How sad is this?

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The film has its bad points which are expressed in other reviews, In this one I will only be dealing with the howevers... Whilst the storyline consists of the undeveloped stories of each of the main characters and ends a little too neatly there are moments within the film which make it worth watching, largely due to the almost characteur like portrayal of the main characters. Whilst the characters are seen by many critics as shallow there are a lot of characters in it to enjoy. Unfortunately what made the film enjoyable for me personally was the mingling of the eccentricities of each characters, I say unfortunately as this seems to be where it falters in many peoples eyes: Whilst interesting the characters may be, the running time of the film does not allow for the full realization of the characters. I did not mind this so much as I have personally found in wes anderson films (tho i still love them) that sometimes the building of the characters have slowed the film down to what is usually a melancholy pace. JHC is seen as a poor version of a wes anderson film but as a wes anderson fan I found the eccentricities of the characters enjoyable all the same, despite the troubles in fully realising them in the plot. If there had been another half an hour added and the films dead ends reworked into satisfying conclusions this film could have easily been an 8+ /10

Of course nothing wrong with a more little and indie type of movie, as long as its good or compelling, which just most often isn't the case with this movie.The whole movie came across as a bit of a pointless one to me. the story is lacking a clear purpose and by the end of it, it also doesn't feel like anything has been resolved. Besides, everything in this movie feels far from natural. I'm not even necessarily talking about its story and the situations that are happening in it but more so about its characters and their relationships amongst each other. People fall in love, just because the story tells them to but not because there is any chemistry or any good reason for the two of them to fall in love with each other. Or at least the movie just doesn't give any. And the movie is being like this, with just about everything and everyone that is in this movie. A girl is weird, just because she is and a boy is supposed to be insanely smart, even while the movie doesn't ever give you any good reasons to believe this all. The whole way they get presented in this story and react to each other feel far from likely or natural. It just didn't made this movie a very pleasant one.To me it's being very obvious that Dennis Lee had seen a bit too many Wes Anderson movies and he tries to be just like him, with his style and approach. It uses similar tropes, such as having quirky characters in it, that however do absolutely nothing good and interesting and by turning something that normally isn't funny at all into something comedic, just and only in the way it gets presented but not because it's actually something funny. No, I'm far from a big Wes Anderson fan, so it's also no big surprise that I really didn't liked this movie either, since it's simply being a lite- and less clever or original version of a Wes Anderson movie.It's not a horrible movie, just not really one that I could ever like watching or felt like it was doing anything clever or compelling, with neither its different plot lines or any of its characters.5/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

I excepted a lot from this small indie flick and thank you! for fulfilling those expectations. The plot absolutely intriguing summarizes life of four socially indifferent individuals, the ten year old unreal genius, curious and longing for his biological father. His mother, a femininely empowered social activist with history of freak family tragedies coincidently at age of ten resulting in deaths and loss of her mother and four brothers leaving her curiously with the job of bringing up her father.The pressure of social acceptance lead the boy to the scholar cum author of controversial book on research of his own daughters' sexuality named "Born Gay Or Made That Way".And his daughter riding the wreck of her childhood due to the unintended mistakes of her father. Their lives collide in course of verification of their paternal origin and with each of them succumbing to their present contempt.The scarce but amazing cast comprises of brilliantly played mother Toni Collette. The very mature ten year old Jason Spevack. The very uncertain and nervous Michael Sheen and apathetic daughter Samantha Weinstein.Cinematography although not unique was versatile and added pace and character to the plot.The frames of flying post-its and jovial dance of Michel Seen in rumbling rain were artistically note worthy.The direction(Dennis Lee) absolutely applaud-able with his only second major film ensured the humor in tragedy and tears in laughter.Bravely connecting scenarios with absurd coincidences surprisingly to extravagant results. All in all an indie at its best and humorous none the less.

The second film of Singapore Night, Jesus Christ Henry got into the lineup because of Singaporean Sukee Chew's involvement being one of three producers of the film, an indie production that made its World Premiere in the Tribeca Film Festival a few weeks ago, which drew quite a mixed response with comments that it had tried to hard. Written and directed by Korean American Dennis Lee based upon his short film back in 2003, I thought this movie garnered reactions that it didn't quite deserve for trying too hard, being crafted in the same hyperactive mold such as quirky comedies that have been seen around the region such as Citizen Dog and true blue Singaporean film 18 Grams of Love even.There are a number of focus shifts in the film that tangent off its intended protagonist Henry James Herman (Jason Spevack), a petri-dish baby conceived through in-vitro fertilization technique opted by his feminist mom Patricia Herman (Toni Collette), turning out to be the unintentional genius with a videographic memory, retaining every single little detail that he's experienced since conception. Jason Spevack would probably be yet another child actor to look out for since Freddie Highmore grew up, and this film will serve as his showreel if not for being upstaged by the other cast members given the narrative shifts that put the spotlight on them.Specifically I thought the film devoted a lot more time (not that I'm complaining) to the Patricia character, beginning with a rather lengthy introduction to the Herman family and the demise of each and every individual character beginning with Patricia's mother right down to her brothers, each in a rather comical manner that you'll likely be surprised at its rather nonchalant manner in which to bump them off, with black comedy by the bucket loads of course. And this set the course of the film to be rather gag filled in almost every scene put on screen, that for some it may be tiring and trying since it could have felt like a water torture treatment being force fed with in-your-face comedic moments. I appreciated what it had tried to do, but opinions on humour especially, and how to deliver it, will obviously be polarized.Yes like a typical comedic indie film, this one is filled with its fair share of quirky characters. Outside of the mother-son Hermans, and Patricia's father Stan (Frank Moore) who forms a very strong bond with his grandson Henry, the story also goes out to another dysfunctional father-daughter pair when Henry embarks on a mission to discover his biological father. This brings Michael Sheen into the fray as Dr Slavkin O'Hara, a professor whose book "Born Gay or Made That Way?" becomes a living hell for his daughter Audrey (Samantha Weinstein) when she is the subject of his book, and becomes the constant taunt of her schoolmates.Story-wise, the coming together of these two families in a sort of identity-crisis form the bulk of the situational comedy they find themselves in, but the pairing of both Weinstein and Spaveck together moved the story forward with both putting in strong performances and holding their own against two very powerful thespians in Sheen and Collette, although Weinstein probably upstaged Spaveck a little with her portrayal as the extremely cynical and sarcastic little girl quite unfazed by her tormentors. Again there are plenty of laugh out loud wicked moments that you will probably wonder if you're laughing at the film, or with it especially in its darker moments that could be quite unsettling.Production values are quite spiffy given the big name executive producer behind this film, though Dennis Lee and Sukee Chew were quite tight lipped on how much this film actually cost since it looked like a multi-million dollar movie. If you're still game for quirkiness in all characters of your indie films, then Jesus Henry Christ will still be your cup of tea if you see beyond, or tolerate some eyebrow raising moments with its less than friendly jibes against lesbians/feminists as well as a white man who thinks he's black, otherwise those jaded will find fault with almost every frame of the film in trying too hard with wild absurdity in characters. Split down the middle, depending on your mood and attitude.