Parallel Sons

A very impressing and moving picture with a very beautiful and very original story, and the very sincere way it is told. Apart from the end the movie could be compared to the quite successful British movie "Beautifull Thing" with a similar, but even less probable love story, and a more harsh, less glossy way of telling the story. I think the movie could have been much more successful -and I would have equally, or more liked it- if it hadn't such a sad ending: Without the ending it could actually be a 'feel good' movie, and maybe it would have gotten more of the success it deserves (to my opinion). But then-again this ending is probably more realistic...(sniff)

This movie has a very deep meaning to a person who has lost a love a fell in love again. A few twists and turns towards the end. .....The ending is a scorcher!!!! Probably, in my opinion, one of the best alternative lifestyle,interracial love movies of all time.

PARALLEL SONS is a very fine piece of work, a film ahead of its time, a film that may yet surface in the theaters since the success of 'Brokeback Mountain'. It deserves that kind of attention. Writer Director John G. Young (The Reception) takes on razor-sharp issues, molds them in a natural, non-exploitational way, and finishes his message with a calm clap of thunder. This little film contains more food for thought and hopefully for discussion than most of the last ten years since it was first released.

Seth Carlson (Gabriel Mann) lives in the Adirondacks in a little town closed off form progressive society. He is a gentle soul, a closeted gay out of necessity, a budding artist and a young man infatuated with African American culture, so much so that he wears his blond hair in dread locks and paints muscular Black men and African American symbols. His father barely tolerates his oddities, his little sister shares his secrets, and Seth longs to leave the choking little town for New York City.

Seth briefly views a Black man in custody in the sheriff's car: an eye to eye connect occurs. That night in the diner in which Seth works the Black man Knowledge Johnson (Laurence Mason) sneaks into the diner and robs Seth at gunpoint, only to collapse from a wound inflicted during his escape from a correctional facility. Seth is drawn to Knowledge, and when Knowledge faints, Seth sequesters him in a little cabin where he nurses him back to health. In the process of the healing the two men bond and become sexually committed to each other. Knowledge sees his only hope for survival as an outlaw being an escape across the Canadian border and the two plan for this adventure, Seth suffering setbacks from a town turned against him, and it is in the escape attempt that the tragedies occur that leave the story with many subtexts.

The film is beautifully shot by Matthew M. Howe and scored by Emile Menasche, but it is the acting skills of Mann and Mason that allow director Young to make this understated film work so well. The supporting cast is also very good, each underplaying roles to the benefit of the progression toward the devastating ending. By remaining to a sensitive story, economically written for the screen, Young is able to bring the audience to face some frighteningly real issues about bigotry and prejudice that tangentially includes color and sexuality. Highly recommended, Grady Harp

I myself am half way through writing a screenplay that I hope to direct, and I was tremendously inspired by Parallel Sons. The story is deep and multi-layered, without being confusing, it treats the audience with respect. The DVD cover image does not do this movie justice, as movie is everything more than soft porn.

I will not try and categorize Parallel Sons as a character study or put it in any other genre. All the characters had soul, with the revelation of Seth and Knowledge being the most developed, and occurring much like when one gets to know real people in real life. The story revealed a lot about the world too, and particularly about race relations in the USA and the moral dilemmas it breeds for it's citizens.

A picture paints a thousand words. I could watch this one again straight away. Obviously for all this to work the acting, music, sound and production design have to be top notch. A lot of love went into making Parallel Sons.

At the end of this movie I sat in silence absorbing the impact of the movie. Although I have only seen the movie once, back in 1996, it still stays with me. It is a story that is beautifully filmed and very well told. It is impossible to describe the details of this movie other than to say that it struck me as very true to life.