Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Looking: The Movie (2016, TV movie) - A premature but lovely, optimistic goodbye

8/31/2016

Looking: The Movie (2016, TV movie) - A premature but lovely, optimistic goodbye

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best TV Movie of the Year + Best San Francisco Title of the Year

The neat, very California-colored poster for Andrew Haigh's Looking: The Movie

Looking: The Movie is the TV movie conclusion to the great HBO Looking TV-series in two seasons, created by great filmmaker Andrew Haigh (Weekend (2011)) and Michael Lannan (Looking (2014-15), writer). They have co-written the script, and Haigh has directed it.

Patrick returns to San Francisco after a 9-month relocation to Denver, near his birthplace, for the wedding of Augustín and Eddie, catching up with old friends and lovers and contemplating where his future ought to be.

Jonathan Groff (Frozen (2013)) is back as our sensitive, recognizable protagonist Patrick, surrounded by lovely friends Dom (Murray Bartlett (Stubborn (2015))), Doris (Lauren Weedman (Rainbow Time (2016))) and Augustín (Frankie J. Alvarez (Madam Secretary (2015), TV-series)), - the latter probably being the one who has changed the most in the course of Looking.
Also reappearing are Russell Tovey (The Night Manager (2016), TV miniseries), who makes an emotional and touching return as Kevin, and hunky Raúl Castillo (Sweets (2015)), very well-acting and sweet as Richie once again. Tyne Daly (Judging Amy (1999-05)) makes a welcome appearance as a Justice of the Peace; Chris Perfetti (The Night Of (2016), TV miniseries) is good as the unbearable Brady, and Daniel Franzese (Killer Pad (2008)) is charming as Eddie.

Looking: The Movie focuses on tying up all of its stories in a nice way and showing us the directions that they might be heading from here. The coming-back-home-and-meeting-everyone-once-more premise works well in this respect, but it doesn't make the TV movie conclusion stand out as the most innovative in Looking's history. - Nearly no new characters are introduced.
What we do get is more of our beloved 'friends' and a central focus on Patrick, which comes to an appropriately melodramatic highpoint, which I rather enjoyed.
I am still sad and disappointed - mainly aimed at the public for its lack of interest - that Looking got canceled and ends like this. I think it could definitely have lasted several more great seasons on TV, and this bitterness can't stay completely out of my review here.
But damn it if the movie doesn't try its best. It's warm, enthusiastically acted, uplifting and optimistic, a rare piece of contemporary drama and a soft present the LGBT community and the rest of the world should have embraced more during its TV run.

Related posts:

Andrew Haigh: 2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess
Looking - season 2 (2015) - Patrick, Dom, Augustín and Co. reach the height of their potential
Looking - season 1 (2014) - Look for something real with your new Frisco friends
2011 in films - according to Film Excess
Weekend (2011) or, The Nottingham Romance Blues

Watch a trailer for the movie here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: None - TV movie
= Unknown
[Looking: The Movie premiered June 2 (Frameline FIlm Festival) and runs 85 minutes. It was shot in San Francisco. At the July TV premiere on HBO, the ratings were 0.28 mil. North Americans, which is very far from impressive, - however, many have shifted to streaming now, which is unaccounted for here and may well counted be in the millions. Looking: The Movie is fresh at 87 % with a 6.6 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Looking: The Movie?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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8/31/2016

Looking: The Movie (2016, TV movie) - A premature but lovely, optimistic goodbye

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