SummaryCut Sleeve Boys is a quirky stir fried journey of self discovery and ultimately, a makeover of the British Chinese gay experience. (Regent Releasing)
SummaryCut Sleeve Boys is a quirky stir fried journey of self discovery and ultimately, a makeover of the British Chinese gay experience. (Regent Releasing)
There’s a lot to like in writer-director Ray Yeung’s low-key romantic comedy, once you get past its overly enunciated identity issues, which were, according to Yeung, the film’s raison d’être.
The bones of something more interesting are there -- how people come to mentally and emotionally define themselves and the ways in which they often need to realign those beliefs -- but Yeung can never reconcile his impulses toward humor and human conflict, so things tend to sputter about, feeling disconnected and episodic.
Unfortunately the movie's more interesting and challenging social aspects, which imply more than one "British-Chinese gay experience," are often overtaken by its smarminess--including an aggressively banal score and the way some actors have apparently been encouraged to overwork their eyebrows.