The Seminarian
The Seminarian
NR | 01 August 2010 (USA)
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The Seminarian is a story about Ryan, a closeted gay student in his final semester of seminary studies. Despite his school's hostile stance towards homosexuality, Ryan has two gay classmates - Gerald and Anthony - in whom he secretly confides. He is also close to his religiously devout mother who, as things stand, is unaware of his sexual orientation. Ryan needs to complete a solid theological thesis in order to continue doctoral work at the university of his dreams. As he works on his thesis 'The Divine Gift of Love,' Ryan begins a relationship with Bradley - a guy he has met on the Internet who seems perpetually unable to commit himself. Ryan confides in Gerald and Anthony, only to learn about their romantic struggles as well. Consequently, Ryan questions his views on God's gift of love.

Reviews
Pluskylang

Great Film overall

Ceticultsot

Beautiful, moving film.

Rio Hayward

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

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Janae Milner

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

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Joe Day

I am a product of the Harvey Milk Days and this film illustrates a new kind of 21st Century gay. Oh sure, the "good 'ol days" had their share of pathos and heartbreak - drama - but I find it curious that in this day and age, after 40 years of come out, come out and teaching in schools that homosexuality is okay and everything, that this kind of shallow, passive-aggressive, timidity among young gays (particularly on campus) still exists.Early on our hero poses to his Academic adviser (he attends a top religious-based school and refs to himself as a seminarian) that his belief is that if God is "good", then why does he make "love" so difficult to achieve? He fails to complete the thought, however, in that he stops short of saying, why does God make it so difficult for homosexuals? If he had gone that far and perhaps examined his own life and all those he surrounds himself with, he might find his answer.He has two or three equally closeted co-students and they have to be the most boring crowd anyone can imagine. They are all cute in a nauseating way, concerned about their physiques, etc. They get online and cam-sex. They all give varying rationalizations for even being at seminary, none of which have anything to do with having faith in Jesus. I would feel better if they just admitted that they came to meet guys.In what has to be some of the most stilted dialogue ever and equally dull performances, this film is the flip side to the flamboyance of say Bear City, although both illustrate the desperation and hopelessness of pursuing the homosexual "lifestyle." And all of this couched in that magic word that has been so bastardized - love.Hey seminarian, lust is not love; sex is not love; you are not making love in the back seat of some trick's car nor in the tea room at college - right there, where anybody could walk in and see you, Mr. in-the-closet!!!!Love is not difficult if you do it the way God designed. It isn't. Only when you go outside of His plan, do the complications occur. Likewise with any of Jesus' prohibitions: drink too much, smoke too much, fool around on your wife, steal a car, lie on your taxes, etc. There is a REASON God says don't do it. Because it will hurt you!!!Usually, in these gay Christian vs. the Bible flicks, homosexuality wins, mainly because the subject finds some way to justify their "love" for another man through the so-called love of Jesus. No where have I ever seen one of these that acknowledges the existence of Satan or the possibility that sodomy itself is a product of evil intentions on the part of Satan. Jesus talks about Satan a lot so he must exist. We know that men can love one another with no hint of homosexuality whatsoever too. So, if the belief is that God created man and woman to be together and not the proverbial "Adam and Steve", if we acknowledge that God does not "make mistakes", then like the fall of Adam and Eve at the slithering of the serpent, it can also be true that sodomy was part of the curse inflicted upon mankind as part pf that Original Sin. In other words, were the serpent to say to a man of another man: God says do not put that into your mouth but He just wants you to be miserable; He knows you will like it, i.e. forbidden fruit, and you fall for that line, then guess what?You wanna tell these poor slobs to just get a life. Sitting around waiting for the phone to ring from some guy who is even sicker than you are, even more guilt-ridden than you are doesn't sound like much fun, particularly when all of you are such beta doormats it isn't even funny. Makes you wonder what would happen to any of these twinks were they to find themselves in a rough leather bar. All, however, would make excellent prison fish.Heck, I am straight and even I would smack them around and make them do what I wanted.

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michaelrthomson

I'd not read the reviews, or indeed anything about this before downloading it to watch, I thought it could be an interesting storyline - although one we've heard before.The opening ten minutes was enough to prove that one should not bother with this sort of content. I turned it off and went and watched some paint dry which was more interesting than this stinker.Two days later I'd run out of paint so I thought i'd try again, being tenacious and all. What I was rewarded with was the most awful acting, and complete clichés everywhere in terms of the 'gay' storyline. This mixed with an awful presence of religious judgments was enough to do my head in.I didn't really find anything original in this at all, the stories have been told better by plenty of film makers. I'm not surprised I've never heard of or seen these 'actors' elsewhere - their only real expertise was how to remain wooden and expressionless throughout, even in the occasional moments that might otherwise elicit a response.Ultimately this is a good 90 mins of my life I'll never get back, I cannot for the life of me think of any aspect of this movie that redeems it.Oh one last comment, I think the film maker threw in several penis shots just to create interest (or enthusiasm), all it served to do was highlight that this movie wasn't the only flaccid thing going on on my TV screen.I would say if you have 90 mins up your sleeve, and you can't find any drying paint or grass growing to watch, then you could bore yourself with this debacle of a movie.

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drainart

I bought this movie somewhat on a whim after reading reviews on several sites, and I'm glad I did. "The Seminarian" is a thoughtful -- and thought-provoking -- study not only of main character Ryan's quest for love, but of how each person has to find his or her own path to happiness. Some people try to find this through religion, others through friendship, others through romantic relationships, others through purely sexual encounters. Ryan is trying to balance all of these, and sometimes his intense focus on one makes him lose sight of the importance of the others. The other characters represent these different parts of Ryan's existence -- Eugene & Kelli are God's love; Gerald & Anthony are friendship; Bradley is romance; and Kevin is sex. As an allegory, then, these interrelationships worked well for me. Other reviewers have commented on the slow pace, and they're right that this isn't exactly an action flick. But it wasn't meant to be. Some reviews mention the brief nudity in a couple of scenes, and yes, it was probably put there by the director solely to titillate certain audiences. But it was also realistic... No one wears clothes 24/7, so why should the characters in a movie? Bottom line: Take "The Seminarian" for what it is, accept it for what it's not, and I think most people will find it worth their time.

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Aubrey Bijou

The trailer portrayed the film very promising but as I sat at its premiere I could not wait to get out of the theater. The audience agrees as you can hear and see their reaction to its slow paced development that lead to nothing and/or the awkward script. I am not sure why a lot of people are raving about this film. Perhaps it's production quality is slightly better than other homosexual-base films, or maybe just certain viewers only enjoyed its male frontal scenes? PRODUCTION: Above-average, simple sets. ACTING: Unimpressive and most of the actors did not commit to their characters. Therefore, it's harder for the audience to connectDIRECTING: See all above. Enough said.

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