Fantastic!

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

People from outside the Eastern European Block don't understand that this contradicting reality is the truth. I know because they doubted my stories from Romania when I was forced to wake up at 5-6AM and wait in line for 1-2 hours to get 2 kg of milk during the 70's and the 80's. I had no reason to lie because I was making a good living in Toronto for decades and I needed no sympathy for my early life. The critics' approach looks pretentious and arrogant to me. I know why they think this way but they shouldn't judge what they don't understand. This is the reality today in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, etc and even worst in Russia. Romanians got stoned during the gay pride in recent years and this is impossible to digest by the ignorant Americans. Nothing is new in this world and the story was told before. The idea of the movie was to show people discovering their true identity, the struggle and the beauty/ugliness in their relationships. A unique experience in one's life, if you are lucky, that gives clarity. Otherwise, it's just meaningless living. I think it was captured brilliantly, despite the unqualified critics and minor flows. This movie is only for the people that accept the complexity of the human nature. Period.

Spoiler Alert - A film school quality product. A film about an incestuous mother, and a pathetic girlfriend who settles for life with a gay man. A cookie cutter film in which one of the gay characters has to die from gay bashing, and the other has to live an unbearable existence because he's too weak to grow a pair of balls, and get on with life as a gay man. A film in which the only character that has any self-respect is the one they kill off. We can't have a well-adjusted character upsetting all the artsy, doom and gloom. Maybe one day the writer, and so many other writers, will develop enough talent to write a movie with an original story line.

What a completely frustrating experience this film was! The frustration comes mostly from the lead character, Kuba, who is an attractive, athletic young man who can't seem to get out of his own way. Kuba has a sexy girlfriend, Sylwia that he enjoys, although he has secrets that he keeps from her. Their relationship takes a bit of a turn when Kuba meets the beautiful Mikal and they become fast friends. As their friendship deepens into a truly emotional connection, Kuba's sometimes violent self-loathing and shame kicks in and won't let him act on his desires. Obligation and guilt keep him tied to his girlfriend and domineering, no-nonsense mother and he refuses to take the leap that will ultimately make him happy. He and Mikal become so physically close at one point that I found myself yelling at the television screen, "Kiss him, already!" Instead, Kuba spends every waking moment afraid, ashamed and full of self-hatred, even in those illicit moments he sometimes spends in public restrooms. When the truth about Kuba and Mikal becomes too obvious for Sylwia to ignore, gauntlets are thrown down and ultimatums are given. Mikal, whose only crime was falling in love with his best friend is having his own struggles and is inadvertently affected by Kuba's actions. And as one can imagine, this is not a feel-good movie.As the film ended, I as a viewer was unsure of what the filmmaker intended to say with his story. Some of the characters get what they want, some of them don't, but none of them seem satisfied with the way things end up. What was the filmmaker's message? Was it, "life sucks and then you die?" I have never watched a gay-themed film that ended up being so decidedly and anti-gay as this one did. The five stars I give this film are for the compelling performances of the actors. And if you're looking for some skin, there a couple of scenes that won't disappoint. The movie is effectively shot. But where the movie fails is in it's heart-breaking cynicism. Does it want to champion these people, or condemn them? Does it want to hold them up as examples or as cautionary characters? A film that leaves you with more questions than answers isn't always a good thing, but it's exactly what this one does. You are left with questions.............and frustration.

Kuba (Mateusz Banasiuk) is a promising competitive swimmer who spends his time training, refereeing between his argumentative mother and girlfriend, and getting blowjobs in the changing room toilets (supposedly from other young men, although the sound effects make it seem like he's got a hungry labrador in there with him). Then he meets Michał, and perhaps both young men will come out of the closet. But in Poland, that's not necessarily an easy thing to do...There are too many padding scenes in this - shots of cars driving through multi-storey car-parks or of Polish underpasses add little and could easily have been cut (or perhaps replaced with further shots of the fortunately-endowed Mr Banasiuk in the shower). But it's a pleasing enough film: not a new story by any stretch of the imagination, but seeing a well-worn plot set in a different location always adds an air of originality. And the nudity - both male and female - is nice! Banasiuk does well in the lead role, seeming remote and unemotional until the affair with Michał starts, whereupon he warms noticeably (although one suspects he's never going to be the life and soul of the party). But acting honours go to Marta Nieradkiewicz as the wronged girlfriend held prisoner by the love she realises is hopeless, and to Katarzyna Herman as the clingy yet realistic mother.Heralded as Poland's first-ever 'gay film', this is worth watching not just for its novelty, not just for the nudity (or did I mention that already?), but also because it is an engrossing human interest drama that's a good way to spend 93 minutes.