Eban and Charley

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member I love indy films, this one is interesting because it touches on a taboo topic: age disparity. Unfortunately we live in a world that is getting harder to explore these issues rather than easier, but this film was created none-the-less. While the acting is decent, and the storyline could use some more development, it deals with a very real issue that needs further exploration. The virtue in this film is that maybe love has fewer boundaries than we realize, and those boundaries we create sometimes generate victimless situations where we like to victimize where there is no victim. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/12/23 Full Review Audience Member The director himself is a pedophile who molested and seduced an under age boy. I would say life imitates art, but this is utter garbage. Rated 0.5/5 Stars •  Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member I was totally beguiled by this movie, especially by Giovanni Andrade - he was mesmerizing (faun-like as another reviewer put it). This movie stayed etched in my mind long afterwards and remains one of my favorites. Not-with-standing my empathy with Charleys role, there are other areas of the movie that are captivating - the (semi Dogme 95) stunningly sombre cinematography, the haunting (Stephen Merritt) soundtrack - but most of all Andrades entrancing screen presence. How very fortunate he persevered with his desire for the role. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/29/23 Full Review Audience Member Eban and Charley (2000) I don't know how I have ended up with so many gay movies lately in my net/flix queue. I mainly watch foreign films. I have a queue of 450 films when a film has long wait or short wait I move all those up to the top of my queue. So at the top of my net/flix queue there are 30 -40 movies short and long wait. lately all the ones shipping have been some strange movies. This one is the worst. James Bolton directs this spare, sensitive depiction of an uncomfortable subject -- man-boy love. A 29 year old teacher is living with his parents after getting fired from his job. at the beach he meets a younger guy 16 who has returned home because his mother died. They become friends and then involved sexually. Basically the premise of this film is supporting the ideas of the 29 year old that love with under 18 youth is ok. Director Bolton manages to work up considerable sympathy for Eban and Charley, well played by Fellows and Andrade, and their predicament, but it's impossible not to wish that Eban would wait until Charley was of age to become involved with him romantically. Bolton makes a quietly impassioned, if unconvincing, case that what Eban and Charley do with their lives and with each other is nobody else's business, but it is reasonable for society to be concerned with the emotional well-being of its underage youth. Bolton is far more persuasive in showing how isolated and endangered Eban and Charley are in this small community. Few people will be able to go along with Bolton's point of view regarding relationships between adults and underage youths, but there's no denying the writer-director, in his feature debut, has avoided sensationalism in telling this story. Eban was forced to flee Seattle under threat of prosecution after having an affair with one of his charges Some folks could be sympathetic (ala The Reader) (not me), but the script is just bad bad bad. one star wishing I had watched something else. Rated 0.5/5 Stars •  Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Audience Member Eban and Charley (2000) I don't know how I have ended up with so many gay movies lately in my netflix queue. The few I have seen have been rotten. I have a queue of 450 films when a film has long wait or short wait I move all those up to the top of my queue (just to see how this messes around with netflix computer allocation system). So at the top of my netflix queue there are 30 -40 movies short and long wait. lately all the ones shipping have been some strange movies. This one is the worst. James Bolton directs this spare, sensitive depiction of an uncomfortable subject -- man-boy love. To me this film was not really man boy love --it is more a matter of the adult male not being full mental capacity or developmentally slow (even though he graduated college) A 29 year old teacher is living with his parents after getting fired from his job. at the beach he meets a younger guy 16 who has returned home because his mother died. They become friends and then involved sexually. Basically the premise of this film is supporting the ideas of the 29 year old that love with under 18 youth is ok. Director Bolton manages to work up considerable sympathy for Eban and Charley, well played by Fellows and Andrade, and their predicament, but it's impossible not to wish that Eban would wait until Charley was of age to become involved with him romantically. Bolton makes a quietly impassioned, if unconvincing, case that what Eban and Charley do with their lives and with each other is nobody else's business, but it is reasonable for society to be concerned with the emotional well-being of its underage youth. Bolton is far more persuasive in showing how isolated and endangered Eban and Charley are in this small community. Few people will be able to go along with Bolton's point of view regarding relationships between adults and underage youths, but there's no denying the writer-director, in his feature debut, has avoided sensationalism in telling this story. Eban was forced to flee Seattle under threat of prosecution after having an affair with one of his charges Some folks could be sympathetic (ala The Reader) (not me), but the script is just bad bad bad. one star wishing I had watched something else. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 01/31/23 Full Review Audience Member typical , yet still emotional Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Eban and Charley

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