The New Twenty (2008) Reviews

• A creditable effort

  codairem2009-08-01

  There is more to this movie than meets the eye. If you're looking for groundbreaking originality or easy comedy, you'll be disappointed. But for an entertaining 90 minutes, this is just fine. The cinematography is careful and precise. The sex scenes, which one comment decries as gratuitous, are anything but - every gesture contributes to the development of the characters. Yes, some of the main characters are not exactly lovable human beings. But the movie makes an honest effort at showing their interactions in an honest light, without being sensationalistic (at least not for early 21st century urban standards). And there are many very amusing moments.

• imperfect but promise-filled debut effort

  Buddy-512010-03-07

  Seven years after graduation, five buddies from college - four men and a woman, all living in New York City - face the grim prospect of turning thirty. Andrew (Ryan Locke) is an investment banker who's just gotten engaged to his long time girlfriend, Julie (Nicole Bilderback), who works for a rival firm (he's Morgan, she's Merrill); Felix (Thomas Sadoski) is a drug addict who's struggling to hide his condition from his friends as well as maintain a relationship with a fellow user; Ben (Colin Fickes) is an unattractive, overweight gay man who can't get anyone to go out with him; and Tony (Andrew Wei Lin) is an attractive, fit gay man who falls for a college professor with HIV. All five have reached that critical point where's it's time to start taking stock of their lives - to find out where they are and, more importantly, where they're headed. "The New Twenty" is the debut feature for writer/director Chris Mason Johnson and, while the hand of the novice is evident in certain aspects of the movie, Johnson also reveals some real potential as a filmmaker. The relationships among the various characters are, for the most part, unusual and interesting, regardless of whether they are personal or business-related in nature. The storytelling can be a bit choppy at times and the acting occasionally uneven, but there are enough moments of genuine insight and emotional force to make the movie worth checking out. The fact that it feels more like a still-rough-around-the-edges first draft than a fully polished and completed work in its own right is actually what gives the movie its greatest authenticity and appeal.

• An Awful Film

  dennis_chiu12009-12-13

  "The New Twenty" is one of the worst films I have ever seen. Yes, some may argue that formulaic small budget films that strive for less may seem worse, but I would argue that a pseudo-intellectual anti-formulaic "indie" film that pretends to be more is worse. "The New Twenty" was written and directed by Chris Mason Johnson, and I will never get back the 91 minutes of my life that I wasted on his film. THE SCREENPLAY & CHARACTERS From beginning to end, the screenplay failed to provide an anti-hero or hero with a moral core that the audience would want to see succeed or fail. In story telling, the three dramatic conflicts are man vs. man, man vs. the world, and man vs. himself. The screenplay focuses on a group of college friends in New York, and is preoccupied with the dynamic of man vs. himself, where each of the film's characters are so self-absorbed in a stupor of depression and self-destructive behavior that the movie atrophies before the audiences very eyes. Each of the main characters indulge in unexplained bad behavior (heroin addiction with no history as to why the character is an addict; a fiancée who has sex with her fiancée's boss/investor, even though the character is written too smart to have sex with such a sleazy character; a man who begins as a decent guy, but is attracted to a foul-mouthed investor, and converts for some unknown reason into a similar foul-mouthed business jackass; a closeted chubby gay cyber geek, who does nothing, but find dates online; and a gay Asian man who dates an HIV positive older man, but has no scenes establishing why the relationship works and why love develops). Crucial scenes establishing the cause of the character's addiction, the suffering and self- loathing of the fiancée that might explain why she would sleep with a sleaze bag; the back story that would explain why a decent guy would be attracted to a "Gordon Gecko" type character and become a jackass; a story line for the chubby cyber geek; and more scenes of interaction between the Asian man and HIV positive boyfriend are all missing. Without proper establishing details, all of the characters' actions seem forced and contrived. DIRECTION, CINEMATOGRAPHY & SCORE I found Mr. Johnson's direction to be without a clear point of view, leaving the actors emotionally incoherent. The cinematography can be described as mundane at best. Mr. Johnson selected small spaces to shoot and failed to catch the grandeur of New York City. This failure created a claustrophobic film, that viewed like the filming of a stage play, and not a film. The score was embarrassingly absent from most of the film. I assume that Mr. Johnson is to blame, since he could have asked for full score to enhance understanding in each shot. CONCLUSION "The New Twenty" is an annoying and unmitigated failure in film-making.

• The New & Old

  thesar-22009-07-28

  Talk about marketing. The poster/home video cover of 'The New Twenty' broadcasts a half-naked male in a "Wolfe Video." For those familiar with the gay-themed movies – this broadcasts a "must-see." (I loved reading one reviewer (from another site) stating they had been "tricked" into seeing a "Sodomite" movie. Are you serious? The tagline itself as the word "gay." The Lord gives you eyes, yet you cannot see…) That being said, despite the number of gay characters, stereotyped, no less (see: the lonely gay, the AIDS victim gay and the closeted gay) it's more about long-term friendship and characters that grow apart. In fact, if anything, there's more (here's one for Christians to complain about) heterosexual couples having sex outside of, gasp!, marriage. Not to mention backstabbing, drinking to excess and drug usage. I see this more of a made for TV-Logo or Showtime movie than big screen effort. Sure, I loved the cinematography, some of the actors could act and I always love seeing a big-group-of-friends that actually act like they've known each other for a million years. But we've see this all before. Nothing really "new" here. Barely an original idea – hence bringing back the same 'ole "I have AIDS, let's deal with that" for a good portion of the movie and boy, our friend has a serious drug problem, but let's not deal with that until it's almost too late. That's so (US) 'Queer as Folk' and 'Broken Hearts Club,' respectfully. The film deals with a group of college buddies, now grown (in size not minds) who have to eventually grow up and each trying their best while failing. Strangely, as in most of these independent movies, the most interesting, to me at least, was the heavier-set one, Ben. He stole each scene, but, again, there wasn't much to take.

• They make me feel old (not new) long before my time.......

  arizona-philm-phan2009-07-21

  What we're given in this trying-to-be trendy film is a "frat-pack" of college friends, now approaching age 30 (which we all know, of course, their generation thinks of as the "new 20"). Consisting of four guys and a gal, we have thrust at us the following types: seemingly "unemployeds" and frequent drug users, along with one individual who is job successful and one who is trying-to-be. They are all, in their own way, drifting while trying to find both a future and emotional happiness. With one, possibly two exceptions, these are people this reviewer would definitely never care to come close to modeling myself after. There is disappointment after disappointment after disappointment in almost all their lives. Except in the instance of one individual (who appears on the way to finding it), none appears headed toward emotional satisfaction in his/her life. And so, about the only sincere moment in this film is when a knock at the door brings to the person answering it an unexpected and heartfelt "I love you." With only the exceptions mentioned, these people are the kind hardly deserving or worthy of several hundred thousands of dollars being thrown away in presenting their stories. PS--Writer/director, Johnson, definitely appears to have a problem with showing gay sexual scenes----with no such problems in presenting more prolonged and revealing heterosexual ones. Why might that be? ****