imdb-jeroen Reviews

Lonesome (2022)

Blunt and courageous

[9/10 · 23 August 2023]

Of course it's not always a compliment when someone calls a movie courageous, but in this case it really is. It shows some darker sides of gay culture with a bluntness that we seldomly see, without any judgement, just observing.

To me it also showed that these 'darker sides' of gay eroticism can have their own function in a persons life.

And there's the courage of the two actors that play the main characters, to take on with such intensity parts that have such explicit gay sex and nudity.

I'm particularly impressed with the very subtle, naturalistically introvert acting of Josh Lavery. In my opinion he would very well function in a scala of roles, from action hero to romantic interest, but apparently up until now he has mainly been in what we call 'gay' movies. He also has a very impressive voice.

In one other review the term gaysplectation is mentioned. I can see why, there's a lot of scarcely dressed or bare naked young man to be admired. But I think the term doesn't do right to the movie, because of the intense acting and the venturous parts of the story.

The music of this film just seems weird every once in a while, as if taken from some low-budget 70ies movie.

Munich: The Edge of War (2021)

Well made but missing a chance

[7/10 · 21 January 2022]

This unvoluntary-spy-movie is exciting, engaging, well performed and looks beautiful. But I feel a bit pummeled to learn that between the real two men that the book was inspired upon there was a one-sided platonic gay fling going on. Why leave that out in a movie made in 2021?

I know it was left out in the novel the movie was based upon, but I don't see why the movie couldn't be more historically accurate in that sense. It would have made the story much more interesting, and it seems to me that it's usefull to show homosexuality is a thing of all eras and societies.

Influence (I) (2019)

One of the best 'gay shorts' I've ever seen, and more than that.

[9/10 · 12 August 2021]

I got steered to this title by Youtube, probably for watching quite some 'gay shorts'. But that term doesn't really do justice to this movie, that is about a lot more, with exellent acting and care for details. (p.e. I loved how all the pianoplaying sounded completely real). It has a lot happening in a short time, it seems longer than it actually is, in a good sense!

Summer of 85 (2020)

Unsurprising story elaborated surprisingly beautiful

[9/10 · 7 September 2020]

I've seen a lot of 'gay' movies and a lot of coming of age movies and a lot of movies that combine both, but it is rare to see this in such great quality. The story hasn't many surprising twists, but the movie doesn't need those. It is a story of all times, metoculously set in one specific time and told in a very skillfull and loving fashion.

The casting, acting, art-direction, all are superb and enticing. The young actors seem to have great carriers ahead.

Centraal: Wat je vindt mag je houden (2019) Season 1, Episode 1

A far fetched story or a heartwarming fairytale

[8/10 · 28 November 2019]

It is easy to point out all the clichees in this story; the uptight coldhearted religious woman who finds warmth in the kind-hearted drag community. And there's a rather far fetched big event towards the end. But who cares? The movie is quite entertaining, well acted and directed and overall sympathetic. Maybe this is just a fairytale about the unpredictability of life. And a feelgood movie.

Centraal: Khata (2019) Season 1, Episode 4

A very touching portrayal of a hidden world

[9/10 · 27 November 2019]

Male prostitution is rarely portrayed, to portray it in a culture where there is also a big taboo on homosexuality is even rarer. A young boy is torn between three worlds: His traditional Maroccan family, the harsh world of prositution and the illusion of love with a friendly customer. He is forced to keep working and to keep paying-up by his pimp, who mercilessly blackmails him and other boys. The story feels real and the acting is very convincing. Especially the main character, couragiously and movingly played by Akram Tanna, needs to be mentioned. But for all the actors of Maroccan descent this is a couragious undertaking, dealing with this subject in a culture of shame.

The Definition of Lonely (2015)

Everyone can have friends.

[9/10 · 2 January 2018]

What a sympathetic little movie this is! There is very little plot in this movie, it's mainly about one encounter. But it takes just enough time to get to know the characters and close them in your heart. The acting is good and the story is heartwarming. Not a very typical 'gay movie': one of the characters happens to be gay, but this doesn't seem to be essential to the story.

Bad Girl (II) (2016)

Brilliant acting in adequate story

[8/10 · 24 March 2017]

I saw this film at the 'Roze Filmdagen'; the Amsterdam LGBTQ film festival. To be honest, it wasn't my first choice. As a gay man I'd rather seen a gay men's story...

But I was positively surprised by the quality of this film. All the production-work, all of the art-direction and all the camera-work are just great. And I really enjoyed the acting of especially Samara Weaving and Sara West, the two main actors, who put down a very involving performance. I guess the story isn't spectacularly inventive, but within it's genre it's a nice piece of work that kept me in suspense during the whole movie.

One on One (2010)

Ten minutes well spent, leaving me with a smile.

[6/10 · 7 February 2017]

This is just a 10 minute movie, and it's not pretending to be anything more. The story and the way it's told are both tacky and cheesy, and sometimes the acting and the directing are kind of clumsy, but all of this in a charming lighthearted, unpretentious way. The story tackles a problem that a lot of gay couples have in some way or another: how open can we be. Where one partner feels 'acting normal' is acting like any loving couple would, the other partner feels awkward showing 'too much gay-ness' in public. With sympathetic actors that are pleasant to look at. I would like to see more from both of the main characters.

A simple little story told in a simple way. 10 minutes well spent. It left me with a smile.

Accused (2014)

True story told sober but chillingly.

[8/10 · 9 April 2014]

This movie tells the true story of a nurse who was innocently accused of being a serial killer of helpless patients. We see the machinery that leads to her conviction, not only motivated by an honest search for truth, but also by vanity an opportunism. We see how the main character and her relatives suffer under her being imprisoned and being falsely accused. We see how even hard evidence of her innocence is put aside in something like a mass-hysteria. And we see how, after years of struggle, the accused is finally set free. This case got such great attention in Dutch media that everyone knows the outcome, yet the movie is exciting and engaging. Everything is filmed in a sober, modest fashion, the drama in the movie coming mainly from the chilling story itself and not from extra fancy plot lines or effects. And of course some intense acting, especially by the main character, who withstood the temptation to play a 'nice' woman, but instead portrays a woman that's not easily likable at first. That Lucia grows on you, and in the end has all the viewers sympathy (or at least all mine) is a beautiful achievement.

Only Decent People (2012)

A warm and well done culture-clash-comedy

[9/10 · 12 November 2012]

This movie caused quite some dispute in The Netherlands, it was accused of being racist and bigoted. Especially the way the Dutch black subcultures are portrayed is supposedly wrong. I didn't see it, to me this movie is as relentless towards the white (jewish) intellectual elite as it is towards the black lower class. But it seems to want to open the eyes of all people for their limited views and narrow-mindedness. And it points out how even within groups that seem homogeneous to outsiders, people have their petty little disdains for 'the others'. The intellectual Jewish look down on the 'textile Jews', the dark people from the Antilles look down on the Surinam people. And of course vice versa.

And all this in a juicy and very entertaining comedy, with a very nice cast and some splendid acting!

The Girl and Death (2012)

This movie takes its time.

[6/10 · 4 November 2012]

This seems to be one of the longest movies I've seen in years. But where some long movies have complex stories and plot lines, this film has a very simple story, that could comfortably be told in half the time. The fact that there is very little dialogue in the film doesn't exactly help the flow either.

So the film has a slow pace, and that's obviously by choice. I guess the director wants us to enjoy the beautifully lit scenes, the slightly overacting faces in close-up and the meritorious artwork. Maybe he wanted the film to have a pace fitting to the period the story takes place, and thus drag the audience into it. For me it didn't really work. The ideas maybe fine, but the elaboration just isn't powerful enough to account for the time spent. It didn't help that both the story and it's portrayal are loaded with platitudes and stereotypes. I guess this is also by choice, for the story could be seen as kind of a fairytale, but again: for me it didn't really work.

If you're a hopeless romantic or in need of some serious cooling down you might enjoy this film, but I could imagine nicer ways to spend all this time.

Sasha (2010)

Even in modern Germany gay boys have problems

[8/10 · 18 May 2011]

This film portrays a boy becoming a man and breaching out of the closet, whilst being torn between two (or more?) cultures.

In a way Sasha is very stereotypical: The more sensitive, more educated, more artistic gay guy in a rough, ignorant, stupid and very heterosexual environment. I guess the story has been told thousands of times. Yet this is a very nice version of it. The director catches very nicely a sense of lightness; even though this film hasn't a typical happy end. It's also quite nice to see a film about a group of immigrants that haven't been in many films yet.

The actor portraying Sacha sometimes overacts a bit in my opinion, but he does manage to get you involved in his character. I was particularly struck by the acting of the mother, that seemed quite intense to me. The piano teacher is brilliantly cast as a self confident gay guy to fall in love with.

There is artistic use of colour and lightning that paints the atmosphere in the cold German city. It's nice but maybe a bit too much.

There's no explicit nudity and sex, and quite little violence in this film. I think that there's also no need for that to tell the story. In this way the film is suitable for all audiences, which is I think what it should be.

LelleBelle (2010 TV Movie)

A very predictable story nicely acted out

[7/10 · 10 October 2010]

This film proves that if a story is about weird people who engage in unusual business, that doesn't mean that the story itself cannot be very predictable. But is also proves that a very predictable story that's acted out well enough can still make an entertaining movie.

This film aired on Dutch national television, and I watched it with my mother, which was a but awkward because it contains quite a few very explicit sex-scenes. (to a degree I hadn't seen on dutch national television yet) To me it seemed these scenes were useful to tell the story, because one of the themes is that the main character is kind of alienated from a normal sex-life. But I can imagine people not agreeing on that...

What made me like the film is the acting of most of the (young) cast.

The movie seems to balance on the thin line between brave and pretentious.

A compliment for the very well synchronized violin-playing

Ordinary People (2009)

The banal and absurd reality of ethnic cleansing

[9/10 · 5 February 2010]

I saw this film at the IFFR. After the soundless end most people just sat motionless for a while.

The movie is a merciless and relentless registration of how this abstract term we heard so much about, "ethnic cleansing", could have been in reality. We see a group of young soldiers (the main character is yet beardless) being put to work to execute "the enemy", defenseless boys and men of ages between about 15 and 70. We see young men, boys, being maneuvered into actions of a magnitude and gravity that's completely inconceivably to them. They can not really deal with the situation, and so they don't, they just do what they are told to do and blur their minds with liquor.

There is no pleasing of the audience in this movie; there are no hero's, there's no music, no beautiful scenery, no fast action, and not even judgment. We just see a, apparently very realistic, registration of actions in a slow easy pace, that makes it possible to feel a bit of what the young soldiers must have felt: boredom, heat, confusion, emptiness.

This complete lack of 'pleasers' is what makes this movie very strong, but it's also it's only weak point: it makes it harder to reach the big audience it deserves.

Garçon stupide (2004)

Apparently the main point of the movie is easily missed.

[8/10 · 7 January 2008]

Reading the other comments it seems everyone misses The Big Point in the movie: the meeting with Rui (the famous soccer-player) and the car accident serve as a catharsis for the main character Loic.

One could argue that the meeting with Rui never really takes place, but is just a dream Loic has when he's unconscious after the car accident... I'm not sure, and I think that's exactly what the director wants me to be...

Before the accident Loic has clearly lost his way, doesn't know how to give and receive love and fills that void with pointless sex. (Yes, some gay sex is quite bluntly shown, but to me that seems to have a very clear function) The split up with his platonic girl-friend/soul-mate Marie and quickly after that the unexpected death of her trigger a frenzy that ends in the car crash (or in meeting Rui and then the crash...)

After his accident Loic ends up at his parents place again, and seeing them we get to understand a little bit of his handicap in love. But he's changed, the (dream-?)meeting with Rui and the death of Marie finally made him 'grow up' and see things, life, in a more adult, a more loving way. He starts to see a future for himself, not clearly, but at least clear enough to know what he doesn't want. In the end he even seems to discover the possibility of falling in love,,,

Color Me Bad (2007)

Good script, beautiful acting.

[9/10 · 22 December 2007]

I saw this picture at the 'Roze filmdagen' in Amsterdam ("pink movie-days") From the three dutch shorts this one was clearly the best. Though nothing much really happens in the movie, and nothing is made very explicit, the movie keeps it's tension up in a great way, and the images sometimes are pure poetry.

The acting, especially of Abdullah el Baoudi who plays the main character Karim, is intense and superb. Baoudi makes the unusual combination of macho martial arts fighter with homosexual feelings seem perfectly natural. (as it probably is) The impossibility of giving in to these feelings in the society he is in is of great actuality, and it's a good thing the makers didn't give in to the seduction of making a more rose-colored ending.

Down in the Valley (2005)

let's have all the extra endings!

[8/10 · 30 October 2006]

I had a hard time concentrating on this movie for the first few minutes, because it starts a bit 'messy' and 'arty'. But I was taken by it very quick. The characters are fascinating in their helplessness, and all are played very well. Edward Norton should of course be mentioned, mainly for creating a character that is both pitiable and exiting. But bluntly put: it's an all-star-cast.

I saw the film on DVD, and the DVD has "EXTRA: 2 ADDITIONAL ENDINGS" written on the box. Why? Why not have all the endings in the original movie? The first, 'original' ending is a bit sudden and leaves you with a lot of questions, that are answered to my satisfactionin the 'second ending'. The 'last ending' adds a nice emotional touch, that gives some consolation in this sad story. Some stories have just too much content to be told in 90 minutes.

Jack of Diamonds (2001)

Not THAT bad

[6/10 · 23 October 2006]

At least the story is kind of original. It did keep me up. The fun is merely that what seems to be the plot in the beginning is completely unimportant at the end.

The film is full of clichés, but who minds clichés in a thriller that is almost a horror movie as well. It is obviously low-budget which shows most of all in the bad 'horror' make-up and stupid music, and the film has an old fashioned 'pace'; it's merely the cars and the cellphones that make one be sure it's not from the eighties. "Shaun of the dead" meets "the day after". But when you can see the humor in the situation, the movie is entertaining enough. Sometimes bad and silly acting is fun to watch as well...

Polleke (2003)

a fairy tale with a lot of truth in it

[9/10 · 27 September 2006]

Off course this movie is for children, and yes of course everything ends up in a way that's probably a bit too good to be true.

But meanwhile this movie gives a rich view into modern dutch urban society. In that aspect it could compete with a Spike Lee movie, telling you a lot about city(suburban)-life, for once not about New-York, Chicago or San Fransisco, but simply about the Dutch 'Randstad' (the region where all the major city's are concentrated) So if you're a foreigner, and want to know a bit bout this; watch and have a good time!

Apart from all this, the story is just very entertaining, the acting is good and the movie has a nice pace. The two children that play the main characters are sometimes really amazing!

Before the Fall (2004)

The beauty, the beauty

[9/10 · 3 May 2006]

Seeing this film often reminded me of the pictures of Leny Riefenstahl that I was allowed to see once (these pictures, being Nazi propaganda, are kind of forbidden) In a similar way it shows the beautiful healthy young men that were to build a 'thousand year Reich', and it shows the quasi religious and pompous rituals that went along with that. It also clearly makes one see the attraction of it, especially to youth.

All the young man in the NaPolA school of the movie are beautiful, which is probably more realistic than one would think of it at first; the Nazi's selected these boys on physical quality, and had standards for ideal looks. They also had a thing for the aesthetics of the young male body, and it wasn't a taboo, like it seems nowadays, for a man to admit another man's beauty.

These aesthetics, and this taboo are probably the reason why this film was labeled a 'gay' movie when I saw it, more than the friendship between the two main characters, that to me seemed to be nothing more than that; a profound friendship. (if a friendship like that is already labeled 'gay' it leaves us to think about the emotional poverty of modern men)

I think it's unbelievable that I didn't hear more of this film before, and that it was in Dutch cinema's only for a very short period, but I guess a reason for that is this 'gay' label.

A big pity, for this film deserves a big audience, both for quality and message.

White Chicks (2004)

Comedy-plots have always been unbelievable

[6/10 · 28 February 2006]

A lot of people find the plot line to ridiculous to believe, but hey guys: it's a COMEDY!!! In Mozart's "Cosi Fan Tutte" two women don't even recognize their own husbands in disguise. Silly plots are as old as comedy itself, and you shouldn't let them spoil the fun: They are an important part of the fun!

Anyone who proclaims this is 'one of the worst make-up jobs ever', must be completely blind. The make-up was for me one of the main reasons tot see the movie: I was very curious how it would look, 2 black guys as 2 blonds. And I was not at all disappointed. Of course the result looks a bit strange and it is not very realistic to believe anyone in real life would go for it, but yet the 'girls' look amazing. I think the make-up team did a very fine 'state-of-the-art' job.

And about racism: I think making fun of the differences between races (and here also: between cultures) whilst not sparing the own kind, is one of the best ways to fight racism. The same thing for the 'gay' jokes: of course those also excel in banality and stereotyping, like most jokes in the movie, but the tone is friendly and in it's way I even think respectful. (I happen to be gay myself, and never felt offended in the least.)

Eating Out (I) (2004)

Extremes meet

[7/10 · 12 January 2006]

What a weird movie! With a script that has numerous weak spots, and some scene's that just don't work, it also has brilliant scenes, and some very great and daring acting. The looks of the film are cheap: it shows that it was shot in only ten days (on video I suppose) with not a great sum of money to be spent on production and post-production. But then some actors seem first rate: to me especially Scott Lunsford and Emily Brooke Hands stand out in the absolutely genius phone-sex-scene. Scott lunsford looked very recognizable to me as the soft yet sturdy straight guy, who get's to be mistaken for gay, and he shows a beautiful range of feelings. I think we will hear more from most of the actors in this movie, to my opinion they deserve it.

Change of Heart (1999)

Sympathetic

[6/10 · 22 December 2005]

OK, nothing high-budget-action-suspense here. Not even an attempt to be unpredictable and original.

Still the movie gives one that warm feeling.

In spite of all the pour routine-wise producing, the bad (very bad) music and some poor side characters, there seems to be some sincerity hidden in there somewhere. Grant Bowler is a totally new actor to me, I'ld like to see more of him, and the little girl is doing a superb job. (though it's outrageous to claim she's just nine years old) Chis Haywood seems to be overdoing it a bit. His character would do well if the film were just for children, but now makes the film loose credibility.

Time to Leave (2005)

A tender movie about life, a feel-good movie about someone dying.

[8/10 · 20 November 2005]

The first thing that strikes me as very unusual about this movie is that the main character is gay, and that that is not the subject of the movie, not even an issue. I don't know of any other movie like that.

Having said this, let's leave the subject of homosexuality, just like the film does, and not scare heterosexuals away. Of course the subject of the movie, saying goodbye to life, isn't new, neither original. But sometimes it isn't the story itself, but the way it is told that makes it worthwhile. To my opinion Ozon is a very good storyteller. I think tenderness, and the love for people and for life itself must have inspired him a lot.

Some scene's could be seen as provocative and politically incorrect, but the way they are woven into the story makes them credible and the way they are filmed makes them just beautiful. Ozon has a way of filming sex scene's as what they are; a nice part of everyday life.

The movie left me moved, but not sad.