Judas Kiss (2011)

Number Rolled: 92

Movie Name/Year: Judas Kiss (2011)

Genre: Gay & Lesbian Movies

Length: 94 minutes

Rating: NR

Director: J.T. Tepnapa

Writer: J.T. Tepnapa, Carlos Pedraza

Actors: Charlie David, Richard Harmon, Timo Descamps, Sean Paul Lockhart, Julia Morizawa, Samantha Rund, Laura Kenny, Dale Bowers, Dennis Bateman, Genevieve Buechner

Let’s be honest, this kind of movie is exactly the reason I decided I wanted to review movies in my spare time. Before I write anything for this blog, I research it. I look up older reviews from various sites and blogs, hit up IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes and even watch interviews with members of the cast and crew. When I researched this film I found a lot of scathing reviews; none of which I agree with.

Granted, I’m a little bias in favor of this movie because I’m a huge fan of Sean Paul Lockhart – both as an actor and as a human being. Though his past is laced with dark marks on that permanent record all people in the public eye have, he acknowledges them and has moved on to work in mainstream movies and on campaigns for some issues very dear to my heart – such as safe sex. No doubt, if this movie had sucked, just his presence in it would have earned a star. However, I found this movie inspirational and I was completely absorbed by the story line, so his presence is moot. I don’t give above five stars. If I did, he would have brought it to six.

This movie was about a failed director that takes his friends place on a film festival judges panel and runs into a version of himself from the past. Doctor Who fans, this is where we say that time is really just a ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey… stuff. The movie never actually says that the main character, the older version of him, goes back in time, but it never actually says that the younger version of the main character goes ahead in time. In fact, the time travel issue is secondary to the drama. This failed director just gets a chance to help himself change his future; no DeLorean’s, no blue box, just a strange twilight zone-ish mesh of timelines. I found it quite unique, actually.

The actors made this amazing script seem even more so. Even though I have given the movie a perfect score, I can’t claim that it is actually perfect. There was some wording that I couldn’t get past, but that was really my only problem with it and really only came in near the end of the movie.

Even if my issues with the film had been greater than just three or four words near the end, I probably still would have scored it very high. I identified with the main character, but I imagine a lot of people would. Who hasn’t made some mistakes when they were younger that they wish they could go back and fix? Of course, it also helps that about two years ago I wrote a non-fiction book about my life, lied to say it was fictional and was too much of a pussy to do anything with it. This movie inspired me more than just as a reviewer.

I have an issue with the Netflix categorization of this film; “Gay & Lesbian Movies.” That’s it. That’s the only category they put this film in. Every other film I’ve reviewed for this blog had roughly five or six – or more – categories. I’m almost offended by it, like it’s a form of segregation. It wasn’t just a gay & lesbian movie, it was also a drama and a romance and a little bit sci-fi/fantasy. There were plenty of other categories they could have, and should have, listed this movie in.

Just saying.

Overall Opinion – 5/5