Search - Leaving Metropolis on DVD

As Fine A Film As You'd Expect From Brad Fraser!

Grady Harp | Los Angeles, CA United States | 04/13/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Brad Fraser is an excellent writer and has elected to move his successful play "Poor Super Man" (1994) onto the screen with great success. Fraser is also a writer and co-producer for the enormously popular "Queer as Folk" television series and he knows his subjects well. He has the ability to write about the gay world without making a 'gay movie' primarily because he shows such comfort with the variations in gender identities that he can explore all facets. The result is a film that is more about people than about stereotypes, and a fine job he does in writing scenes for characters who, in other director's hands, might seem contrived at best and silly at worst. The story revolves around a gifted young painter David (Troy Ruptash) who lives with a transsexual friend who is awaiting gender-altering surgery while coping with the cold fact of being HIV positive (Shannon - played by a very fine actor whose name passed by too fast on the screen to acknowledge). David also has an alcoholic over-the-hill blonde reporter Kryka (again, played to perfection by an actress whose name flew by in the credits). David has painter's block and to escape that state he seeks anonymous employment as a waiter to observe life, seeking visual input for his canvases. The Main Street Diner is run by a newly married couple - Matt (Vincent Corazza) and Violet (Cherilee Taylor). David eyes the apparent 'straight guy' Matt and is surprised to find his gaze returned. The closeted Matt has a fling with David which produces a successful break for David's painter's block (he paints beautiful nude images of Matt without Matt's knowing it) and an unsuccessful dissolution of Matt's marriage. The active foil in all of this is Kryka and she is the undoing of the affairs. Meanwhile Shannon faces her imminent demise from AIDS and it is this peak of verismo that shakes all the superficiality down and results in some important changes in the characters. On the surface the story may sound a bit on the soap opera side, but in Fraser's hands and with the accomplished acting of this physically beautiful cast, it all works. The cinematography is beautiful, the art designing is excellent (the paintings David paints are the creations of a fine artist), and the musical score is sensitive, witty, and well edited. Brad Fraser is a force to contend with and if there is anyone able to incorporate the 'gay world' into mainstream moviemaking, he surely is on top of the list. Despite some fine steamy scenes (Matt in bed with both Violet and then with David), this film is for general audiences who are open to understanding the meaning of extended family. A first-class film."

Visually arresting, but overall disappointing

klavierspiel | TX, USA | 09/08/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The best thing about Leaving Metropolis is the arresting visual sense of director Brad Fraser, adapting his own stage play Poor Super Man. Almost every scene and set is filled with vivid colors and striking compositions, making the film a delight for the viewer's eye. The presence of a trio of physically attractive principals who are frequently seen in various stages of undress does not hurt either.

It probably marks a certain coming of age in gay/lesbian cinema that lots of nudity and hot (albeit soft-core) sex, both gay and straight, doesn't guarantee a good film these days. All the eye candy in Leaving Metropolis cannot disguise major problems in this story of a troubled painter (Troy Ruptash) who, for rather contrived reasons, moonlights as a waiter in a diner owned by a married couple (Vincent Corazza and Cherilee Taylor) and becomes enamored of the husband, with disastrous emotional consequences for all. This by now familiar love triangle still has possibilities; that they are not realized here is due not only to a script that, though occasionally witty, is more often trite and overblown, but above all to the stiff and stagy Ruptash, who is unable to rise above the level of cold reading in his performance. Corazza and Taylor are better, the former in particular managing to suggest the anguish of a man caught in the grasp of whirlwind emotions beyond his control. As in many flawed films of this sort, however, a subsidiary character steals the show: Thom Allison's turn as Ruptash's doomed, transgendered best friend projects genuine emotion largely missing from the rest of the proceedings."

Another film I'm glad I rented

Grady Harp | 06/28/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This film tells its story reasonably well; the acting is pretty good; production is good, etc.; however, somehow I never found myself fully engaged. The premise seems reasonable enough: David, the Successful Gay Artist-working-as-a-waiter to put him in touch with regular people again and so recharge his creativity as an artist. Also an infatuation between a gay man and a straight man, whether reciprocated or not, is also believable. But somehow, with this cast or with this script, the film doesn't resonate. Granted, it *could* happen, but David seems far too together to fall for Matt."

A first rate gay film

D. Fair | 06/03/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a lovely film with a complex plot and interesting finely drawn characters,believable dialogue and some sex scenes with beautiful bodies far more erotic than any hard core gay film. It is similar to another excellent gay themed film "Bedrooms and Hallways" Also well worth seeing.
Read the review in this section by reviewer, Grady Harp, who has witten an excellent analysis of this film. The best line...." How could I have drowned in anyone as shallow as you""