Actuakers
One of my all time favorites.
BelSports
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Deanna
There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.
pslust
This was a film that deserved more than one viewing as this film was quite intellectual, definitely soul-searching and soul-search-able, was quite the thought provoker, AND the actors were quite cute to boot. Speaking of actors, the actor playing the main character was definitely someone that Jonathan Frid, he played Barnabas Collins in an old television series, would have been quite proud to see to join the Brotherhood of Vampires; the actor as the main character was that serious, that cold, that vulnerable, AND yet still very human. This will definitely be one film that I will add to my permanent collection, and one that I look forward to watching again. Compared to the other "gay" films I have seen to date, this one stands out. Why? Simple: it brought you in with its puzzles, with human interactions from a very gay-oriented perspective, and you had to stay to the very end to see how this movie ended.
will_hughes
Summarily: Soft porn with interjections of a message about the porn industry and safe sex.The movie could've almost been bashing itself. The badly shot and cut footage makes it completely unrealistic. The actors/models never actually lose their underwear, even for the tamest of shots. The movie completely fails to question or explore preconceptions / boundaries / taboos and exists entirely within the limited scope of an outdated cultural paradigm. It's almost like the story was written by some bastion of moral fortitude, with limited experience of gay culture, let alone sub-culture. It's almost entirely acted out, like a melodramatic fantasy, dreamed up by a gossipy virgin, straight from the Midwest USA. We can at least surmise, that the writers aren't Catholic, as evidenced by the ever present, "wear a condom" message. Which brings me to another point. Anyone pushing the views of the AID$ industry, should be considered either malicious, funded or ignorant. I'm assuming that the constant references to condoms and then PEP (Post Exposure Prophylaxis), highlight an even deeper lack of research or understanding and complacently reinforce the status-quo. Though full of opinions (like mine), the internet does detail the fraud and misconduct findings, surrounding our beloved Dr. Robert Gallo (the father of HIV). Since the late 90's, we have documentaries like AID$ Inc and House of Numbers (also reviewed on this site) to help communities understand the industry and it's associated scandals. It appears that few of us have even slowed for breath, instead of doing a little cultural or scientific fact checking. Perhaps in this respect the movie is quite realistic, everyone blithely ignoring facts and living in a World that doesn't appear to contain one heterosexual, or a woman (I am absolutely not putting myself through that again, just to check). All that being said, these people are doing something to produce a movie that has some specific relevance to gay culture. I would however, like to see something that was less dependent on flesh and had more mind expanding backbone.
Van Fannel
This film shows why being artsy just for the sake of it is not good, especially at the expense of plot clarity and good dialog. Half of the time I had to struggle to understand what the character is trying to say because they are too busy trying to be poetic when a simple line would have done the job of describing what he tries to say. Ditto with the repeated visual nightmare the main character keeps seeing. It's the same thing over and over again which is annoying.The worst part of the film is that the pairing of the main character (Paul) with another character who has no chemistry with him (Griffin). Paul seems to have better chemistry with Zhivago and Baxter and moreover, those two seem to care more about him. Paul's romance with Griffin came out of nowhere as well.
philip-1
Seeing Heaven is a very artistic film that certainly has a unique and often hypnotic aesthetic. The depiction of the gay porn sub culture is rather plastic and not very believable, but that is not what really defines the film.The bizarre visions that the lead character has while attaining orgasm is really the main focus. The fatal mistake here is that director Ian Powell lingers on these nightmarish visions and repeats them with little variation, over and over again until the viewer just loses patience with the entire project. They certainly are intriguing at the beginning of the film, but when one sees the same collage of clips reoccurring throughout, they become annoyances that only hold up what little story there is. Ken Watanabe's constantly repeating music adds to the ever increasing monotony of the entire proceedings.Actor Alexander Bracq is believable and beautiful to look at, but his understated, almost sleeping-walking like presence adds to the gradual boredom that sets in for the viewer. There is plenty of steamy sex and attractive bodies in the film, but frankly, if this is what you're looking for you might as well watch a real porn film rather than an artistic miscalculation about the porn industry.With a faster pace, a better editor, and a more interesting script this might have been a really great experience. As it is, I'm glad to have seen it, but certainly would never return to this unsatisfying picture.
