Review by Live Out Loud Festival, Bellingham, WA
A stage play adapted into a feature-length film that explores whether physical attractions appear to be the obvious explanation for two people to become a pair. As the camera delves into the characters’ minds and souls, we find fulfillment on both a physical and spiritual level. With simple sets on a dark soundstage and just two actors, director Bill Humphreys and team have created a strikingly elegant, moving and satisfying film.
Review by Padraic Maroney – Contributor EDGE Entertainment News
One of the favorite films of the year, Just Say Love had the programmer unable to stop being complementary about the film. Using just two actors and simple sets, David Mauriello adapts his own play of the same name. Two men, one straight and the other gay, begin a purely sexual relationship. But as feelings grow between the straight one flees back to his girlfriend. Scott Cranin describes the film as “so new, so different and so beautiful.”
Written by Michael Gamilla, ImageOut: Rochester, NY LGBT Films and Video Festival
Just Say Love, selected for its audacity in portraying a complex love story in a most deceptively simple way, shows the gentler side of our ImageOut There! Series. Shot in a dark soundstage with strategically well-placed lightings and the barest minimum of props (a door frame, a hanging window sill, or a lamp post), the approach strips away any distractions from the graceful movements, the soulful eyes, and the well-delivered dialogue of the two captivating actors. View Full Article »
Review by Angelique Smith, The Reeling Film Festival
While sitting on a park bench one afternoon, Doug, a straight, sweaty, muscled construction worker, strikes up a conversation with Guy, a gay, slight, tree-hugging, vegetarian painter. Direct opposites in pretty much every way, the two banter on the works of Plato and theories of love and attraction, with Doug taking an oversimplified layman’s stance to Guy’s philosophical rants. With a pregnant girlfriend at home, Doug propositions Guy for a bit of oral, as he’s heard that gay guys are always willing to do that on a whim, and it doesn’t threaten Doug’s heterosexuality since it’s just a blowjob. Though appalled by his gall, Guy and Doug ultimately begin meeting for no-strings-attached afternoon trysts. As seasons pass and expectations shift, their one-sided, makeshift relationship tenderly progresses into something more, as forces beyond their control seem to be pulling the strings. Shot in a manner similar to Lars von Trier’s Dogville, with minimal, stage-like sets, Just Say Love is adapted from David J. Mauriello’s stage play of the same name. The film, featuring only two characters, is very dialogue-driven, exploring notions of happiness, feeding the body versus the soul, sexuality, and the laws of attraction.
Review by Robert Patrick / SINema
“When we see a godlike face or form, we are amazed because it reminds us of our own godlike nature.” When a prim young vegetarian reader of Plato (wide-eyed Matthew Jaeger) meets a godlike face and form in the person of a rough, meat-eating, beer-belching and heterosexual workman who wants a casual blow-job (knockout Robert Mammana), it’s “just sex.” And it’s seventy-seven minutes of universally recognizable self-deception meeting universally irresistible emotions. David J. Mauriello’s sensitive, strong stage-play (adapted for the screen with director Bill Humphreys) hits all the nerves. Gay Guy falls from his Platonic heights and straight Doug rises from his comfortable dim-lit depths. Unlike most filmed plays, this one has been thoroughly and subtly cinematized. I’ll let you know when it’s available for you to buy and thrill to. As for me, just say “Love this movie.”