Dorian Blues (2005)

hyped garbage

How sad is this?

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

I didn't like this movie. It's not funny enough to be a good comedy, and not deep enough to be a meaningful film.The movie centers on a high school senior, Dorian, who is a bullied gay outcast at school. Dorian has an extremely popular younger brother who is the star quarterback on the high school football team, a stern father who doesn't allow people to disagree with him, and a nice albeit spacy mother who doesn't appear to care much about anything in general.When he decides to come out, Dorian does so first to his popular younger brother. What ensues is a funny segment where Dorian tries to act straight and pick up girls. Encountering failure, Dorian decides to come out to his father, promptly gets kicked out of the house, and moves to NYU to start a new life in a liberal city.At the end of the movie, Dorian's father dies. The relationship between Dorian and his father is very poorly portrayed, and it's hard to tell what Dorian's actual feelings towards his father are. Since the father is mostly portrayed as an unequivocal villain and not given much personality, it's even harder to tell how he feels towards Dorian. This is a problem since the father-son relationship following the son's coming out is supposed to be the crux of the movie's meaning.Overall, I think (and the movie has won several awards, so clearly some disagree) that the movie had very poor character development and wasn't funny enough to be a good comedy.

Fun movie, well actually, coming out isn't that easy, but this movie bring it up as simple issue, with funny joke, interesting character, and well done actors.I like the acting. But, sometimes I don't really get Dorian's feeling by his language and tone. Somehow, Michael McMillian didn't get into his own character. There is time to laugh and there is time to cry, sometime he didn't get it, make me feel less emotional. Lea Coco and Steve Fletcher really did a great job.I really like the script but I have to say full stereotype of gay man/homosexual. Like perfect brother, muscle, and sport. And the gay one, skinny, didn't like sport, always to blame, never done anything well and always the minor in every parents love (less favorite).Let me make some comparison to some gay coming out theme. "Get Real" (1998) Steven Carter falling in love to John Dixon, school brightest running star while he look like a "nerd" and sometimes get insulted by other student. But, stereotype wasn't an issue here because that differences between them just a story about hard love and actually it wasn't love after all when John Dixon decided to shut up in order to maintain his reputation.Another shot, "Mambo italiano" (2003), this coming gay movie is completely free stereotype. Even Angelo Barberini falling in love with "macho" gay cop and since school he already called gay, and even his father suggested Angelo Barberini to play hockey because it might be cured him, stereotype wasn't much problem here united family more important than what other people think.For me, always interesting to watch gay coming out story. Dorian Blues good enough with 7/10.

I was desperately looking for a movie to rent one day. Somehow I stumbled across Dorian Blues. On the cover, it said it would be a favorite of the Napoleon Dynamite crowd. That made me think that the movie was going to be a little ridiculous. To my surprise it was a very good movie. I liked it so much that I had to watch it over and over again. I thought it was a very, very funny movie. All my friends loved it. Even the guys loved it. That is definitely saying a lot! Michael McMillian was the perfect choice for that part. Steve Fletcher was great as the father. His character was so mean that it was hilarious. I would recommend that all comedy fans watch this movie at least once. Hopefully you'll love it too.

After watching Dorian Blues, I checked out the reviews at metacritic.com, and I was in absolute shock at the casual way these "experts" tore down one of the best and most original coming of age/coming out films I've seen. Almost everything about this movie is outstanding, from the acting (I've never seen such totally assured performances from an unknown cast in a low budget indie) to the direction (Bardwell is a talent to watch) to the photography and other technical elements that belie the film's modest origins. Dorian Blues skillfully blends comedy with honest dramatic moments, but what stands out the most is its absolute unpredictability. Whenever you feel the story is moving in an expected direction, something invariably surprising will occur. How could any critic have found it "clichéd?" Kudos to the fine performances by Michael McMillian, Lea Coco, Mo Quigley and especially Charles Fletcher as Dorian's nightmare of a father. My only quibbles I'd like to see a director have the wherewithal to cast an actor in a gay role that passes the gaydar test (good as he was, McMillian didn't for me) and have teenage characters played by actors who are the right age for the parts. I'll forgive him these two transgressions because the final result of Dorian Blues is worth 10 stars, especially when compared to a lot of other gay indies out there.