Pretty Good

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This film is a blast and sexy as all get out. The guys are just plain hot and the story is hilarious with the mother played by a man being the most absurd. The director obviously just wanted to have fun but at the same time he cast a bunch of hunks all of whom have nothing better to do than sleep together which makes for some steamy scenes. There were so many hunks naked that it was hard to keep track of them but eventually everyone found his place with his partner to create a satisfactory conclusion. The ending is very abstract and you have to ask yourself if what is happening is really happening but then again the entire film is so surreal that it is difficult to determine exactly what is going on. I can certainly see why some people would hate this film but it was so funny you just can't help but like it and the hunks more than make up for any holes in the script - and there are lots of holes.

In spite of the more negative reports here, I was rather pleased with this movie. To begin with: it has a sympathetic and genuine feel about it and the script is (for the most part) intelligent and amusing, with all these meandering story-lines that intertwine and in the end more or less come together. From one of the reviewers I learned that such is called an ensemble-movie. He apparently thought it a bit of a cinematographic cliché and in this movie not very well executed. But for me it totally worked. All characters get proper screen-time, so you can gradually learn something of their backgrounds and personalities, not too much (with so many different story-lines that's hard to do) but enough to make you care for all of them. The differences between the characters are prominent enough to keep you interested, but they never are exaggerated for the sake of cheap comedy or drama, they're mostly all simple, natural and realistic. Well, with the exception of the mother- figure; I agree with most reviewers that it was totally unnecessary (and even a let-down) to use a transvestite for that. Come-on, I can't believe that a Jewish director cannot find in Israel any Jewish actress that could play the part of the quintessential Yiddishe mama! It could be interesting to hear the view of the movie-maker on this.The acting is over-all pretty good: apart from the strange mother- impersonator everyone else acts very natural. Some of them stand out a bit more, like the promiscuous dance-teacher (very attractive to boot!), or the girl that plays Shirley (the sister of Omer), or the guy that plays Mickey as a bit of a queeny gay and who is actually very funny. Tomer Ilan is very convincing as cute Omer, exasperated by his overwhelming mother and frustrated by his marginal love-life. I also liked the musical score very much. It's linked with a few live performances in the bar where all the characters sooner or later meet. In a very subtle, almost coincidental way the director blends specific lines of the (English) lyrics with specific goings-on in the movie. You should almost watch the movie again and try to notice them. Very good!! Sure, there are some flaws to point out. The 3-year time-leap in the very beginning didn't seem to have any function. Instead it was a bit confusing, because right before the time-leap you think that Danny moves in with the promiscuous dancer, while right after the time-leap he appears to have lived together with a totally different person. The change in the appearance of Danny didn't help either: it took me some time to realize that this troubled-looking youth with the short hair-cut actually was the same person as the endearing inexperienced boy with the longer hair from the beginning of the movie. Over-all the abundance of characters was at times a bit confusing, since some of them look a bit alike and also have names that in Hebrew sound alike (like Ronen or Omer). Some of the many story-lines didn't seem necessary for the movie at all, like the woman with the alien-obsession. The final scene (again the alien-thing, now in an almost "Close Encounters"-like setting) was cinematographically beautiful, but felt a bit like a loose pebble (or maybe I missed the metaphor in this). The coupling of nerdy Omer with the obviously far more world-wise journalist was a bit far-fetched. And is Israel today really such a paradise for gay people? Where lovers can walk hand in hand in public and kiss on the sidewalks? Where all the mothers are just concerned that their gay sons and daughters find the right boy- and girlfriends, are competing with each other in gay matchmaking and all of them want their gay children to marry (!?) and have children (!?!). I thought that Holland was gay-liberated, but this beats all: I want to move there!!After viewing the movie I kept wondering what the message of the maker could be. Most characters end up with some kind of love(r) and in view of the title it seems to suggest that everyone can reach at his or her goal, however surreal or far-fetched this at times may seem. But on the other hand there are also characters who in the end stay empty-handed, like Mickey, or seem to go for a surrogate-love, like Danny. So no happy ending for all, and after the movie you're left with a smile mingled with a touch of sadness. Well, maybe there isn't a real message. It's just life.

Life is full of metaphors and this is a great interpretation. A romantic tale, a love of fantasy and could have beens............... I really enjoyed this movie. It was engaging and had me hooked from the start. It was hot and the mirrors started to steam as i was introduced to the characters, satisfied with the pornesque start i didn't much care for content. The shots and the arrangement of images would have satisfied me for the entirety of the movie. But little did i know that i was just watching the caterpillar before the butterfly. The process is the movie. Well done to the director and the actors to a collage of beauty. "No matter how big the world is from a village to a city of millions you live within the same shell with the same circumference."

(minor spoilers) The director needs to work out what story he wants to tell and concentrate on that, neither hammering too hard on that story nor rushing off into side-stories all the time.Some of the relationships (the journalist and the clothing-shop boy) were just unbelievable, and actions by certain characters were rather random in the story (such as when the young dancer attempts to visit his old boyfriend the choreographer with flowers).A number of sequences just went on far too long (the opening, the café singers, and the alien-abduction conversations). I just got bored and I could feel the same restlessness across the audience at the screening I attended.The acting was fine, but the film was let down by the unfocused direction and slack editing.