Goodbye Baby

Cinequest 2008

Okay, here was a movie that really was one of the best. Still not perfect, but really really good. 18 year old Melissa Brooks leaves home to live in New York with her gay brother (Yay! Finally more gays!). She doesn’t want to go to college so she ends up trying to make it as a stand up comic. But most of the movie is about her relationship with her brother and his friends, and a new boyfriend that she met in Narcotics Anonymous (where she goes not because she has an addiction, but to get over her stagefright). A very upsetting act happens towards the end of the film, but this movie about comedy correctly portrays life as often being very, very sad. Unlike some of the other movies I’ve seen this year, where the surprise comes totally out of nowhere and feels out of place, this movie did it very well. And though the movie takes an even sadder turn at the very end, the final scene was emotionally powerful and well done.

Unfortunately, the only weak point I felt was Christine Evangelista  who plays Melissa. She is gorgeous and the three teenage boys I brought give her two (or three or six or ten) thumbs up, but I thought her acting was not always as good as it could have been. Saying that though, her performance in the last final scene was spot-on, and a bad actress could not have pulled it off.

Overall, I’d give this one a very strong A and I wouldn’t be surprised to see this out in theaters or on the small screen near you.

Now available on Netflix and DVD!