(2024, 76 min)
Country: U.S.
Director: David Lewis
Studio: Peculiar Película
Language: English
SYNOPSIS: Set in 2015 against the backdrop of the Supreme Court's upholding of Marriage Equality, a long time gay couple divorce just as everyone else is getting married. After a commitment-phobic husband divorces him, Max, a stuck-in-his-ways gay man tries to start over. When he becomes accidental roommates with a younger hip nerd who is as romantically challenged as he is, sparks fly. "All Kinds of Love" is a feel-good comedy about people trying to follow their hearts, whether it involves an inter-generational romance, a middle-aged interracial throuple or an artistic trans man looking for love in all the wrong places.
REVIEW:
Sunny and easy-going, this relaxed romantic comedy feels somewhat simplistic as it sets up a warm story that is headed in a rather obvious direction. Writer-director David Lewis spices things up with some sexy shenanigans, even if the movie has an oddly moralistic attitude. Still, it's enjoyable enough while it lasts. So if the plot feels contrived and a bit corny, it's also involving enough to pull us in.
After nearly a decade of marriage, Max (Montgomery) is struggling to accept divorce from his non-monogamous husband Josh (Callahan). And he's startled to find himself sharing a house with Conrad (Duke), a much younger tech nerd with old-world values. Since they have similar ideas about love, they soon fall into a relationship. But Conrad is worried that Max is still too connected to his ex to move forward, and he definitely has a point. Indeed, Max is the one who isn't ready for commitment, which makes it tricky for them to develop something meaningful.
While Max and Conrad both consider themselves "romantically challenged", everyone else in the film is happy to indulge in various kinds of sex. Max's parents (Salamone and O'Leary) are living in a throuple with Drew (Nordike), while Josh is regularly seeing a kinky cop (Mayer), and Max's best friend (Rex) enjoys anonymous hookups. Along the way, a couple of plot twists add extra wrinkles and connections, even if they feel somewhat gimmicky.
The actors are superbly understated, which helps ground even the more simplistic story elements in a sense of reality. So the humour emerges as earthy and cute, rather than laugh-out-loud funny. As always, Montgomery is likeable as Max, a guy who is unable to simply take people as they come, so misses out on love when it's right in front of him. He has strong chemistry with Duke's smart, self-aware Conrad, and there's also a lingering connection between him and Callahan's edgier Josh.
While Lewis' script seems to be embracing (ahem!) all kinds of love, there's a clear sense that one kind is more genuine than the others, which are played more for comedy value. And combined with the too-carefully cropped frames and blurred bits, a sense of shame creeps into the story. But everything is in service to the romcom structure, which progresses exactly as expected to a sweet conclusion.
--Review By Rich Cline, Shadows On The Wall (www.shadowsonthewall.co.uk)
