performance.But the onus of this sad project's failure lies fairly and squarely on the head and shoulders of its writer/director. What is he trying to say about relationships and people in this film? Nothing positive at all, in fact I'd almost go as far as saying the director seems to have a real disdain for people and relationships. Worse yet the film certainly re-enforced a lot of the insecurities and distrust that i have about relationships so it doesn't even manage to entertain. it merely sits in what feels like a cesspool of loathing.The direction is competent to be fair but nothing above TV show, and low budget TV show at that.I'm a big fan of Miss Benson's, and certainly think she is good in this, but the film is thoroughly depressing, lacking either sympathetic characters or any real moral compass or purpose other than to depress people. Unless you feel like watching a film to slit your wrists to, I'd avoid this film like the proverbial plague.
ppulliam82 I had been looking forward to this film for quite some time as the synopsis seemed interesting. Also, truth be told, I am a complete sucker for gay melodramas and romantic comedies. I waited foolishly and have decided I want my time back.Was the writer even in favor of gay relationships or the gay lifestyle? I ask because he does everything possible to craft the most loathsome gay lead character in history. Not only that, but he managed to cast an actor who is equally unappealing to play the character.For whatever reason we are supposed to enjoy watching Nathan, a young man who is so in love with his talent, looks, and irresistible sexuality that it induces nothing but unending eye rolls. This is due to the fact that Nathan does not come off as especially talented, attractive, alluring, or intelligent. All of his dialogue is spoken merely to inflate himself and belittle everyone else around him. How could anyone be attracted to this hateful, greasy, selfish character at all, let alone enough to profess your love for him.Take my advice, steer clear from this movie. It's title is much more fitting than I could have originally imagined as this film, its lead actor/character, director, and script have taken a very steep and rapid trip to the bottom of my trash bin.
ekeby I agree with another reviewer here about the film's decent technical quality, but I wouldn't extend that to acting. Amber Benson is good, actually, but the rest of the cast is pretty much sub-par. I particularly thought many of Cole Williams' lines were read poorly.The story could have been interesting, but the script didn't do it justice. The dialog sounded forced and stilted much of the time. It just didn't ring true, didn't sound like true life. When the plot conflict develops, I couldn't quite see the reason for it. There didn't seem to be anything happening that hadn't happened before so I couldn't understand the characters' reactions.It was difficult not to compare this movie to Sideways. Not that they had all that much in common except the location, but that was enough to have me constantly thinking of how much better this movie could have been.
RitchCS I rented this movie from Netflix and saw the running time 1:13...too short to a feature and too long to be a featurette. After fifteen minutes, I was already looking at my watch. Seldom have I seen so many misfit romances and affairs, it almost became laughable. The gay lead desiring sex from a hag who preferred a Lesbian in college. He was too effeminate to believe he desired her for sex. SPOILER: The people who got hurt were their two boyfriends back home...and her boyfriend preferred sex from our male lead. I kept wishing they would ALL die and end this piece of tripe halfway through. I watched until the end hoping there might be some redeemable value...but the ending only was worse...especially the tag-line at the end. The only conclusion I drew from this film was that the director must hate gay people to portray them in such a negative dysfunctional manner. Had I paid full price for admission, I would've asked my money back. Seventy-three minutes is too short for any film. The producer should have paid the audience nine bucks to sit through it!