meaninglessbark The drama in Henry Gamble's Birthday Party is mostly low key and lurks under the surface of the carefully honed smiling faces of a family and group of friends all tied to a conservative megachurch.The Wise Kids, a previous film by the same director, looked at the lives of a trio of friends associated with a small conservative church. Henry Gamble addresses similar issues but with the glossy smoothness of the mega church devotees. This film will probably be most interesting to people who grew up on the church. You'll recognize the pleasant platitudes, the various types of characters, the awkwardness of dealing with situations people would rather not address, the underlying tensions of feelings that can't be expressed.The film is incredibly well acted and a looks good. The family's house, the perfection of the pool, and the whiteness of most of the characters are all important elements of the film. The only flaw was a bit of melodrama near the end which seemed more like a we-have-to-put-something-major-here decision. But even with that bump Henry Gamble's Birthday Party is masterful examination of an aspect of American culture.

LProductions-837-667666 Unwatchable piece of excrement.I am puzzled about who made this movie and why? Is it supposed to be somehow entertaining (and if so, to whom)? Enlightening (ditto)? Somewhere between takes of (mostly) attractive young people in a pool for so long its amazing their skin isn't shriveled beyond recognition, the idea of having a plot or telling a story got lost. Even creating a coherent atmosphere quickly goes missing.All that's left is stereotypical Christian yammering with such original lines as "Hate the sin, love the sinner." And - gasp! - hiding wine-in-a-cardboard-box under the kitchen sink and - gasp! - drinking it! And don't let the insanely-overemphasized gay angle fool you: it account for about two minutes.Go forth and seek redemption: watch a decent film made for adults with brains. Don't waste the 82 minutes of which this mess can rob you unless you are really quick on the fast-forward button.

Tom Dooley The plot is that Henry Gamble is going to be seventeen and his father – Preacher Bob – wants to throw a big pool party to celebrate. As he is a preacher everything is going to be done the way Jesus would have wanted – but no alcohol, provocative music or other stuff that they make up as they go along. Thing is Henry is gay – but he is still in the closet although right from the get go you can tell he is bursting to come out.Then the party starts and as the guests turn up it seems that everyone has baggage and they are also all struggling with then inner conflicts that go with faith and desire.Now this has been applauded and panned in equal measure and the reasons are both valid. Firstly this is all about sex and sexual.ity but it is all talk and, quite literally, no trousers. Personally I think that is OK but for the nay sayers they are right in saying it is setting its stall out to attract the wrong audience. Also it does not deal with nigh o all of the issues that are raised, from sexual identity, faith conflicts, mental health issues or alcohol.The thing is this is really well made. Despite any real dénouement the characters and their problems are very believable. It is well acted with only a couple of times where a character seems to be stepping into 'cliché-ville'. So am slightly torn, I actually did enjoy this though – hence my rating but as I said if you want a film with any real exploration of the issues that it is based on, then this will probably not rock your world.

vallejo-39149 I saw "The Wise Kids" a while back and liked it very much, so when I began HGBP, I found myself thinking, "Hmm, reminds me of TWK." No kidding. I think this is a step up in sophistication, though, and with perhaps a harsher look at evangelical subculture, which is apparently Cone's world, like Faulkner's southern county whose name I won't try to spell right now. His metier. Cone likes to describe a whole world in his films. Can't wait for the day he actually gets money to do a BIG picture! By "harsher" I just mean that the damages of a rigid approach to piety are delineated rather sharply and, perhaps, even a bit melodramatically in one scene, though maybe not. I feel like I'd like to see the film again to really understand the family and friend relationships in the film. All in all, I found myself much more involved than I thought I would be. If you want a film that feels like a slice of life, with affection for its characters (except maybe, for the more narrow minded of the Christians in the film, young and old) though maybe not your life, I would recommend this.