Just be

Race You to the Bottom is about a mostly-gay guy and a mostly-straight girl, Nathan and Maggie, played by Cole Williams and Amber Benson. They've been having an affair for several months as the film opens, though both have live-in boyfriends. Everything comes to a head--for not terribly well-motivated reasons--when they take a weekend trip together.

It's one of those movies that just doesn't quite make it, though you can't put your finger on anything overwhelmingly bad about it, something just feels out of place. It rarely finds a groove and when it does, it doesn't stay there long.

And it doesn't help that neither of the two main characters struck me as people I would particuarly want to spend time with. Well, Maggie, but only because she looks like Amber Benson.

The movie defines them almost completely by what they're un: Unreliable, untrustworthy and unfaithful. Even to each other. And then the movie frees them of responsibility for those qualities.



The film is well-acted. You guys know how I feel about Amber Benson, but I think she'd be a standout in this film even if I didn't have pre-existing rooting interest. Together, she and Williams create a belivable intimacy.

As a side note, it was also nice to see Danielle Harris in a small role. As a girl, Harris gave a superior performance in the only Halloween sequel worth a damn (4), and also had a recurring role on Roseanne for a few episodes, but I haven't seen much of her lately.

She looks good here, but doesn't have enough screen time to show if she could have done anything with more, even though it's a short movie. Seems like filling out her character (along with one or two others) would have been a better use of time than some of the travelogue montages.

Back to the Bottom: The dialogue, though it didn't have much of a rhythm, also didn't make my head hurt. I don't ask for much, really. But, sometimes it feels as though the acting is off-beat with the dialogue, sometimes vice-versa.

It's beautifully shot in some of the same romantic settings as Sideways, the wineries of Napa. Director and writer Russell Brown knows how to make his settings and actors look good (it probably doesn't hurt to start out with elements like Napa and Benson). Though, I haven't listened to the directors commentary yet, and I'm wondering whether he'll be gnashing his teeth about the lack of any lighting whatsoever in one fight scene. I'm guessing it was a "We've got to get this shot, but we've lost the light...fuck it!" day.

And...I wish the characters weren't so self-concious about one of them being gay, even conceding that in this story, they have reason to be. I'm not sure how I got it, but I seem to have this aversion to people who are gay talking about being gay, at least in movies.

I feel like: Just be, and be gay, y'know? Yet I know, even as I say that, for most people it's not that simple.