Danny in the Sky

Rating:
Summary: Not more than barely passable
Review: I saw this movie only a couple of days ago, and already I hardly remember it. It's just not very good. The production values are quite fine, and so are some of the performances. But the main character is somewhat aggravating, and the plot goes nowhere. I was glad to see it end.

It's hard to see what point this movie is trying to make. In a way, I guess it's attempting to update and incorporate some elements of the 1956 movie "Tea and Sympathy," where a straight man is mistaken for gay. But now, nearly half a century later, it's time to move on, isn't it?

Rating:
Summary: Why?
Review: I thought this movie was very disjointed. It didn't do a very good job of connecting the scenes. The cinematography was excellent. But that couldn't save this movie from been very uninteresting.

Rating:
Summary: Simplistic story, good but could have been better
Review: In the 2001 French-Canadian film "Danny In The Sky," the title character (played by the adorable Thierry Pépin) is the 19 year old drop-out son of a fashion model mom who committed suicide and an aloof gay father. Danny tries to replace the love missing in his life with the attention and adoration given to fashion models, and aggressively seeks out success in that industry, even to the point of sabotaging (and nearly killing) a cousin who competes with him in one modeling contest. He also gets in and out of relationships with a couple of girlfriends based on how they can benefit or fit into his chosen career path. Eventually, it is a quick trip from modeling to acting in a straight porn movie and stripping in a club that caters to gay men, as Danny continues to try to find happiness.

The film is beautifully made, with good acting from an attractive cast throughout. The plot reveals a few potential side stories that would have been interesting if explored (such as the gay father forcing himself to "play it straight" for the sake of his son), perhaps more interesting than the story being told. It's not a gay film, per se, though obviously homoerotic in parts (such as the dance sequences, and in the porno film sequence, in which Danny plays a football player). Some may be bothered by the scene in which the father comes into the club where Danny is dancing and buys a private "lap dance" to talk to his son, before leaving the club with Danny's roommate. All in all, I'd rate this an "average" 3 stars, not really a bad film, but not likely to be in anyone's "favorites" list. The DVD offers three versions: the original French, the French with English subtitles or (the default) version dubbed in English. Sound quality and musical score is quite good.

Rating:
Summary: great film
Review: Langlois has a feel for the social content of his stories. There is no Quebec director that I know of who treats the vicissitudes of modern, mainstream gay life with Langlois's acuity and candour.

Because Langlois is something of a small ` m ' maverick, working on the outskirts of the industry with his regular collaborator, producer an co-scripwriter Bertrand Lachance, his movies have a freshness, a directness. Langlois's latest, Danny in the Sky, represents a step up for the director. It's a bigger budget project with higher production values and slick cinematography courtesy of Stefan Ivanov (whose credits include Rodrigue Jean's gritty Full Blast and idiosyncratic Chilean auteur Raoul Ruiz's Généalogies d'un crime). With clothes provided by a slew of Quebec designers and a bumping soundtrack featuring cuts from such techno heroes as DJ Mutante, Les Jardiniers, Luc Raymond and Alain Vinet, to name a few, the film is a showcase for local talent. What Danny does offer (') is some insight into the slippery nature of sexuality and masculinity. Though feminized by being an object of adoration, a commodity whose body is for sale, Danny learns to forge his own identity. It's such insights that keep me interested in Langlois's work. He has an angle.

Rating:
Summary: Beauty fades; dumb is forever
Review: Thierry Pepin is a truly beautiful young man, with a great body and beautiful curly hair. This movie in which he stars is also beautifully shot and composed. Beauty, however, only takes you so far, and then you're faced with the utter stupidity of the screenplay of DANNY IN THE SKY. Danny is a young beauty, kept at arm's distance from his hunky repressed gay father and forever mourning his mother, a fabulous model and suicide. He suffers exquisitely, betrayed by his father, his girlfriend, and his handsome cousin, whose chances at winning a modelling competition away from Danny are scotched when Danny drugs his drink and puts him into a coma. Running away in horror at his own actions (this is the kind of movie where there are endless shots of the hero running away from something), Danny coveniently (and literally) bumps into the stripper who is a former boyfriend of another love interest, and then... oh, who cares. You get to see lot of shots of Pepin shirtless (which is wonderful) and also even more stupidly unlikely coincidences before the movie is mercifully over almost before it began.

Rating:
Summary: Danny In The Sky is a dark movie that will provoke thought
Review: This is a powerfull dramatic tale of a sexy young aspiring male model who says he is straight, but yet finds every aspect of his life making him seem like he is in to the gay lifestyle. Danny (Thierry Pépin) is good-looking young man and has begun to use those looks to his benefit. He working as a model and stripper. Everyone thinks he's gay, and they certainly are given reasons to believe that he is. Even though his career and perfect appearance seem to make him happy, Danny has an openly gay father who despises his sons career path, and his mom used to be a model before she died of a drug overdose. So the question remains if he is gay? He will rebel against everthing and fight with his idenity crisis.

Rating:
Summary: simply beefcake
Review: This one of those films where you realised you have simply wasted two hours ogling a guy's body without any sort of plot.....perhaps that is too harsh...there is a plot, yet it could have been far better if the writer had stopped ogling the star's body as well!