donwc1996 This film is an absolute gem. The cast is perfect. The story is sublime yet very real and touching. Lea Coco as the straight brother is a revelation and after looking him up on Google I can see that he is a serious actor who is going places - lots of stage work. But the entire cast is so uniformly good and works so well together that it really is hard to pin-point any particular actor other than Coco who is just a knock-out and impossible to keep your eyes off. He has a way of stealing every scene he's in especially when he runs into some buddies in his brother's favorite NYC bar. The important thing about this film is that it really gets to the core of truth without preaching or pontificating. And this is rarely as successful as it is here.

reidy-christopher This movie tried really hard to be a good little gay themed movie and coming of age film in general but it was done in by its flaws. The actors were all excellent, especially the two brothers, but I never believed they were in High School. And that's where the problems with this started. They seemed more like college frat brothers. It was as though the screenwriter/director forced everything to fit what was written, which causes the viewer to go, "Huh?"...When the viewer starts going "Huh?" you've got problems. And by the end, the "Huhs?" started coming fast and furious. The film started reaching for emotional moments it hadn't really earned because they'd never been established during the story and then it tried to cover way too much ground following Dorian from High School to college (in Greenwhich Village yet, where he manages to keep away from men for two years! Please!). The other major problem was the characterizations of the parents. The father was such an unrelenting asshole and the mother was such a zombie you just couldn't become emotionally involved in the family plot lines. Seriously, these boys could've given the Menendez brothers a run for their money with parents like that. Actually, the guy who played the dad used to be on the soap "One Life To Live". He played Brad the tennis pro who raped his sister-in-law, the ex-prostitute, played by Judith Light...which is weird, since she's so involved in the Gay Rights Movement. Interesting.

Moana_Chimes This is the best movie with gay themes that I've ever seen. It's a small gem of a movie with terrific performances from every single cast member (down to the stock) and it has one of the sharpest accurate scripts I've ever come across in a movie. The movie generates a feeling of real life while still entertaining you in a "movie-world". I found that I identified with Dorian in a huge way and the movie feels like it's so good and so important to me now that I've seen it - I can list it in a way that I would say it was a life-changing movie. It's rare and beautiful when a movie becomes a best friend, something you can relate to and rely on when your own life gets you down - Dorian Blues is such a film and I would completely recommend it for gay people as well as straight people.

eslgr8 After watching Dorian Blues, I checked out the reviews at metacritic.com, and I was in absolute shock at the casual way these "experts" tore down one of the best and most original coming of age/coming out films I've seen. Almost everything about this movie is outstanding, from the acting (I've never seen such totally assured performances from an unknown cast in a low budget indie) to the direction (Bardwell is a talent to watch) to the photography and other technical elements that belie the film's modest origins. Dorian Blues skillfully blends comedy with honest dramatic moments, but what stands out the most is its absolute unpredictability. Whenever you feel the story is moving in an expected direction, something invariably surprising will occur. How could any critic have found it "clichéd?" Kudos to the fine performances by Michael McMillian, Lea Coco, Mo Quigley and especially Charles Fletcher as Dorian's nightmare of a father. My only quibbles I'd like to see a director have the wherewithal to cast an actor in a gay role that passes the gaydar test (good as he was, McMillian didn't for me) and have teenage characters played by actors who are the right age for the parts. I'll forgive him these two transgressions because the final result of Dorian Blues is worth 10 stars, especially when compared to a lot of other gay indies out there.