[.ca] Broadway Damage (Widescreen)

Would like to see more movies like this one!:
Like a few other reviews, it's a "feel good" movie, and it is. Like "Trick" or "Broken Hearts Club" without the porn subject matter it makes me wish there were more movies like it and with older stars portraying long successful relationships (without the Aids issue). Movies are influential in our lives and they are role models that give us hope or what some dreams can grow into, and we definitely need more "happy endings".

Not too heavy and a good bit of romance:
Broadway Damage was a fun and enjoyable film. It was not too heavy and not overly light, a good date movie. Not a lot of sexual stuff and no nudity. The acting was good and the story was cute. I would not put it on my top ten list but it is better than a great many of the indipendant gay themed films I have seen. I would say it is a good addition to the gay themed movie collection and a good investment. The best romantic comady todate is "Trick" with a simular story but done very well. This film is good for mixed groups and remains fairly nondiscript.

Just a feel-good movie, no dark content:
As a straight female teenager, I don't tend to watch very many independent films about gay males. However, there has always been something about the genre of the gay romantic comedy that has interested me, and I found this movie to be utterly satisfying. Reading the reviews on this site, I see quite a few people who are complaining endlessly about the movie. Supposedly, the plot isn't good enough, the characters were hard to take seriously, the dialogue was cheesy...and so on. Here's my theory: when I think of almost any romantic comedy I've seen, I can come to a general definition. A romantic comedy is one in which two or more people (some movies feature inherently normal and relatable people; others are more unbelievable)get into a series of humorous mishaps in order to win someone's affection. That is exactly what this movie is, and I didn't expect any more of it. It was pleasant and fun. After watching the movie, I realized that in retrospect, the thing that struck me about it was that it was so incredibly clean. Besides the fact that it wasn't a depressing movie about gay people (no one died or was seriously hurt in any way), there was almost nothing offensive about anything in the plot. There was: one sex scene, one additional implied sex scene, a few instances of minimal and very discreet nudity, one fight scene so small it doesn't even count as violence, maybe four instances of bad words, no drugs or alcohol, and of course, nothing scary. A lot of movies (gay and straight) are depressing. Someone dies, or ends up crying his/her heart out, or something like that. Any rejection that is suffered by these characters is quickly recovered from (even other romantic comedies tend to make you sad when the characters get hurt really badly). Of course, my absolute favorite scene was The Grand Gesture. From that point on, I would continually find myself smiling, even when I didn't think I especially wanted to. The end melted my heart, and I went away from the movie feeling incredibly happy. I try not to put down movies that make me feel really happy like that. So who would like this movie? Gay people, for one. Non-homophobics who also happen to be romantics. People who live in New York or harbor a special love for the city. And people who like Gilmore Girls. I noticed that this movie has a ton of the fast-paced banter and joking that Lorelai and Rory do so often on the show. Mostly this dialogue is between Marc and Robert, who sometimes adopt accents or finish one another's sentences in order to be amusing. I found it to be very funny. One last subject before I stop this review: this movie is set in New York, and for me, it kind of had moments where it captured the spirit of NYC. I have only been in the city once, last summer, and there were a lot of memories that this movie brought back. For instance, Marc and Robert would walk down a New York street, and I would remember a similar place I walked down. And when Marc would stand on his fire escape and listen to the noises of the people on the street and the music from the houses, it brought back memories of my room in my uncle's house in Long Island, where I stayed while I was there. It felt very comfortable and I loved it. I know, I'm a sappy romantic and a relentless New York lover. But I can't help it. I hope that anyone who reads this review will ignore the naysayers and be convinced to give this movie a try. At the very least, it should make you smile. Just a little.

I hated this film.:
I really wanted to like this film, as I love gay cinema. But the bad acting, horrible script and horrific directing made me hate it. And LONG! It's bad enough when a movie "seems" to drag on because it's so bad. Well, this movie is worse as it is BAD and clocks in at just under 2 hours. This film makes "The Titanic" seem like a short. This could have been such a great little film too. But it is just too tedious and too poorly executed to qualify for even a movie to fall asleep to. "Attack of the killer tomatoes" seems like an oscar winner compared to this stinker.If you want to see a great gay themed movie, skip this trash and go rent "Edge of seventeen" or "Trick."I am not kidding, this film is alful.

Breezy romantic comedy wears its heart on its sleeve:
Responding to the cynicism which had begun to blight the movie business in which he was working in a technical capacity, writer-director-editor Victor Mignatti took several years to develop a script before making his defiant feature debut with "Broadway Damage" (1997), a bright and breezy romantic comedy with a shamelessly romantic heart. Michael Shawn Lucas and Aaron Williams play lifelong friends and fellow actors, chasing their dreams through the byways of Manhattan, securing one night stands in lieu of committed relationships, and sometimes getting involved with completely unsuitable guys (a liaison with hunky neighbor Hugh Panaro is particularly disastrous). Roommate Mara Hobel (the young Christina Crawford in "Mommie Dearest", 1981) knows instinctively that Lucas and Williams are destined to be together, but Lucas is completely oblivious to Williams' torch-sized infatuation. With all the familiar elements thus in place, anyone who doubts the possibility of a happy ending ought to be thoroughly ashamed of themselves! At a time when most low budget gay movies have more in common with radio plays than anything else, substituting dialogue for visual stimulation, Mignatti explores his characters' obsessions whilst moving the plot forward with hardly a backward glance. Much of the film's success is due to the three appealing leads: Hobel plays a spoiled rich kid, stifled by her parents' expectations, who breezes through life in a fantasy world of her own making until Big Bad Reality begins to intrude on her complacency. Williams is actually too attractive to be entirely convincing as a geeky Sondheim fanatic, but his enthusiasm is genuinely infectious, and he plays the part like a stage character, with speech intonations straight out of a Broadway production. Meanwhile, Lucas provides the film's emotional core, and he conveys just enough charm and savvy to earn the viewers' affections. Nice pecs, too. For all its pleasantries, however, this isn't an entirely rose-tinted view of the world. Mignatti's script endorses the fundamental value of our hopes and aspirations, whilst reminding us that such things are no defence against the harsh realities of modern living. An obvious lesson, perhaps, but worth repeating, especially in the company of such big-hearted, hopelessly idealistic characters. And if it all seems a little too bland and predictable at times, the movie scores points for daring to wear a great big optimistic heart on its sleeve. Mignatti's editing skills and Michael Mayers' polished cinematography gives the production a genuine technical gloss, and there's a handful of excellent original songs (by Cindy Soltoff, Gabriel Zenone and Ken Dahl) which can be accessed separately in an audio-only section of the DVD. Though popular at various film festivals, where it won a number of awards, the film took quite a while to secure theatrical distribution, until it was picked up by Jour de Fete in 1998. However, the material actually plays better on TV, and Wolfe Video's region-free disc is letterboxed at 1.85:1. It's an excellent print, but the lack of anamorphic encoding is a real drawback. Sound format is two-channel stereo. There's a trailer but no captions, and the film runs a slightly indulgent 110m 34s.