The Last Year

This film has good intentions, but its execution (something the script should have been given, humanely) is strictly amateur hour.

Paul, having finally decided to acknowledge and come to terms with his homosexuality, returns for his final year at Bible college (okay, whatever you say), where half the student body, it seems (and, possibly, the faculty) is either homophobic, closeted, or both. Well, you can just imagine.

Ugliness ensues, cardboard characters delivering clumsy dialogue abound, and motion picture acting (?!) is set back 95 years. With the exceptions of....oh, why name names? Let's just say all of the performances but two (which are merely adequate) range from poor to poorer (and in the cases of at least another two, truly awful).

The only enjoyable moments to be found (on the DVD, anyway) are the outtakes. I've seen porno videos with better writing, acting and production values. I don't mean to be cruel; in fact, if they'd 86'd half of the "dramatic" footage and replaced it with explicit sex scenes, they might actually have made some money.

Although I don't regard Last Year as a complete waste, it certainly doesn't present a very realistic view of life at a small Bible college. I spent three years at a small Baptist university in a small town and my spouse spent four years at a moderately sized Presbyterian university, so we spent much of the movie cringing at the conflicts between our observations of reality and the portrayals in the movie.

From the description, we expected to see young gay men struggling to reconcile their sexual identity with their religious convictions. Indeed, from comments by the actors and director/writer/producer in the additional material on the DVD, that was the intent. However, two of the gay characters came to the college by mandate of their parents and had little or no religious conviction and the third had obviously discarded much, if not all, of his religious belief as he had embraced his gay identity. The frequent mention of St. Jude and the few seconds he is portrayed on screen prior to the end credits doesn't qualify as reconciliation of gay identity and religious (Christian) dogma. The reference to St. Jude is problematic as well, since emphasis on saints is a Catholic reference and all the other religious references in the film imply the college setting is a Protestant/Fundamentalist, possibly Baptist or Pentecostal.

The production quality of the movie is dismayingly amateurish, as is the performance of most of the actors. Although some of the scenes seem to have been actually filmed in the facilities of a small school, which added the benefits of existing ambient sound, the sound effects and score were very lacking. And, as much as I have often joined in condemning movie and television producers who fail to utilize gay actors to play gay parts, it would have certainly improved the quality of Last Year to have cast straight actors in at least some of the straight roles. It was almost impossible to suspend belief and see Robby as anything other than gay. In the most confrontational scene between the gay bashing jocks and Paul, it almost seems like Paul and the lead jock want to kiss as they stand nose to nose. And, in fact, the outtakes include that scene ending with Paul leaning the additional inch in and planting a kiss on the jock's lips. Another criticism I have of the casting is that I saw no chemistry between the actors portraying Paul and Alex, although these are the two characters that develop a physical and emotional relationship as the film progresses. Mike Dolan, who portrays Alex, brings the most professional and close to believable performance to the movie, but it simply isn't enough.

As for cautions, I think anyone with unresolved issues about suicide might want to skip this movie. Also the movie really doesn't provide any serious help to resolving gay identity and religious conviction; so if you are struggling with this issue, don't expect too much help there either. If you want to see a movie for light entertainment, I wouldn't discourage you from Last Year. But it is better as a rental rather than a purchase, because I am not sure many would want to devote the time to watching it a second time.

This movie is a fairly well-written and well-acted project. I admit it has its Lifetime qualities: low budget (such as the sets and scenes that needed to be re-shot), a couple of actors who were not in any other movie (and for good reason), suspect editing, a useless montage, etc. Only one weakness in the plot though: homophobia and being closeted are not always the same thing. Regardless, Paul and Alex are characters that I was really able to buy into; there were a few other good actors in small parts. So I wouldn't pay much to see it, but if you can deal with the above, give it a chance.

I really don't understand how the reviewer whose comment is above (SunRock) thought The Laramie Project was "spectacular." I think this movie is at least on par with that one, except this movie is not a sensationalized documentary but sensationalized fiction. The former is worse.

Beware any movie that markets itself as being helmed by an "Acclaimed Director" - who has but one other vanity piece to his credit. Or, a film that bills its actors in the closing credits as "Our Talented Cast." Talk about compensating!

The production values : none.

The acting : would have been laughed off the auditorium stage at the High School Senior Production.

The script : rejected (irrespective of its subject matter) by even the most desperate after-school special.

A true waste of potentially very decent subject matter that deserved far better and competent treatment all the way around. So trite, so saccharine, so mawkishly sentimental, so poorly executed as to be patently offensive.

Not only: "what were they thinking?" But, why was the time and the money wasted on this production? Was there not an adult around when this train wreck was leaving the station?

Jeff London ('Regarding Billy') seems to be a director and writer who is committed to investigating the various degrees of problems young gay men face as they live in a homophobic society. His films resound with an honest feeling but too often he settles for stereotypes at both ends of the spectrum and that tends to weaken his work.

The setting is a Bible College somewhere in America where hunky Paul (Ron Petronicolos) is entering his 'last year' of study, his summer having been disrupted by an incident that is revealed later in the story. He re-joins his longtime roommate Robby (Patrick Orion Hoesterey) but keeps asking about his good friend Hector (Merrick McMahon), a subject no one wants to address. He meets Hector's roommate Alex (Mike Dolan) and gradually Alex lets Paul know that he is gay. Paul learns that the Bible College has discovered Hector is gay and the Dean (Rand Smith) and his henchmen are out to have Hector expelled. Paul's changed ways are noted by Robby and he finally confides that his summer incident was a gay experience in a restroom - a fact that Robby finds repulsive at first but soon comes to support Paul's anguish about his parent's disapproval and punishment.

As Paul's feelings for living who he really is surface he finds solace and sanctuary with Alex and the two become lovers. The Dean's spies gradually intimidate the group of four (Paul, Alex, Hector and Robby) and disciplinary action is taken. Among Paul's discoveries in his rebellion against the Bible College's stance against gays is the fact that the dean is a closet case and that is the reason for the rough action against Hector (with whom the dean had an assignation). It all comes to a tragic end for some and a sense of freedom for others - to find out who belongs to which category requires watching the film! The movie has its moments, due largely to the ability of the actors Petronicolos, Dolan, and McMahon, but it sadly is buried by otherwise mediocre to poor acting from the rest of the cast. The work of Rand Smith, Penelope Ma (who plays the dean's wife), and Lawrence Rinzel (who plays Paul's father) is particularly weak just when strong acting could have supported the flimsier portions of the script. London needed to spend more thought on Bible Colleges, finding that more razor sharp line between right wing bias against gays instead of opting for the usual clichés that are found everywhere. That dividing line among young men challenged by sexual identity would have made a far more successful film. But the film is worth watching for the performances of the three lead actors - strong young men each! Grady Harp