Surprised and glad that a made in USA film touches such a taboo subject that most filmmakers would not dare to touch. Sad that although being an Indie film, the creators decided to give it a Hollywood morality lesson- reproving- do the right thing ending. I would have given it 10 stars if it had ended more honestly. I am used to unhappy endings, I am used to tragedies, I love Romeo and Juliet but given the strong love between the two main characters and not real obstacles, there is not a reason for the movie ending the way it does, like if the pain of the loss of such a beautiful love, forbidden by conventional society but still beautiful, could be relieved in a few minutes with a pill like if it was a simple headache. If you liked this movie, you should watch the Brazilian "From Beginning to End"
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larrh4 May 2019Subject matter is great. Dialogue is horrible. It's too formal sounding.
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codegreg4 February 2020I really didn't know what to expect when I came into this film. I had already been spoiled about the taboo subject matter presented in the film but even if I hadn't, it would've been obvious very early on. There lies the problem for me. I also wasn't very enamored with the acting and a few reactions came across as very off to me.
The film would have you believe that this is supposed to be this HUGE secret but the brothers do an absolute horrid job of hiding what was going on from the inappropriate looks and touching they shared to the eventual (not quiet) sex between the brothers in the room right next to the boyfriend. Even if I were hoping the brothers would end up together, the cheating and leading the already clearly unstable younger brother on would've put me off any possibility I might have originally felt.
I don't even understand how some couldve even remotely wished for them to run away and be together in the end. Both brothers' behavior made me angry as Hell. They knew full well this couldn't happen yet kept putting themselves in blatantly inappropriate situations. They can't even be real brothers anymore at this point because of their actions and the boyfriends reaction to finding out made zero sense to me. I would've cussed them both out and left that same night. Maybe he kept quiet because he knew it would've been really bad if he had blown up I dunno. I don't even understand how he stayed with him tbh but my mom does always say "you'd be surprised what some people can look the other way on".
They were never gonna be happy together because even if they ran away, their incestuous nature was always gonna be kept a secret. They were never gonna be able to tell old friends or even new friends the whole truth.
Ultimately, the last portion of the film was just very bizarre. I already didn't agree with what the brothers were doing but everything they did throughout the movie just pushed their relationship deeper into the hole from which they could never return. I'm not sure what the youngest one actually thought was gonna happen and I'm disappointed in the older one because he at least seemed stable and was trying to have a normal relationship and move past this but too easily fell back into old bad habits. Neither brother didn't seem to much mind how much turmoil they were causing the other either. -
Kirpianuscus1 June 2021A film of actors more film of story story. Not because the story remains a sketch, useful for atmosphere, but because, except the first and the last scenes, it is only the frame of acting. Only a frame for a gentle , precise and profound inspired portrait of brotherhood, emotions, love in intense form, loneliness, jealousy, the others, family, relations, affection, a room and a house and people around table at dinner,m talking, and the past, and the fracture almost like a womb. The details of house and definitions of small, ordinary things are the basic virtues of this film beautiful, in some measure, for different motives, against itself. A beautiful film about loneliness, the closed other and the way to define as yourself.
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bgriblet5617 February 2020Steven acted differently after Ray arrived. Why did Steven allow him to come down so soon after the mom died, then they screwed around in the mom 's bed knowing it would upset Nate. Steven should have known better. He Bare after he told Ray to come down. Then Ray and Steven goes back Ray tells Steven that he can no longer make love to Nate. Wrong answer!!!
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ozjosh0328 February 2020There's a lot that could be said about how Godless is woefully under-cooked, painfully slow, tortuously uneventful, visually dull and laboriously and unimaginatively directed. But let's just focus on one fairly useful guideline for film-making... if you barely have enough material for a short film - however controversial or provocative the subject matter - then arduously stretching everything - every scene, every pause in the dialogue, every unnecessary stage movement, even every fade-out between scenes, is not going to make that material somehow better or more weighty. Godless is a short film - and not a particularly exciting one - stretched mercilessly into feature length. It has the pace of a snail on valium, and the production values of an uzbekistani high-school project. Best avoided.
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robtyrrell-986079 February 2020A taboo subject, which could've made for an interesting movie. Unfortunately, the pacing, dialogue, acting and editing are God-awful.
This movie has one speed...plodding. There's no variation in scenes & actions (fast vs. slow), everything just plods along with virtually every line delivered in the same wooden manner.
As bad as the pacing and script are, they still don't mask a lot of wooden, terrible acting. Most of these actors sound like they're reading from the script. Delivery is flat & one-dimensional.
Would love to see what could've happened with better talent, script and direction. -
davemerino7 December 2018I disagree with others who have said the movie was slow or had slow parts. The film progresses as it should, a slow simmer, not a quick boil. I like the actors that play brothers Nate & Steven - I bonded with the characters- perhaps that led me to like it more. I can not touch upon the movie without giving spoilers- so I will say this: go in with an open mind, enjoy the acting, the actors, summer with the pace - you might find that you enjoyed it.
If you liked the film - you might care to watch, also on Amazon - From Beginning to End 2009, from Brazil. -
ohlabtechguy27 January 2021Here we have a story about two gay brothers who had consummated their relationship way before they left home for college. And then we get to see a conflict unfold as one brother desperately wants to maintain a full fledged carnal romance, while the other thinks it's best to move on and find more "appropriate" partners. Pace...really slow. Acting.....really bad. Absolutely zero emotion when reciting their lines. How many times did the camera linger on the depressed and lifeless body of the one brother???? There was plenty of time to run for a pee break and come back to see the depressed brother still lying lifeless on his bed.
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I had read reviews about how the pace was plodding along throughout the movie, but this did not bother me at all. Yes, some of the script sounded a bit wooden, but in general it was very sincere and I thought they handled the subject matter very well. The performances by the actors were very good and I thought the cinematography did the job too, even though there wasn't anything fancy.
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davel-867503 January 2020This supposed to be best movie. With controversial issues. I know this is low budget movie. But if they writing the correct script, play with audience emotional. This gonna be like Brokeback mountain. Im so disappoint with the scripts. This make me mad abouy the scripts.
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ericbettelheim27 June 2016Thoroughly enjoyed this movie, but it was solely because of the performances of several of the actors. The script had some holes in it that could easily have been filled, and the pacing was DEADLY SLOW! About 15 minutes in, I realized it was a directorial choice, NOT a deficiency on the part of the actors. By picking up the pace, the movie could have been so much better. But, I got the feeling that the writer/director slowed the pace to fill the 90 minute run time. A much better choice would have been to flesh out the character of the Uncle, or the location of the gym (where Nate and Trent are personal trainers).
Without giving away too much of the plot, the two main actors - Craig Jordan and Michael E. Pitts - play brothers who are much more than that. Told in partial flashback, their relationship is the central plot point. Both turn in good performances, but Craig Jordan as Nate is the most redeeming feature of the movie. His performance is nuanced and never crosses the line into pathos. The last 10 minutes of the movie are basically his, and while the final twist did not come as a surprise, I did find my heart pounding, waiting until the denouement. That is a tribute to his performance and his skill as an actor. I look forward to seeing much more of him (as an actor - he shows all there is to show in this film, but it is not gratuitous and central to the plot).
Also worthy of mention are Garrett Young as Trent, and Michelle Gallagher and Joseph Aloysius McGinn as the mother and father. Michael E. Pitts as Nate's brother, Steven and Jefferson Rogers as Ray (and two other sides of the triangle) are natural in their roles, and completely believable. But without Jordan's performance, there is no movie. -
dreed1215 March 2017Excellent film that stays with you long after by challenging a traditionally accepted taboo. The acting by Pitts and Jordan was spot on...and extremely convincing. So much so, that I was only disappointed in the script's ending which was rather unconvincing and fell back on usual expectations. Contrary to other review here..I did not think the film was too slow and the longish scenes really made me feel the depth of the material and very natural human responses - especially surrounding grief and loss. The brothers had so little connection with relatives and location that I could more believably have seen them relocate with the younger under a new name and passed off as partner rather than brother.. this would have really been the more courageous and interesting ending. I don't believe either brother was that concerned about conformity with social norms. What was convincing was the older brother's boyfriend's response: a typical nerdy scientific acceptance and calculation of win / lose game theory. Overall, loved this film!
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jlnoyola1723 May 2017This film took forbidden love to a whole new level. Godless (2015) has quickly become one of my favorite LGBTQ themed films. With outstanding acting from both leads. You could easily sense their conflict. The direction was spot on. The only downfall to the film was the ending. I'm sure it could be interpreted in many ways. Overall outstanding film. Definitely will keep you thinking.
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johnfox-560425 March 2017The only movie that I have recently enjoyed as much as "Godless" (2015) is "Akron" (2015), which I recently reviewed on IMDb. Being addicted to happy endings, naturally I would like both movies - even though both are very different in look and pacing and place, but absolutely not different in their positive emotional impact.
Godless is movie number 2,734 in my personal movie library; Akron is 2,731. And while I seldom ride consciously on the coattails of another writer or reviewer, I must agree almost completely with my fellow reviewer of "Godless" who stated in part, "Craig Jordan as Nate is the most redeeming feature of the movie," although all of the performances in "Godless" are on the money. Period. Full stop. So I salute absolutely Craig Jordan and Michael E. Pitts, but also notably Garrett Young, from whom I hope to see much, much more.
My sole abjection to the previous review is related to pacing, described elsewhere as "DEADLY SLOW!". In my opinion, given the characters, plot, setting, cinematographic circumstances, and obvious directorial intent, the pacing of "Godless" is indeed slow, but the pacing of "Godless" is pure directorial genius, in my opinion.
With the mandatory caveat that I do not do this very often, I give "Godless" the IMDd rating of 10.
As a postscript, my long-time neighbor in what he calls "our sleepy Beverly Hills" has had an especially rewarding and lucrative career in the movie-making business hereabouts. So when I supplied him with a DVD of "Godless" and asked for his informed opinion about the totality of the production, the next evening he came over and said "first rate" and "top drawer" and agreed with my opinion of Joshua Lim's directorial genius. He also said that "Godless" is a jewel of a movie. And then he asked if I understood how hard it is for an actor to perform the understated character of Trent in the production, and how completely Garrett Young had precisely nailed all of the nuances of Trent. Of course I had to agree that Garrett Young was outstanding in his performance, and that I too hoped to see much more of him -
deadtrip2 September 2019I really enjoyed this movie...enough to have seen it three times so far. Lim handles an interesting subject pretty darn well. I read here some people thought the film was "slow". I disagree. I think the perceived "slowness" by some added to the film. It almost made the house itself a character. Overall this movie is very entertaining, but the highlight of the film is, without question, the great acting by Craig Jordan. Craig really brings the character of Nate to life. I really think Craig's acting takes this film from a 7 star film to the 9 stars I gave it. He really becomes Nate. I will recommend this film to all my friends to watch.
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harrynzaynlover14 June 2020After watching this, my heart felt like someone puts a heavy stone on it. The movie is so gentle and captivating that I felt Iike I was in the character myself (in the place of Nate for me). The movie was so practical and it gave me a lot of things to be thought after the movie had ended. The intimacy of the two brothers drove me crazy.
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jromanbaker12 August 2020I saw this film a few years ago and I was so overwhelmed by it I gave it a 10. I saw it again yesterday and my feelings towards it have not changed. It is a unique film and is that most beautiful thing a quiet voice above the crowd of noisy, useless films. For those who criticize its direction I suggest they watch Dreyer, Ozu and Bresson. And if some reviewers here have never heard of them, please watch at least one of each. The film in my opinion ranks there in its approach. Many have commented on the subject matter and the kind of love shown on the screen is quite simply part of love's spectrum, experienced and cherished by more than the righteous like to think. Now for the acting which is very good indeed, and the dialogue is not terrible at all but reflective and slow, and once again I will refer to Dreyer and the last film he made: ' Gertrud '. Reviled at the time it is rightly considered during recent decades to be a great film and rightly so. The pacing of what people say and do is similar in this film and I hope it will too be cherished even if it is among the discerning few. For those who dislike it see it again, and remember that first judgements can be wrong. I have had many wrong judgements in my time, but with this film I recall quite distinctly that it was a sensitive and beautiful experience. My given 10 then is still a 10 and it is there in my pantheon of films to return to.
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css-899517 September 2018The film handles a controversial subject sensitively. Both the leads, Craig Jordan,and most especially, Michael E. Pitts, deliver beautiful performances. The editing is weak, but does not take away from film's emotional impact.
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bgriblet30 January 2020This was an excellent movie, exception was Steven told his boyfriend Ray truth about himself and Nate but the timing was horrible. Discussed after leaving, since Ray already knew the secret this is should have been discussed with all three of them, especially since Nate was so fragile. This could have ended terribly. Steven said he loved Nate but when Nate was going to bring up Steven said "No". I blame both Steven and Ray for this mess.
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Drnona7728 April 2022What a great movie, I enjoyed it,,, what attracted me the most about the movie is that they are a gay sibling couple,Both actors were great and their acting is very good, and the secondary characters are as well,,, The kiss and hug scenes stole my heart, of course it won't be the last time I watch it ,,, I advise everyone to watch it.
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kevin-7191828 January 2019A touching story of brotherly love and depencence.
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jerry-7089626 January 2020Have to agree with others here that the acting is A+ for all the main characters. Script is pretty good except for ending....it did finally bow to society's morals but did leave a small sense of hope. As one reviewer mentioned, the two brothers could have moved away and lived together....or maybe even a 3-way relationship with the older boyfriend's lover. The editing was somewhat abrupt at times and did not enhance the slow pace as well as it could have which is why some found the movie too slow. Anyway, kudos to the actors and director for creating one of the best thought-provoking gay-themed movies I have ever seen.
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Bill-i-am20 May 2023I stumbled on this without knowing anything about it, which is how I generally find the movies I like best, and also the ones that are irredeemably bad. This is one that I liked very much. It's low-budget in the best way, and the movie is cohesive, coherent...obviously reflecting that the director was following a vision, and it rang true (enough that I wonder about the possibility of an autobiographical aspect in play), which is surprising for a storyline built around a taboo.
I agree with another reviewer that Craig Jordan was excellent here...he's one to watch. I disagree, however, because I thought Michael E. Pitts was equally strong. I thought the Trent and Ray characters needed more development, and I thought the uncle character contributed nothing. However, as the main story is about the brothers and their complex relationship, the "other men" in the story are kind of placeholders in the story, and that is kind of how those characters are treated.
Another reviewer thought the film was poorly-paced, too slow. I thought the pacing was right for the story, as it seemed to reflect Nate's stall-out in life. Yes, this story could have been told as a "short" and it could still be edited into one. But also, it could've had thirty more minutes of flashbacks and screentime for the Trent and Ray characters. But with the film as cut, I think it rather completely expressed the writer/director's vision and I was quite satisfied with it. It is a strong enough film that I will seek out Joshua Lim's other work, and will keep him on my radar.