The Books of John (US 2007)

The Gist:

John (of the title) dies while writing in his diary (the books of the title) setting up a situation where his surviving partner Frank goes off in search of John's hidden past and in doing so finds a way to move on with his life and perhaps a new love. Also, Frank's young gay male friends worry that he's spending too much time morning and not enough time partying, and so are punished for being jerks. 

Comments (with Spoilers):

In a word, the movie was bad. 

The acting varied from okay to poor, and the quality of production (sound, filming, editing,...) varied as well, but even if you can ignore issues common to low budget movies, the bizarreness of the story can't be easily glossed over. 

The main story of the movie involves Frank reading his dead lover John's diaries and going to Alabama to find out about Dead John's childhood (While alive John was tight lipped about his past). 

Once in Dead John's podunk hometown, Frank immediately meets / has sex / starts a relationship with New Guy. During this courtship, everyone says things like how Dead John must be watching over Frank, and has brought him and New Guy together (via his dairies). Except that it turns out there is an obvious connection between Dead John and New Guy, so saying that Dead John is responsible for getting them together is a little creepy. 

There's also a subplot involving two of Frank's younger gay friends, a couple who are written as shallow and dumb, and for the crime of being shallow and dumb (thinking that morning for your dead lover should not interfere with partying) they get punished with HIV, setting off melodrama. Unfortunately involving some of the weaker actors, so poorly acted melodrama. 

Given all the technical issues and odd story, in the end, it's not worth watching. 

Women:

Several, mainly Frank's lesbian friends, who except for Frank's best friend, don't get to do very much. 

People of Color: 

Several, mainly Frank's lesbian friends, and one half of the shallow young(ish) gay couple. 

Gratuitous nudity:

Some skin and a quick flash of bare butt. Compared to the standard stereotype of gay flicks, this movie is almost modest.

• Directors: David A. Schweiger, L.W. Smith
• Writers: David A. Schweiger, L.W. Smith
• Actors: Forrest Bankston, Jeff Batton
• 89 min
• IMDB

Be Mine (US 2009)

The Gist:

Mason and friends reminisce about the distant past (last year) when he was obsessed with the idea that his first kiss with a man would be perfect and lead to true love.

Comments with many a spoiler:

In the movie we have:

• The just married that day protagonist spends the afternoon with his “sassy” black gay friend (instead of his husband).
• His just married that day husband spends the afternoon with friends (instead of the protagonist).
• Flashbacks to the day the newlyweds first met, where college kids act wacky and sassy at school.
• Flashbacks to the night the newlyweds first met, where college kids act wacky and sassy at a party.
• Flashbacks to the day after the party, where college kids no longer bother being wacky and sassy.
• A subdued party on the night of the wedding where the newlyweds finally spend time together.

Keep in mind that ALL of this happens in a movie barely over an hour long. Now in addition to that hodgepodge of events and scenes, mix in several minutes worth of establishing shots, add on poor acting, inconsistent sound, odd casting (these are very old looking college kids), bad gay clichés (Sassy African-American Queen) and you end up with a bit of a mess.

Which is an overly long introduction to simply say that this is not really a good movie.

A shame, because while having the protagonist fixated on his first “real” kiss with a man is kind of saccharin sweet; there is nothing necessarily wrong with the story of an inexperienced college kid longing for romance and first love.

Unfortunately, as can be gleaned from the plot outline quite a lot of time is spent not telling that story. If that weren’t bad enough, the aforementioned “issues” multiply against each other to the point where instead of a story about a college kid looking for love, it ends up feeling like a multi-hour long saga about drunk 30-somethings crashing a never ending frat party.

In the end, not worth the (admittedly short) time to watch it.

Women:

The protagonist’s white female best friend, a “wacky” white female friend, and party guests walking in the background.

People of Color:

The protagonist’s “Sassy” African-American gay friend and maybe one or two party guests walking in the background. For a wild party, it was kind of boring and I found myself only half paying attention to the movie by this point.

Gratuitous nudity:

A quick flash of skinny dipping butt shots

• Directors: Dave Padilla, Steven Vasquez
• Writer: Jeremy Huntington
• Actors: Dan Selon, Jared Welch
• 70 min
• IMDB