This is a really beautiful movie.I have had it for 3 years now, and it was the third time I watched it. Only now I really appreciated this movie, only now I understood it.Someone said you would have to look at it more than once and I do agree. The first time you just "watch" and say, "hey, this is a good movie" (at that time, I didn't review on IMDb...). At the second viewing, some things got more clear, and at the third, I think I got the point, I think I understood.My best friend - not my lover - was killed in a hate crime 12 years ago. Of course I am still upset, because it happened just minutes after we parted in the Brussels metro. I cried through my third viewing, because I could, finally, express my feelings. I think now, after all those years, I can "give it a place in my memory".About the performances: they are stunning. Beautiful actors, beautiful people, real involvement. Wow...The cinematography is beautiful and the music is just what was needed.I think I will watch "Urbania" a couple more times. 9/10.

URBANIA held my interest primarily because of the performance by DAN FUTTERMAN as the troubled gay man experiencing pain and heartbreak over a bad week-end in metropolis. He wanders around, seemingly in a daze most of the time, but eventually we understand that this is going to turn into a revenge story where he seeks out the man who humiliated him and his gay lover.Unfortunately, Futterman's character remains ambiguous throughout. At one moment, he's sympathetic and helps a beggar on the street--and the next moment he's completely heartless in the way he treats a street pick-up gone wrong or a young couple he attaches himself to for the mere sport of abusing them with the truth about their being his upstairs neighbors who are not discreet in their lovemaking.He's such a complex person, but the script doesn't explain why he behaves as he does. At least the unpredictablility of the story is not a drawback--in fact, it helps sustain interest since the viewer doesn't have a clue as to what will happen next. It's a nice build-up of suspense that keeps the drama edgy until the final shot.All the performances are beyond reproach, so it's not the actors who are to blame for whatever shortcomings the story has. But some scenes are awkwardly staged, others deeply impressive--so it's an uneven mix of good and bad moments and sometimes guilty of style over substance.It won awards from some of the gay film societies but seems to have made not much of an impression at all on mainstream moviegoers with its homoerotic content, despite the fact that one of its characters mouths off some homophobic comments and gets his comeuppance in the end in what is basically a tale of revenge, gay style.

alright, i'm a straight male so if you need an arbitrary reason to discount my criticism, there you are. there are a few clever moments. like when charlie goes up to some stranger's second floor apartment only to find that neither wants to be butt boy (or perhaps charlie's just mimicking for effect, not sure. that bit had a subtlety that i was impressed with). a funny and insightful scene that has no 'straight' analogue. i also liked the scene where charlie strings along his upstairs neighbor and girlfriend with a story that ends with him thanking them for being part of his private fantasy. the 'keep your lifestyle choice out of my face' or whatever was trite, but oh well, i guess it might become a good joke if i had to hear it thrown at *me* all of the time.but apart from these few things, the movie was badly written and acted. dan futterman's acting was so unbelievable it was sometimes funny and made me think, right from the start, about soap opera actors. not to single him out, as most of the cast were at the same level of ineptitude. they were of course not helped by the clunky script and unrealistic dialogue. instead of being the surrealistic, edgy urban drama it feels like it wants to be, this movie is a deception. it keeps you in the dark to make its trite story seem more interesting. granted, i am not generally as interested in stories that are about gay love, but i feel that this movie insults the intelligence of those who are.

They should warn you before putting this kind of film on at 2 am? Did not even know who Dan Fetterman was. And this little soft bomb is slid under my door on a cold winter night. "What in the Hell is this...?" But it was too late and they had hooked me, and the roller coaster began to move a real unreal mind f--- as they say...you had to pay attention for dear life....Velvet dynamite with a kiss? I will never be the same, thank GoodnessMy collection of great films, moved over one after this film finished, me off that night. Whew.Dan Fetterman, director, screen play all deserved an Oscar, instantly. Fellini and Bergman should have seen this film...it is like what they made in their early film careers...that powerful.