David (Jonathan Groff) takes a break from his ivy league world for an apple picking job. He's a spoiled, self-assured bookworm. His Mexican co-workers don't understand him. His boss Hobbs (Dean Stockwell) barely tolerates his lack of work ethics. Jon (Denis O'Hare) is handing out religious flyers titled COG. His friend Jennifer is suppose to join him but she leaves the job for a new boyfriend. Curly (Corey Stoll) drives the forklift at the apple plant. After an awkward night with Curly, he abandons his job, somebody steals his money, and he only has Jon to help. He stays with Martha (Casey Wilson) and her family. His atheism, his lack of a love life, his sexuality, and his attitude are all challenged.I think the story is meant to be quirky comical. However that is not the prevailing sense from director Kyle Patrick Alvarez. Groff's character is too much of an annoying know-it-all. After all, that is the character as written but it would be more effective if he does what he does because of clueless kindness. The one great character is played by Corey Stoll. He does a fun disturbing performance. It's too bad that he's only a supporting character, but he's a good one. This never got funny. Sometimes it got disturbing. It may have even gotten profound although that could argued either way. The ending is somewhat truncated which is problematic for some people. I'm not one of them. Movies don't have to be about resolving something. I just didn't get involved in David's journey.

Beautiful, but difficult view on the experiences of gay people in society. One acquaintance turns out to be, not a homosexual, but a neurotic, possibly psychotic sexual predator. I found him threatening on sight. The next acquaintance wears a veneer of Christian values but proves, if anything, to be more psychotic than the first acquaintance. As chaplain to people with a mental illness I find that my work is divided between offering comfort and assurance through the values of Jesus and working to overcome the damage done to people through religious violence. My final straw was a book given a patient that stated people should ask forgiveness of God for any sexual activity they were in, including incest and rape. I forced that book out of the facility. I also forced out evangelist Joyce Meyer, who proposes that the devil constructs "strongholds" in our minds in order to influence our behavior toward sin. I've met many beautiful people in the Catholic church and gone on mission with them, but the molestation scandals have destroyed any value I can find in the church. I guess my deepest shock was the deep, unrelenting bitterness Sedaris expresses for humanity. I've found him amusing, sarcastic, biting, sardonic; but I've never sensed such depth of despair in his views on humanity. I know many gay ministers of both genders; never have any of them made me uncomfortable. They have always presented as deeply spiritual, loving people with whom I felt secure. I have, however, been attacked by people like Curly, who claim the right to violently impose their Phylis's on others. In a sense I see the film as a description of the gauntlet gay people, including David, must survive to become whole and self-loving. In another sense I fear for the pain gay people must sustain simply to be human. I love David Sedaris' work and it saddens me to examine the Hell he traversed on the path to being himself. When the "Christian" jade worker described his violence in Desert Storm it took my breath away. Not long ago I read a book concerning nurses experiences in Vietnam. One nurse would take every opportunity to join the men triage into the "can't be saved room, which was hidden from everyone. She believed no one should die alone, whether they were conscious or not, esp. thousands of miles from friends and family. She would hold them until they died, pet them and speak soothing words, although all were detached from the world by their wounds. Against that background the rant by the jade cutter very literally sucked the wind out of me. This is one of those films like "Platoon,""Saving Private Ryan," or "Shoah" that must be seen even as it takes you to the heart of Hell. In "Shoah," director Claude Lanzmann interviews a barber as he is cutting hair in a busy shop in contemporary Israel, who was forced to cut the hair off women just before they entered the gas chambers. The poor barber kept saying, "I can't, it's too hard," responded to by Lanzmann by the words, "this is important, I know it's hard, but it must be heard." C.O.G. must be heard as the holocaust visited upon gender choice. I say this with no disrespect toward the true Holocaust of the 1940's.

A rueful, seriocomic D. Sedaris memoir minus D. Sedaris—his unique authorial voice and his unmatched ability to see his goofus younger self as others must have seen him—doesn't sound like it would have much going for it, but "C.O.G." is actually a pretty good film. David, an East Coast grad student estranged from his family and otherwise at loose ends, has been persuaded by a flighty friend that this would be an excellent time for him "to get his hands dirty" picking apples in Oregon; when a tough-looking apple packer (Dale Dickey) says she'd like to "knock that f—r union rep from here to Tokyo," David asks brightly, "Have any of you actually ever been to Japan? It's a beautiful place." Clearly David's going to have some problems adjusting to life in the Hood River fruit-growing region. Writer-director Kyle Patrick Alvarez was well advised to lose the traditional coming-of-age-film voice-over; DS's unpredictable and thoroughly engaging storyline works perfectly well on its own, and the unSedarislike Jonathan Groff does just fine as David. Good work by all concerned, in fact, especially Corey Stoll and Denis O'Hare as strangers with candy. The Steve Reich percussion pieces are a little distracting at times, but mostly used to good effect.

Just saw this with a friend and ended up in the lobby of the theater discussing it with 3 other people for about 30 minutes afterward. People we'd never met. We all agreed the film is ambiguous in every way. Uncomfortably so. The film is about a young man who is green. One is reminded of Ben from The Graduate. He appears to be a lost soul with no anchor. He reaches out to people for assistance but appears to be only mildly interested in them or what their lives are about. He tends to adopt whatever interests they have in order to remain in their employ or care. He is completely unprepared for the people he meets in his journey to find himself.The acting is excellent by everyone. For that I give this film a high rating. I'm not sure everyone will enjoy the film but there is no denying the talent here. Just be prepared that not every character in this film is happy and full of joy. It isn't a joyful experience.