Customer Reviews

Spin the Bottle

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A pleasant reunion of five childhood friends at a remote lakeside lodge soon escalates into a weekend of tense emotions, sexual escapades and subtle but effective revenge. This comedy-drama unfolds as an innocent game of Spin the Bottle unleashes sexual secrets, brings about some sleeping and screwing around and allows one person to get some long-awaited revenge.

A cute, good-looking cast of twenty-somethings, an original storyline and some great dialogue makes this a winner in my book! A fine addition to your dvd collection!

Great performances and deliciously catty dialogue make this engaging indie film a winner.
It begins as a reunion of five childhood friends, and turns into a deadly-sin indulgence. Sex, lust, anger, and long-awaited revenge mix up a tasty cocktail. Toss in a talented & attractive cast and some witty lines... and I think you'll walk away pleased.
The DVD has a decent (and also often witty) director commentary, trailers, cast & crew bios, and the award-winning short film "Cowboy Jesus".

One of the main problems I've noticed with some films done by folks new to filmaking is a HUGE overreliance on what they perceive as witty or "Politically Important Dialogue" This film, while advertised as a gay Big Chill with a twist, was more similar to sitting in a classroom while a bunch of senior creative writting majors read their mid-term rough drafts to the class. First we have the innocent couple debating telling folks that they are engaged. Then we have the sexy troublemaker rambling on at dinner about how eating meat is a sexist evil perpetuated by the partiarchy, next is the overly dramatic girl with self esteem issues that is horrifically poorly acted to the point that you cannot tell if she is an escaped mental patient or just somebody who likes whinning in a babyish voice. Basically the plot of the movie wasn't too bad and it would have made a fun short film, say...20 minutes. The problem was in trying to show us how clever some of the characters were it passed the point of sardonic or tongue in cheek to merely self indulgent and boring. The homophobia at the end seemed a bit stuck on as well.

Ultimately a disappointing film, though the plot is more feasible than the better written and acted RITES OF PASSAGE. The plot allows five childhood friends now in their late twenties to revisit the past. The two lone male characters have a PAST that causes one of the men to nurture a grudge and the other to suffer pangs of guilt that the female friends have only a cursory knowledge of. This serves as one of those tension points in the film, finally explosive as the characters - and the plot - turn on a game of "spin the bottle." Besides guilt, the same newly engaged man also is forced to realize he's gone through life as a leaf in the breeze, never setting a deliberate course for himself, but instead unpleasantly residing in a state of complacency. He doesn't seem to know how to get himself out of this malaise, and this is the root of all his - and the other man's - problems and why things went so horribly bad between them the issue must still be settled more than a decade later. Though I didn't find any of the characters likeable, seeming far too self-absorbed and infantile, the lot of them, what does work finally are the surprise elements: characters you disliked on sight turn out - by film's end - to be the characters whose view you can most endorse and vice versa. I've never found real-life relationships to work that way, but in a film setting it functions.

This began as a NYU Film School Project but ended up a nice Indie film with few flaws. The characters are nicely drawn and well played. Without the hints given in other reviews it will keep you guessing as to the ultimate outcome, and the final scenes seem to indicate that it might not be completely decided even then.

Homophobes should toddle off to bed before they get upset, as all bases are covered here, and those wanting a totally happy ending are not really Indie film viewers anyway.

The commentary reveals unexpected behind-the-scenes facts that add to the total enjoyment.

So many gay themed movies are bad or are so poorly made that they are hard to watch. This movie, however, was a good one.

It is not gay-themed in the same way that Beautiful Thing, Get Real or Trick is. It is more similar to The Hanging Garden. Like The Hanging Garden, it is complex and multi-layered though not quite as much. It focuses on many issues at once and the ending would make a good topic for conversation. Nobody wins and nobody loses entirely though everyone loses something. The viewer is also reminded that an act of revenge is never as sweet as the thought of revenge.

My favorite character is Rachel but all the acting was pretty good. In the first part of the movie, the Alex character was a bit over the edge but I grew to like her much more at the end.

There are some technical difficulties with sound but they are not insurmountable.

Overall, a good movie. Not a feel-good movie but a good one just the same.

All I know is that a group of us watched this film and really enjoyed it. We didn't expect to see Oscar performances we just expected a good gay themed story and we got it. It certainly was far above the usual norm for this genre!

This movie had potential to be so much more than it was. The premise of a reunion intended to exact a revenge for a childhood injustice has potential for something so much more interesting and kinder than wicked revenge.

I agree that the dialog was catty and wittily wicked and I enjoyed that aspect of the film. What dismayed me was the denoument of the film which became quite nasty. How much more satisfying it could have been if Jonah had come to a place of forgiveness before exacting his cruel revenge. After all, he is punishing adults for the crimes of children and thus the damage he inflicts is far greater than the damage inflicted on him and ,morally, he is more culpable. And the venomous screed by the jilted fiance wishing AIDS on he ex was way over the top. We could have had something as poignant as "The Barbarian Invasion", instead we got something vindictive and mean.

For what has, to me, turned out to be a good little film that just could NOT develop a following, it's surprising how often I pull it from my quite large DVD collection and take it for a "Spin." From a gay romantic angle (of much interest to me), it is definitely no "Just A Question Of Love" or "Shelter" or even "Boy Culture." No, romance is not the main focus of this little work. What we have, instead, is the individual performance of each ensemble player lifting this production to a sum which is more than a total of its (well, actually their) parts. And, frankly, this is unexpected since, with the exception of Heather Goldenhersh (Rachel), the remainder of our lead cast of five have little to show in the way of both pre- and follow on starring-in work. Be that as it may, this cast "clicked" in their work as individual characters and in their interplay with one another.

My positive review at this late date won't do anything particularly worthwhile for this film and its place in movie history (yes, I'm bad for not acting sooner). BUT......if you're not a homophobe (look it up), and are considering a film rental or a new/used purchase, I'd say you probably won't go wrong giving it a try (plus I'd predict a not long availability life for this DVD in future).

PS: As two other Customer Reviewers have mentioned, the DVD Special Features "Director/Writers Commentary" is both revealing and witty. In it you will learn, for example, how puzzling it was to set up the male/male anal sex, lovemaking scene. Apparently no one on set seemed to know (yeah, sure) a suitable "alignment" for the "top" and "bottom actors. The resulting face-to-face (missionary), legs fully extended position which was shot might have been more ascetically (or Ratings) acceptable, but....come on guys....having the bottom's legs at least bent at the knees, or even better, locked at the ankles over the top's backside, would have at least lent some realism. Still, can't say this shot's outcome isn't romantic; it is that.

****

This movie is what starts out as your typical reunion of five childhood friends that have returned to the lake of their youthful summers for a weekend reunion after many years, I got the idea that they more or less hadn't seen each other since 8th grade or so. You have all your typical stereotypes present in this small group. There's the guy next door, the nerd turned hunk, the promiscuous pretty girl, the good girl, and the girl that has made all the wrong choices. Each of these friends brings an often funny moment to the movie as they share their moments together and the final parting and the cause of it are well worth the watch.