Race You to the Bottom
Race You to the Bottom
R | 01 January 2005 (USA)
Race You to the Bottom Trailers

Nathan and Maggie are in the throes of a passionate affair. They're young, good-looking, and both have boyfriends. When Nathan is assigned to write a travel article on romantic hot-spots in Napa Valley, these unconventional lovers test the limits of the sensuality and fantasy that bond them.

Reviews
Roedy Green

The plot is simple. A straight girl and a très camp nominally bisexual boy go on a road trip and have a lot of sex and bicker.The problem with the movie is completely in the writing. The dialogue is monotonous, and not in the least believable. It is some naïve straight person's fantasy of what gay people are like. It lacks humour and novelty. It feels like ordinary people talking just to pass the time.The gay sex scenes are quite Victorian. The characters don't even disrobe. The actual sex is discreetly off camera. The raciest thing you see is a hand on an arm. In contrast, the heterosexual scenes are very in your face. That is cheating and insulting in movie that bills itself about being about gay characters.Cole Williams in particular does the best with the limp material, breathing some life into it.The very plot of the movie echoes that infuriating Christian lie that being gay is a choice and all that is needed is some heterosex to convert even the feyest boy.There is some quite fun music and animated dancing, the best part of this movie, unfortunately a small part.

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david-blanco-861-258536

I watched this movie as I had a spare hour and a half and the 73 minute running time intrigued me, as I often find that a lot films these days are over inflated and over long. This film is a confusing "love" story with an unlikeable lead. The casting of the leading male actor was a mistake as far as I was concerned. He didn't (to me) have the charisma required to portray the "lothario" he was convinced he was. His looks bordered on effeminate. Don't get me wrong, effeminacy does not bother me in the slightest,but in this case, I found it hard to find the actor/character as irresistible as the film would have you believe. Kudos however must go to the lady playing the female lead. I felt she gave a good performance and she made me feel for her. Which is a definite plus, right? The road trip format of this movie has been done before. And I quite enjoy road trips if the traveling companions are interesting and the destination is worth the trip. In this case, it wasn't. Not a total waste of time, but I would not recommend this as a must see.

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ppulliam82

I had been looking forward to this film for quite some time as the synopsis seemed interesting. Also, truth be told, I am a complete sucker for gay melodramas and romantic comedies. I waited foolishly and have decided I want my time back.Was the writer even in favor of gay relationships or the gay lifestyle? I ask because he does everything possible to craft the most loathsome gay lead character in history. Not only that, but he managed to cast an actor who is equally unappealing to play the character.For whatever reason we are supposed to enjoy watching Nathan, a young man who is so in love with his talent, looks, and irresistible sexuality that it induces nothing but unending eye rolls. This is due to the fact that Nathan does not come off as especially talented, attractive, alluring, or intelligent. All of his dialogue is spoken merely to inflate himself and belittle everyone else around him. How could anyone be attracted to this hateful, greasy, selfish character at all, let alone enough to profess your love for him.Take my advice, steer clear from this movie. It's title is much more fitting than I could have originally imagined as this film, its lead actor/character, director, and script have taken a very steep and rapid trip to the bottom of my trash bin.

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ekeby

I agree with another reviewer here about the film's decent technical quality, but I wouldn't extend that to acting. Amber Benson is good, actually, but the rest of the cast is pretty much sub-par. I particularly thought many of Cole Williams' lines were read poorly.The story could have been interesting, but the script didn't do it justice. The dialog sounded forced and stilted much of the time. It just didn't ring true, didn't sound like true life. When the plot conflict develops, I couldn't quite see the reason for it. There didn't seem to be anything happening that hadn't happened before so I couldn't understand the characters' reactions.It was difficult not to compare this movie to Sideways. Not that they had all that much in common except the location, but that was enough to have me constantly thinking of how much better this movie could have been.

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