(may contain spoilers)This film's earnestness and sincerity is genuine; this dv project was inspired by the director's breakup of a long-term relationship and the overall tone of the resulting work feels more than a bit confessional. Personal exorcisms on film should be approached with more than a bit of wariness, and "Drift" demonstrates this fact precisely. It's hard to argue with the source of Quentin Lee's work as it's clearly rooted in true events and genuine emotions; the problem is the resulting feature that is an almost total embarrassment. Lee's script is full of trite howlers which would make a first-year film student cringe; in dialogue which is clearly meant to be "revealing", the characters seem to speak in bumper stickers, i.e. "why do we live when living is painful?", functioning as mouthpieces for Lee's trite and facile observations about relationships. It feels raw, but the entirely wrong kind of rawness; the script's college-sophomore dialectic feels more like a long one-sided conversation with someone who drones on and on in an incessant monologue which has long lost both emotional resonance and entertainment value but the performer is convinced that he's discovered something new and meaningful, so every word must be cherished protracted and repeated incessantly. Characterizations are facile and undeveloped; the lead character's preoccupation with serial killers is supposed to indicate some hip and edgy fascination with the dark side, but Lee doesn't go anywhere with this notion after bringing it up. His haphazard throw-it-on-the-wall-and-hope-it-sticks approach to characterization makes the serial killer plot point, as well as most other aspects of the script, come off as shallow and affected. Perhaps some distance and time would have generated a more original, relevant videomaking approach. The three different endings don't feel so much like a revelation of destinies than a tired, gimmicky attempt to liven up a limp and pretentious script, neither fun or touching. At least "Run Lola Run" had some kinetic style to back up its gimmicky narrative tricks; in "Drift", the first section just lies there. Relationship Outcomes #2 and #3 are no more relevant or interesting. The ending, as the central character strolls on the beach and reflects on All He Has Learned, feels even more pointless when you consider that nothing coming before had much insight to begin with. If "Drift" is what we have to look forward to every time Lee has a breakup, let's hope the term "long term relationship" has entered his lexicon.

Just rented the DVD with friends and found it to be a thoughtful, insightful, delightful, and touching film.Sometimes trite or cliche, perhaps, but Ryan (R. T. Lee) could very well be the current "gay everyman" - happy, but not happy; settled, but unsettled; content, but incontent. (OK, the whole "death is romantic" sub-theme was just a little creepy, but its' purpose was to help you realize that it really *was* hard for Joel to understand Ryan, and that possibly only Leo could; I still would have gone with something a little less "visceral," to use the movie's favorite - and overused - adjective.) And the "what if" scenario of three different possibilities was a great way to flesh out what we all wish we could do - see the reaction to our actions and figure out if it's what we really want or not.Some wonderful acting in this film - Lee is certainly comfortable in his role (although sometimes I felt the dialogue was a little rushed); Greyson Dayne as his boyfriend, Joel, also had some great scenes (particularly when Leo tries to bed him); Jonathan Roessler seemed a natural as the geeky Leo, and had a very natural flow of dialogue; and big kudos to Kudos to T. Jerram Young as Dane for the *great* pick-up scene in the bar - we all laughed out loud!I think the reason this film will stay with me is because I did see a lot of myself in Ryan - searching to be understood, leaving a relationship because of it, not really knowing what will make him happy (until, perhaps - at least in one ending - it's too late). I plan on buying the DVD and adding it to my movie library.

I picked up the DVD copy of "Drift" yesterday not knowing a thing about this latest entry into the gay genre. As a gay man, I constantly get frustrated by how homosexuals are not always presented as normal, but rather promiscuous and uncaring. Fortunately there have been some amazing exceptions to this rule lately - most notably "Big Eden" and "The Broken Hearts Club". "Drift" has now created a NEW sub-genre for gay films; I'm just not sure what that would be.Ryan (R.T. Lee) is a Canadian-Asian living in L.A. with his boyfriend of three years Joel (Greyson Payne). Ryan is a screenwriter who loves the horror genre. At a party the two meet the young virginal Leo (Jonathon Roessler) who is also a horror screenwriter. The two have this connection which would make them instant friends, and on the couples' third-year anniversary, Ryan leaves Joel.This is where "Drift" lives up to it's title and ends up duplicating much better independent films of the previous decade. That break-up becomes a starting point (it occurs about 20 minutes into the film) - and each of the next three twenty-minute segments starts over with that same scene and progresses quite differently (very reminiscent of the movie "Go" or "Sliding Doors").Each subsequent sequence has different relationship results utilizing the same characters. Worst, however, is with each scene, the characters (specifically Ryan) becomes more intolerable and causes one's own brain to start "drifting" towards anything else in the room.NOTE: Potential spoiler below... Please do NOT read if you don't want to know how this film ends...Ryan spews out lines like "A lot of it's in my head" and "turns out to be my own illusion". Had these lines been uttered a lot sooner, this film could have played out like an enjoyable version of "Pulp Fiction" (where the characters chat and overanalyze); but instead sends gay cinema back two steps - not for it's lack of trying, but rather for it's lack of sympathy towards the gay characters... ... especially since they keep talking about how "romantic" serial killers and suicide is. NOT the type of stereotype I feel is necessary in this day and age!

A thoughtful and touching film, DRIFT tells a simple break-up story with a narrative twist midway about a young gay man, a screenwriter in Los Angeles, embarking on three different scenarios of a love triangle and romantic entanglements.I attended the film's world premiere at the San Francisco Gay Film Festival without a great deal of expectation (as you know... you get quite a mix of films there... a couple of exceptional ones and others are just very so-so), and I was pleasantly surprised. I was moved walking out of the theater and the film stayed with me for several days.Mr. Lee, whose other works I haven't seen, seemed pretty young on stage at the Q&A after the screening. As a Gen-XYer, Lee has produced a surprisingly mature work about relationships. He said that the work was personal. And I believe that the film being personal really added to the emotional impact of the piece.There aren't a lot of gay films about relationships, and this is certainly a well-made one. I highly recommend you taking a look at DRIFT, although there are some parts which could be considered slow and over-literary/pretentious to some audience. As icing on the cake, there are also some hot and sexy scenes.