Purely Joyful Movie!

Fantastic!

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

There is not enough I can say about this movie! Mathew Ludwinki was amazingly real and touchable. The qualities the vulnerability ahe brought to the character, packaged in a European runway model. The acting was real and frank and at times poignant. The re was no glossing over of the reality of the situation his character Adam finds himself in. The support the story got from the fine character portrayals by Allison Lane,Michael Medico and Casper Andreas all complete the cast . Despite the grittiness of the reality the movie touches on. There is a happy ending. One that makes you actually happy for the characters.

Young Matthew Ludwinski becomes the Dirk Diggler of 21st century in Going Down In LA LA Land. The obvious comparison for this film is with Boogie Nights. Unlike the other film Going Down In LA LA Land as a gay film gets up front an honest about the porn industry being a great gay industry. And we have up front gay characters.Ludwinski after breaking up with his boyfriend in New York decides to try to make it in Los Angeles as an actor. Of course he soon realizes that Los Angeles is the only place other New York where every other attractive young person is trying to make in film and television and its worse here.Ludwinski sort of slides and glides into the porn film industry first behind then up front of the camera. Then it's a bit of escorting and then he hooks up with Michael Medico, a most closeted star of a G rated situation comedy. As it turns out Medico is a lonely man looking to express his love which in his case still not dare speak its name to Middle America. What was interesting here is during the course of the film, Ludwinski could have taken any number of different courses professionally and romantically and his life could have been tragic or nondescript or any number of other life places. Go back over the film and see what I'm talking about.Allison Lane plays his best friend who gives Ludwinski room and board while he's in Los Angeles. She's interesting and even though she betrays him, she's likable in her own way. She's obsessed with fame which is the problem. I was involved with someone many years ago, attractive, but obsessed with fame. He never got anywhere near that because he failed to realize that people in theater do it because they love it. If fame comes, it comes, most will never see it, but those who stay with it love theater for its own sake.Her role is small, but Judy Tenuta puts some real bite into her couple of scenes as a washed up has been actress who also drugged out on fame and celebrity.Going Down In LA-LA Land is one interesting take on gay life among the aspiring on the west coast.

I really enjoyed this movie. Even to this day, it seems like it's so hard to find a gay-themed movie that doesn't end in some horrible tragedy. I love the way this one ended! I think the director would be better off staying behind the camera, but the other 3 stars of the film (Candy, Adam and John) were great. As others have pointed out, the chemistry between Adam and John was almost palpable. And Candy practically stole the show; she was simply awesome.Besides the ending, the thing I like most about this movie was how it didn't take itself too seriously. It was genuinely funny in many places and I laughed out loud a bunch of times. It's the first movie I've seen in a really long time that just left me smiling at the end. I will definitely watch it again, too.

Viewed at the Brussels Gay Film FestivalA very engaging story of lust, libido and love in LA. The film was a very good take on LA - its quirky reliance on trendy remedies for modern woes, on drugs and on its special brand of eternally hopeful American aspiration as embodied in Candy and Adam - the one moving from opportunity to opportunity, the other sticking to some level of honesty, no matter how hard won.The opening sequence of Adam driving through LA set the tone perfectly: brown skies, fabled landmarks, grungy strip malls and fabulous estates. Candy and Adam - old film school friends - are each determined to make it big as actors, faced with the deadening reality of too many actors for too few roles. What they are really after, though, is family: they have their fraternal relationship, they long for a married one.Matthew Ludwinski deserves a special mention for managing to be extremely sexy in a porn- fantasy way and at the same time extremely romantic in an honest way. In this type of story it is often hard to see what the more successful character sees in the less successful character. But the film took the time to make Adam credible as an intelligent, interesting person and the chemistry between Adam and John was immediate and believable.The film could have been a pat puff piece for the film industry, and the portrayal of the porn industry was a little soft-core: my one caveat. But the film it showed the downside of life in LA - drugs, hucksterism and sex - in a very real and sad way. The comment about not being able to come out of the closet because of the people whose livelihoods depended on a straight actor's persona, really touched a cord. The ending gained credibility from the gritty reality of the body of the film. The audience - mostly European - roundly applauded the film.