Gay romantic comedy tops Indianapolis Lgbt Film Festival The Indianapolis Lgbt Film Festival screened a handful of features and about two dozen shorts over the November 9-11 weekend. Earlier today, the jury winners were announced on the festival’s Facebook page. Elliot Loves, a romantic (and mother-son) comedy by first-time feature-film writer-director Terracino, and Douglas Horn’s Coffee & Pie, a comedy short in which a jilted woman discovers that revenge is sweeter when pies are involved, were the festival’s top movies. (Photo: Jermaine Montell, Fabio Costaprado [...]...
- 11/18/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Receiving an award at the Heartland International Film Festival this weekend in Indianapolis, the interracial romantic drama "No Easy Way" is a gutsy independent with a promising setup that comes up short in the uneasy follow-through.
In director Jeffrey Fine's feature debut, Matthew (Alan Boyce) is in deep denial about his deteriorating health. A concert pianist with no friends and a scolding doctor (Michael Tomlinson), Matthew seems determined to conquer AIDS with help from no one or perish in the attempt.
With such an obvious death wish, Matthew is not ready for the intrusion of South Central welfare mother Diana (Khandi Alexander), who pegs him as doomed-but-redeemable the first time he comes to her rescue. From the start, it's a friendly clash of the races and classes, with his loneliness and her romantic interest eventually bringing them together.
Unfortunately, there is not much chemistry between the leads, and the complications in Diana's life are predictably dire. Her youngest son (Brandon Hammond) thinks Mom's new friend is cool, but eldest punk Carl (Jermaine Montell) is openly hostile to Diana when he's in gangsta mode.
When Diana declares her desire to escape to Seattle, Matthew has a cause to get behind, but the wish-fulfillment turn of events that makes this possible severely hampers the film's final act. Meanwhile, one is supposed to get behind aggressive Diana and mopey Matthew, who starts to show more serious signs of his illness.
Alexander ("ER") and Boyce (who played the suicidal student in 1988's well-received "Permanent Record") provide their characters with some depth, but they both stumble on many of the cliched lines in Patrick Tobin's screenplay. The film as a whole grows repetitive as Matthew starts to accept his mortality and Diana is robbed and terrorized by Carl and his posse.
USC film school alumnus Fine is after one of those tearful but inspiring love stories in which the principals are kept physically apart, while one of them must make a noble sacrifice so that the other has a better life. The brief intrusion by Matthew's mother (Christina Pickles) adds to the scenario's most frustrating aspect -- Matthew's character is underdrawn. We see him suffer but wonder why he is so independent and emotionally damaged.
What clues there are don't amount to much, while Fine has to resort to violence as a means to up the already high stakes. The first USC-produced feature, "No Easy Way" tends to preach rather than teach us about alienation as it shakily constructs a racial-cultural common ground.
NO EASY WAY
PGFW Prods.
Director:Jeffrey Fine
Producers:Douglas Ludwig, Eileen M. Chambers
Screenwriter:Patrick Tobin
Director of photography:S. Douglas Smith
Production designer:Brooks Rawlins
Costume designer:Eddie Bledsoe
Editor:Pamela Raymer
Music:Mark Eitzel, Bruce Kaphan
Casting:Lynnn Stalmaster
Color/stereo
Cast:
Matthew Livingston:Alan Boyce
Diana Campbell:Khandi Alexander
Tommy Campbell:Brandon Hammond
Carl Campbell:Jermaine Montell
Mrs. Livingston:Christina Pickles
Dr. Thomas:Michael Tomlinson
Running time -- 108 minutes
No MPAA rating...
In director Jeffrey Fine's feature debut, Matthew (Alan Boyce) is in deep denial about his deteriorating health. A concert pianist with no friends and a scolding doctor (Michael Tomlinson), Matthew seems determined to conquer AIDS with help from no one or perish in the attempt.
With such an obvious death wish, Matthew is not ready for the intrusion of South Central welfare mother Diana (Khandi Alexander), who pegs him as doomed-but-redeemable the first time he comes to her rescue. From the start, it's a friendly clash of the races and classes, with his loneliness and her romantic interest eventually bringing them together.
Unfortunately, there is not much chemistry between the leads, and the complications in Diana's life are predictably dire. Her youngest son (Brandon Hammond) thinks Mom's new friend is cool, but eldest punk Carl (Jermaine Montell) is openly hostile to Diana when he's in gangsta mode.
When Diana declares her desire to escape to Seattle, Matthew has a cause to get behind, but the wish-fulfillment turn of events that makes this possible severely hampers the film's final act. Meanwhile, one is supposed to get behind aggressive Diana and mopey Matthew, who starts to show more serious signs of his illness.
Alexander ("ER") and Boyce (who played the suicidal student in 1988's well-received "Permanent Record") provide their characters with some depth, but they both stumble on many of the cliched lines in Patrick Tobin's screenplay. The film as a whole grows repetitive as Matthew starts to accept his mortality and Diana is robbed and terrorized by Carl and his posse.
USC film school alumnus Fine is after one of those tearful but inspiring love stories in which the principals are kept physically apart, while one of them must make a noble sacrifice so that the other has a better life. The brief intrusion by Matthew's mother (Christina Pickles) adds to the scenario's most frustrating aspect -- Matthew's character is underdrawn. We see him suffer but wonder why he is so independent and emotionally damaged.
What clues there are don't amount to much, while Fine has to resort to violence as a means to up the already high stakes. The first USC-produced feature, "No Easy Way" tends to preach rather than teach us about alienation as it shakily constructs a racial-cultural common ground.
NO EASY WAY
PGFW Prods.
Director:Jeffrey Fine
Producers:Douglas Ludwig, Eileen M. Chambers
Screenwriter:Patrick Tobin
Director of photography:S. Douglas Smith
Production designer:Brooks Rawlins
Costume designer:Eddie Bledsoe
Editor:Pamela Raymer
Music:Mark Eitzel, Bruce Kaphan
Casting:Lynnn Stalmaster
Color/stereo
Cast:
Matthew Livingston:Alan Boyce
Diana Campbell:Khandi Alexander
Tommy Campbell:Brandon Hammond
Carl Campbell:Jermaine Montell
Mrs. Livingston:Christina Pickles
Dr. Thomas:Michael Tomlinson
Running time -- 108 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 11/11/1996
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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