Reviews & Ratings for
Keep the Lights On More at IMDbPro »

Page 1 of 2:

[1] [2]

32 out of 38 people found the following review useful:
Raw, tragic, and beautiful, 27 January 2012

Author: nursewing from Philadelphia, PA

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I saw this wonderful film at Sundance this year, and while some of it was difficult to watch, ultimately, the relationship and its ups and downs made for a compelling two hours.

The lead actors (especially Thure Lindhardt) were wonderful, and the film captures New York and a small part of its gay world in a way that made me feel like I knew it.

It's remarkable that this film--a story of a tumultuous gay relationship and crack addiction--was ever made, but I'm glad it was. I love that it was, and I feel like I understand addiction (to both drugs and to relationships) in new ways. At times dark and dirty, and at others bright and beautiful, I highly recommend this film.

30 out of 42 people found the following review useful:
Keep The Lights On, 5 August 2012

Author: junkielee from Rome

A KVIFF screening of this year's Teddy winner in Berlin International Film Festival, from American director Ira Sachs. It is a detailed dissection of the a tug-of-war gay relationship between Erik and Paul, which soldiers on almost a decade in the present-time (1997-2006).

Thure Lindhardt, the Danish out-of-the-closet actor who has shown the immense stretch in the skin-head gay-romance BROTHERHOOD (2009, an 8/10), transforms himself into a young immigrant documentary director Erik living in NYC, probably sex-addictive, met the dandy boy Peter (Zachary Booth), first time for sexual intercourse, then the mutual attraction brings both into a relationship complex, which encompasses an overt hindrance, Paul's drug-addition, a cliché default even makes for the consistent trappings of gay life, thanks to the barren soil of the genre.

It's hard not to compare this film with last year's indie darling WEEKEND (2011, an 8/10), both stand out among other numerous lesser achievers, but in very disparate ways. KEEP THE LIGHTS ON is a sultry relationship conundrum exhausts one's vigor even dignity to sustain the suffocating love; while WEEKEND concentrates on the bad-timing symptom after a casual sex date which one must cut off his feeling and affection. Different terms, same payoff. Nevertheless, both films have a cracking two-hander cast, in this case, Lindhardt and Booth are fervently suited to their tailor-made roles, especially Lindhardt, literally carries the film on his shoulders to elaborate a not-so-extraordinary script, I do hope he will not be stereotyped into the gay-actor-can-never-act-straight category for his future career.

The film at large is a mean-well, sincere work with some uneasy aftertaste, but never accomplishes itself as a boredom, a welcome 7 out of 10 is my indulgence.

25 out of 33 people found the following review useful:
Engaging Film, 29 September 2012

Author: Sean Kurzweil from United States

As a gay man, I like to support films with gay characters and stories when I can. Oftentimes such films sacrifice writing and acting in order to titillate. This film avoided that pitfall and delivered a cohesive, relevant and tasteful product. The characters were gritty and weren't cardboard cut outs. Personally, I found it a lot more relevant than a recent art film I caught called THE MASTER. The central relationship in this film is between gay men but the film manages to touch on failing/toxic relationships in general and offers up some noteworthy and humorous ensemble performances. As difficult as it is to believe, these relationships exist in gay and straight life. It seems to me that the filmmaker decided it was important to hold up a mirror and show us reality and a real relationship gone awry instead of showing us that gays can have just as little sex and/or just as loving relationships as straight folk. We have enough sanitized and safe portrayals of gays on network TV. I found the performances to be interesting and the characters were dynamic. Each had a journey unlike the static characters in the aforementioned, lauded art film. Since this film was most certainly shot quickly and with a limited budget, I take my hat off to cast and crew. The selfishness, desperation, preoccupation, co-dependency and obsessive behavior depicted seemed right on point. I felt that the filmmakers unflinchingly and without apology depicted the good, the bad and the ugly of this relationship while tell a story about two individuals in love.

13 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
An excellent main actor saves this one, 13 October 2012

Author: mackjay2 from Out There in the Dark

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Thure Lindhardt is at the center of this film and he's really its only saving grace. His Erik is the kind of character many of us know, or have been, in life. He's in his late 30s, but hasn't really done much with his life, and he's somewhat addicted to casual sex. When a phone hook-up leads to emotional involvement, Erik's life suddenly has a focus and it gives him more impetus to complete his documentary film project. Handsome, charismatic Lindhardt is well-cast, as a non-native trying to make it in New York. He knows how to express the conflicts within Erik: wanting love, but pursuing an impossible object. He's decisive, tender, petulant and confusing, all at once. Lindhardt is the kind of actor who can do much with small nuances of voice and facial expression.

Unfortunately, Lindhardt is playing opposite a much less compelling character and actor, in Paul (Zachary Booth). This actor gives a professional performance, but Paul is so nearly a non-entity, it's doubtful anyone else could do more with him. He's narcissistic, drug-addled and self-destructive from the start, and he never changes. Erik is narcissistic too, but his character and storyline have more substance. For some viewers, it may be hard to understand why Erik puts up with Paul and returns to him again and again. Lindhardt makes us believe in Erik's obsession, at least most of the time: we don't always want the most appropriate person. One one level, this is a story about the power of sexual attraction, but it's also about the attraction of a 'wounded deer'. Erik thinks that Paul needs him, and that notion is as strong as any to make him continue the relationship.

Also good in the cast is Julianne Nicholson, as Erik's close friend and collaborator. She brings a natural, lived-in quality to their scenes together.

The film opens well, and builds the narrative nicely, until the final third, when it feels slightly disjointed and suffers a bit from a loss of energy. It's nicely shot and has a mostly pleasing music score, highlighted by the song under the opening credits.

6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Tale of Gay lover's efforts to save drug-addicted partner trumps his one-note obsession with him, 25 January 2013

Author: Turfseer from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

While attending a recent screening of 'Keep the Lights On', director Ira Sachs indicated that the title of his new film about a gay romance spanning approximately ten years, refers to transparency, or lack thereof. An additional theme he revealed is that the characters are trapped in a masochistic relationship.

The film begins as we're introduced to Erik, a documentary filmmaker from Denmark. He's basically supported by his father (much to the chagrin of his sister) who criticizes him for not having a regular job. Erik has just broken up with his lover and compulsively seeks out physical encounters with other gay men, using phone hot-lines (the film begins in 1998, at the time when phone hot-lines were beginning to be phased out, due to the rising popularity of the internet).

Mr. Sachs holds little back in depicting the sexual encounters Erik has with strangers as well as his new found lover, Paul, a literary agent. They're not completely explicit but there's a raw immediacy, which gives the film an authentic verisimilitude--a peek at gay life that outsiders rarely are privy to.

Sachs wisely chronicles the dichotomy of Erik's personality. On one hand, he's almost irrational in his obsession with Paul, ignoring the obvious reality that Paul is a drug addict and is rapidly going downhill. Erik also keeps a lot of things to himself and there is a lack of communication between the two lovers (that lack of transparency that Sachs alluded to during the recent screening I attended). On the plus side, Erik is deeply concerned about Paul's welfare and is instrumental in getting him into an inpatient program.

While Paul has to struggle with his demons, Erik gradually makes good on his promise to become a successful documentary filmmaker. He wins a 'Teddy' Award in Berlin, after garnering acclaim for his documentary about a gay artist from the 40s and 50s, who Erik in effect, rescues from obscurity.

The tension in the plot is bound up in guessing whether Paul is going to make it or not. After Paul returns from rehab, there's a great scene where he disappears for a number of days, and Erik and his friends have no idea where he is. When Erik finally finds him at a hotel, it's obvious that he's had a bad relapse. Erik hardly seems surprised when a young man comes over to have sex with Paul. Instead of getting angry and feeling betrayed, he accepts the fact that Paul has relapsed and holds his hand while Paul has casual sex with the stranger.

'Keep the Lights On' slows down considerably in the third act, as Paul seemingly is much better after a few years and is now able to work. Erik's attitude has changed toward Paul, who has kept away from him for about a year. When Paul gives him an ultimatum--either break up or find a new home and live together--Erik, perhaps now realizing that their relationship has run its course, chooses the option of dissolution.

Erik's obsessive love for Paul does eventually become tiresome and of course the point is that Erik must go through a process of self-actualization before he realizes he's been in a masochistic relationship. Nonetheless, Paul's breakdown and Erik's efforts to help him, is the best part of the picture. And yes we also want to know what the ultimate disposition is of their relationship.

Director Sachs' portrait of Erik is of a gay man who is not isolated from the rest of society. He has female friends and well as straight male friends, and despite flights of sexual compulsivity, Erik comes off as someone who is pretty much part of the mainstream. In that respect, Mr. Sachs ably argues that gay people should not be considered 'outsiders', but ordinary people, who are no different than the average middle class straight person.

A good part of 'Keep the Lights On' is strangely compelling. Will Paul overcome his addiction? Can Erik remain in the relationship, despite Paul's chequered history? Erik's 'love at any cost' obsession with Paul is necessary to show his self-destructiveness but by the same token, remains unexplained and goes on for a little too long. Some judicious editing, to make the film slightly shorter, would have helped. Nonetheless, this is a film that is definitely worth a look, not only for a few nice twists and turns in the plot, but the particularly strong performances from Thure Lindhardt and Zachary Booth, as the gay lovers, whose relationship reaches its nadir and then unceremoniously, fizzles out!

4 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Well acted, slice of gay life movie, but a bit flawed., 14 December 2012

Author: scootmandutoo from Long Island, New York

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I saw this movie at the LIGLFF Out at the Movies event last night. As it happened, I liked it better than most. I thought it was a nice mood piece, with good acting, and an involving story, for the most part. I definitely would recommend it.

There were some flaws, though. The biggest one was the time changes. For very little apparent reason, we flash though about 9 years of the main character's lives, and yet they look exactly the same from beginning to end. They have the same hairstyles and have not seemed to age at all. It just seemed non-sensical to make a big deal about the passing of years and not have it impact at all on the appearance of the actors.

Also, other issues pop up that seem to have no relevance to the movie at all in the end, like the results of an HIV test.

While I did like it, I thought it was definitely way too long. It was not as if each yearly segment had some significant action attached to it. Sometimes they didn't. The movie sometimes lurched jarringly ahead a few years, seemingly without valid reason. Since the movie's outcome was obvious in the first half hour, it played out way too long. Still, I did find the characters involving.

As for the person who commented that they had never seen a gay crack addict, this film begins in the 90's. There were gay men who did crack. And not every gay man in this movie did drugs. In fact, the movie made that point quite clear. One of the 2 main characters tried it but did not like it. There was a definite validity to some of the drug culture the movie was referring to. I think more surprising to me was that the person in the movie who was very addicted still managed to hold his high-level job, without repercussions.

One more thing, I did love the soundtrack in this film. It totally matched the movie.

This film was not especially deep, however it was a bit of a melancholic art film that was an interesting look at the decade in the lives of 2 gay men.

It is what it is, and not all that much more.

5 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Some heavy stuff, 17 January 2013

Author: avenuesf from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

As a gay man who's been in a relationship in the past with a drug user, I found this to be one of the most compelling and original films I've seen in a long time. The reviewer who stated he's "never even met anyone who's done crack" and accuses it of being "stereotypical" is either living in a small town somewhere or doesn't get out very much; meth and coke use are rampant in the gay community in San Francisco and other big cities, and this film very accurately portrays the disappointments and the gradual loss of self-esteem someone involved with a user goes through in hoping they'll recover. I don't watch a lot of "gay" films because I feel a lot of them are trivial, but this delved into territory I've not seen anyone brave enough to explore before, similar to "Shame." It's not always an easy film to watch, but it's raw and it's real. It will be interesting to see what kind of box office it gets or if it ends up falling between the cracks because it'll be marketed as just another "gay film." This is a universal story, it just happens to be portrayed here as happening between two men... I hope the film gets a fair release and people get a chance to see it.

2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Scandinavian type of movie made in the US, 24 March 2013

Author: Bene Cumb from Estonia

The approach, manner of depiction, and pace are more characteristic to a Danish or Swedish movie rather than a US one. The gay topic is atypical to a US movie industry as well, although a few of them were even awarded Oscars (e.g. Brokeback Mountain); still, gay erotica there was rather superficial. Keep the Lights On shows - apart from deep and painful dramatic moments - carnal part of love and affection as well (probably too much for certain viewers, on the other hand, the director/screenwriter is gay). The other main topic - drug addiction - has been approached more frequently. However, the plot is uneven, at times the tension disappears and some moves are not grounded, the last 20 minutes or so is protracted, and the ending is trivial. But the cast is evenly strong, the best performance is carried out by a relatively unknown Dane Thure Lindhardt (as Erik Rothman); he is worth remembering, he has recently had several big roles in good productions. But all other characters are deliberated and performed giftedly as well.

If you like dramatic movies with passion and addictions, then the one in question is definitely for you.

1 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
an extraordinary movie, 26 January 2013

Author: richwgriffin-227-176635 from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Puzzled by the strange reviews of this movie: I have to wonder if they somehow saw a different film than I did! (: This movie gripped me from the very first moment to the last; the acting is beyond superb, and not only Thure Lindhardt, but also Zachary Booth. I understood both of these characters, while admittedly am more like Eric than Paul (albeit I've never done any drugs at all). My only discomfort with this movie was the drug use; I need gay-themed movies than don't have drug use in them, but this particular movie is about a relationship with someone who is addicted to drugs, so it was necessary in that sense (but I wish Eric hadn't done drugs). I could relate to scene after scene - telling someone you like what they are doing when you don't. Staying in a dysfunctional relationship because you love them and learning that it's best to say goodbye; and the mistake of putting too much importance on sex. I've been in a very similar situation than these two characters with a drug addict back in the 1990's and could completely relate to it. (This is why I find it odd that some of the reviewers said this didn't reflect gay culture - perhaps not for them but certainly it rang true for me).

Ira Sachs direction is superb - and artistic. So many gay-themed films are entertaining but not very artistically satisfying, which makes his achievement here all the more special. The script is spot on. All of the acting performances are wonderful (the bit with the guy being interviewed in the documentary Eric is making was particularly great). The chemistry between the two leads is astonishing. The sex scenes are vivid and real (and hot too). I'm surprised this film is so low-rated - it was #7 on my top ten films list of 2012! (:

8 out of 24 people found the following review useful:
Profoundly disappointing, but Thure Lindhardt shines, 23 January 2013

Author: jm10701 from United States

You know what? I'm not interested in people who destroy their lives with drugs. And I'm not interested in people who destroy their lives by attaching themselves like leeches to people who are destroying their lives with drugs. That's not tragic; that's not romantic; that's stupid.

In every case - the enabler-leeches just as much as the addicts - that kind of behavior is self-indulgent, narcissistic, and completely avoidable. I don't feel sorry for them any more than I feel sorry for billionaires who whine about having to pay taxes or for 21st-century hunter-gatherers who whine if we try take away their constitutionally-mandated 1000-round-per-second assault rifles.

That's what this profoundly disappointing movie is about: whining idiots whose lives are totally devoted to stupid, avoidable, totally unnecessary, self-indulgent, destructive behavior. This movie is not about love. It's not about what it means to be a gay man. It's about stupidity.

The problem is that it proclaims to the world that we gay men are self-centered, self-indulgent, drug-crazed idiots and the self-centered, self-indulgent idiot men who "love" them. Bullsh!t. There is no love ANYWHERE in this lying, infuriating movie. The gay men who gush about how REAL this movie is must be like the ones portrayed in it. Thank God I don't know any of them.

For the information of straight readers: gay men like the ones in this movie are a tiny, TINY, insignificant, completely negligible minority who do not in any way represent the community as a whole. The percentage of gay crack addicts is no greater than the percentage of straight crack addicts, and ALL of them are just as boring as the two in this movie are. Most gay men are just like straight men, except a little smarter and with better taste in sex partners.

The four stars are for Thure Lindhardt, a beautiful man in every way, who plays gay characters better than any gay actor I can think of. I first saw him in the Danish movie Broderskab (Brotherhood), in which his excellent, subtle performance was overshadowed by electrifying Swedish actor David Dencik in the most powerful portrayal of a gay man I've ever seen.

Lindhardt doesn't have such intense acting competition in this movie, so he shines more brightly. Although his character is a boring, infuriating fool, his performance is fantastic. Lindhardt is always worth watching, and - for me - he's the only reason this movie is.

Page 1 of 2:

[1] [2]

Add another review

Related Links