Save Me.

"Robert Cary's Save Me is hardly the incendiary, ripped-from-the-headlines passion play that a short description of it might imply," writes Michael Koresky for indieWIRE. It "isn't a teeth-bared addition to the culture wars; surprisingly docile and rigorously even-handed in its portrait of a New Mexico Christian sexual 're-education' house for men, Cary and screenwriter Robert Desiderio are not courting controversy as much as curiously surveying a state of mind."

"The film's major problem," writes Andrew Schenker in Slant, "is its difficulty in extricating the very real problem of drug addiction from the 'problem' of homosexuality... To what degree do the filmmakers view clearly irresponsible behavior to be intrinsic to the gay lifestyle and if their concern is in wrestling with the consequences of sexual repression inherent in contemporary Christianity, why do they complicate their film with an auxiliary issue whose implications they aren't prepared to explore in any kind of depth?"

Updated through 9/5.

"American History X meant to condemn white supremacy, and Scarface (1983) tried to demonstrate that tragedy inevitably follows a life of crime, but both films more effectively promoted (unintentionally?) the quasi-romantic lifestyles and philosophies they intended to denounce," writes Henry Stewart in the L Magazine. "Similarly, Save Me comes to reject (partially, anyway) its anti-homo rhetoric, but it has reveled in it too long to change course convincingly.... Save Me's homo hating is offensive, but its cowardice is despicable."

"Save Me's plot sounds like a ripped-from-the-headlines gay play circa five years ago, but the film itself subverts expectation," writes Chuck Wilson in the Voice. "[T]hough Save Me never quite surmounts its schematic scenario, scene by scene, beat by beat, it's pretty damn good."

"While it’s TV-drama simple, Save Me's frankness about sexual/religious conflict gives both partying and faithfulness their due - avoiding TV sensationalism or Brokeback Mountain sanctimony," writes Armond White in the New York Press.

Updates, 9/5: "Save Me has a lot of heart but little nerve and no surprise," writes Nathan Lee in the New York Times.

"[T]he film's clear preference for the gay story line undermines its narrative," argues Meghan Keane in the New York Sun.

Posted by dwhudson at September 4, 2008 6:58 AM