Bob's Fabulous Flicks

"Movies from a male point of view"

Urbania
(2000)Director Jon Matthews, Writer Daniel Reitz

Adapted for the screen by Daniel Reitz from his play Urban Folk Tales. Starring Dan Futterman, who you might remember from "The Birdcage."

Dan Futterman, Charlie, is terrific in this role of a young man desperately trying to cope with the absence of his boyfriend, Chris, played by Matt Keeslar (who oddly enough has never appeared in any CSI episode.)

We follow Charlie as he searchs for Chris and answers as to why things happen as they do. It portrays New York City as a very dark and unforgiving place. We see his encounters with those in his neighborhood, both by chance and by design; a dying friend, a homeless man that lives outside of his building, the couple upstairs that disturb him with their noisy lovemaking, a one night stand, a bartender and Dean (Samuel Ball,) the stranger he seeks out. It is this dark tattooed stranger that Charlie hopes will provide him with some answers to his questions.

All the while, we see woven into the story a number of urban myths, the man who has a kidney stolen after a hot date, the woman that uses a microwave to dry her dog, the hotdog vendor that serves a cooked rat, and many more that make you feel it is all very dark and disquieting. Meanwhile, Charlie struggles through and adds his own stories into the mix. It keeps us intrigued and wondering why Charlie is so melancholy?

"URBANIA mixes comedy, drama, film noir, and gay cinema in new and intriguing ways. A directorial debut from Jon Shears, URBANIA moves expertly from present time to flashbacks and flashforwards, never losing its viewers for a second. " Rotten Tomatoes

This is definitely a movie you should see.

I would like to acknowledge the excellent folks at Simply Syndicated's Movies You Should See as well as El Diablito, Kwame, Sam Coney, Greyson Smith, Kumar, Cecily Zander, Weathereye, SleepySamco, Mek, Robert of "Just a load of pretentious balony," and Dave of "Dave's Thoughts And That." It is all of you that have inspired me to attempt a review of a movie I would like others to see. Thank you all so much.