C.O.G. (2013)

Better Late Then Never

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

David, who calls himself Samuel, is in graduate school at Yale but needs to take some time off and discover new things while getting away from normal life. He takes a bus to Oregon, informs his mother by phone that he doesn't want to stay in touch, and goes to work picking apples. His girlfriend was going to join him but she got a ride with another guy who she now likes. Most of David's co-workers are Mexican because local people seem to be "too good" for this sort of work. David speaks almost no Spanish and the others speak little English, but he tries to make friends with Pedro. It's not really clear if he has. Hobbs, his boss, isn't particularly nice, but when his nephew dies, he lets David have the nephew's trailer and tells him the nephew's job at an apple processing plant is open.The workers are miserable and don't seem to care to socialize with David. With one exception: Curly is really nice. But he has a secret, so he won't be David's best friend after all.We know what's coming. Earlier in town, David met Jon, a man passing out literature about C.O.G., which wants people to follow Christ. David already told us on the bus that religion is for people who want to feel special, and he's not interested in the "ghosts" that those people follow.So David and Jon will meet again. Jon is an artist living in the basement of some church members, making Oregon-shaped jade clocks. He has a past and religion has been good for him.So will David find Jesus? Will his friendship with Jon work out? Will David return to his normal life?This is a disturbing movie with some positive messages about Christianity. But not all Christians in this movie act the way Christians should. And maybe that's all right. There are plenty of moral dilemmas.We are also reminded of all the difficulty that goes into bringing us those items we need to live our lives, which seem to come to us so easily.Jonathan Groff is supposedly based on David Sedaris. I found this out later. He does a good job and puts us through lots of misery and important lessons. Happiness? I'm not sure.Jon is a complicated character, not quite what one would expect. He's certainly not goody-goody. Denis O'Hare gives an interesting performance.Curly is also a good character, but not quite what one might be expecting. Corey Stoll also does a good job.I know Dean Stockwell best as the companion to time traveler Dr. Sam Beckett who appears as a holograph. He's cynical rather than funny here for the most part, but just as talented as he was back then.It's not a family film. So many words were bleeped I occasionally had trouble following the story.It's not my idea of entertainment, but it's a worthwhile challenge and something that makes it worth getting out of my comfort zone.

Quite a deja vu type of story, à la Jack McCandless sort of. The character is the type of guy that will never know what to do, unless somebody tells him 'go there' 'take this job', etc. However the portrayal of the people he meets are very representative and true; the ladies at the plant, the born-again middle aged man, etc... They are the type of people you meet every day (altough, you might now have this kind of relationship with the latest). The video and image quality is great; the scenes in the orchard had this touch of realness... Or was it the dialogues in English then Spanish? Overall adjective: tepid.

I really liked this film because the main character reminded me of myself at that age: a bit naive about the world, clueless about how privileged I was to have gone to college, and terrified of recognizing the fact that I was gay. Jonathan Groff is such a pleasure to watch, you could justify watching the film as an excuse to look at Groff for 85 minutes. But he really does perform the role well here.It's just a simple film in a way: a young man sets out to break away from the world he knows to see if he can make sense of it. And it appears his family has cut him off so perhaps he had no choice. There are some little moments that will go over the heads of straight people, some of whom watch the whole movie without catching on to the fact that Groff's character is gay (read the comments on YouTube and IMDb). Gays watching the film will figure that out from the bus ride at the beginning of the film and the way he responds to anti-gay slurs thoughtlessly tossed out by straight passengers. Even though there are so many un-likable characters in the story, it's kind of oddly beautiful to watch. I could watch this film many times.

Just saw this with a friend and ended up in the lobby of the theater discussing it with 3 other people for about 30 minutes afterward. People we'd never met. We all agreed the film is ambiguous in every way. Uncomfortably so. The film is about a young man who is green. One is reminded of Ben from The Graduate. He appears to be a lost soul with no anchor. He reaches out to people for assistance but appears to be only mildly interested in them or what their lives are about. He tends to adopt whatever interests they have in order to remain in their employ or care. He is completely unprepared for the people he meets in his journey to find himself.The acting is excellent by everyone. For that I give this film a high rating. I'm not sure everyone will enjoy the film but there is no denying the talent here. Just be prepared that not every character in this film is happy and full of joy. It isn't a joyful experience.