Urbania

Starring:Dan Futterman, Paige Turco, Scott Denny, Sanjiv Jhaveri, Lothaire Bluteau, James Simon, David Wheir, Samuel Ball, Cheryl Brubaker, Paul Dawson (II), Josh Hamilton, Barbara Sukowa, Marylouise Burke, Alan Cumming, Matt Keeslar, Gabriel Olds, Pamela Shaw (II), Rich Clayton, David T. Catapano, Bill Sage
Director: Jon Shear
Studio: Lions Gate
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Jon Shear's film, one of the overlooked gems of 2000, simmers under a tense, disturbing air of inevitability. Charlie (Dan Futterman) wanders the nighttime streets of the city, a mournful lost soul determinedly pursuing a mysterious stranger whom he is convinced holds the key to his redemption. He encounters chatty bartenders, pompous pickups, and dying friends (including a biting Alan Cumming), and before long you are treated to that rare, great surprise of realizing that you have no idea where any of it is headed. Some of Shear and Daniel Reitz's play-based dialogue is stagy, but the mercurial Futterman, both subtly sympathetic and unstable, is superlative. The film surrounds him with loopy urban legends (the poodle in the microwave, the AIDS-infected one-night-stand, etc.), then cunningly lifts the veil on such stories to reveal the fear motivating them. Uncertainty and isolation create the need for fantastic terrors. Shear hauntingly suggests here how much more horrifying and heartbreaking real life can be. --Steve Wiecking

Customer Reviews:

Ok, I got one and this really happened. I sware..............2007-05-22

Heard any good stories lately? Based on the play "Urban Folk Tales", This film is a bit bizarre and hard to follow. It is the story of a man who's life is unravelling at the seams after a tragedy left him alone and trying to find a way to survive the horror in his mind, which haunts him with every passing minute. We've all heard the horror stories that circulate in email. Those stories, called "urban legends", boast horrendous things that supposedly happened to "a friend of my friends cousin" or whatever, but are never actual facts. Only in someone's sick mind. "URBANIA" spoofs several of these throughout the film and leaves you to wonder from start until almost ending if there is ever going to be a plot to this story. When it finally hits, and the theme of the movie is revealed, you realize that the whole movie made sense after all. As I viewed Urbania, I realized I had to review this film and give it a low mark for psycho babble, and expose it for what it was, pure trash. BUT THEN something happened right before my eyes and my view on this film changed dramatically.

It is a hard film to follow, but if you will watch it and stay with it to the end, you are in for one major surprise. The raw emotion this film reveals in the ending will blow you away. Many movies are good throughout and the ending sucks. With URBANIA, you get just the reverse, and walk away feeling like all that crap in the beginning was pure art. Dan Futterman stars as "charlie", and has all the appeal of a major sex symbol. A riveting performance on his part as he portrays a character so filled with both gentle love and violent hatred, that his life has become a drama constantly teetering on the line between reality and insanity.

The film quality is great, with both audio and video. Casting is pretty good overall and the acting is quite convincing. The story is original and packs a powerful punch right in the gut. (or the kidney that someone stole from you while you slept, and left you in a bathtub full of ice to recuperate.) This film just re-enforces the notion that truth is sometimes stranger than fiction, and that no healing comes without price. I think you will enjoy this movie. I know I did when it was all said and done and I recommend it for your viewing.

URBANIA IS Hard To Follow At First But Eventually YOU GET IT AND THEN SOME!.......2007-04-10

I always reveal early when a film I review has a gay theme to it. I feel it is the least I can do for the gentle folk who are not into watching DVD's with a positive or affirming gay message. Also Urbania also touches on elements gay life that are plenty violent. Urbania is not for the weak minded or those with weak stomachs. Urbania is more real than most gay stroies on film despite its sometimes etherial messages. That said lets get on with it.

First you must know I am autistic as such movies that tell stories in non-traditional ways like Urbania almost always go right over my head! The plot of Urbania was very hard for me to follow at first. Urbania unfolds in flashbacks and quick cuts that are vital to understanding the tone and message in the film. Urbania is a film where the sume of every small thing even those in the background all mean something important to the message of this awesome DVD. Unlike so many DVD's or movies there is often lots of waste and filler in the storyline. On the other hand rare work like Urbania wastes nothing, not a single shot not a single word is wasted. There are no long boring stupid pauses that happen for no good reason. All the characters are developed slowly in ways that are intricately interwoven like the finest lace.

There was nothing I found at all predictable about Urbania, even when it explored every odd ball stereotype imaginable. Even while having a far deeper message Urbania gave me some of the best laughs I have ever had. The DVD was worth its price for the Toothbrush scene alone!!!! Watching the toothbrush \ photo store scene made me cry tears I laughed so hard. The Poodle in the Microwave scene was wild too. I actually had to stop the movie until I could regain my composure after seeing the toothbrush scene. Now you have to be careful because, as the lady comes out of the photo store into the street, the revealing tooth brush scene pictures flash by very quickly. I almost missed the toothbrush scene entirely on first viewing of the DVD because it is shown so fast. I actually had to freeze frame the DVD to see exactly what got the camera store lady patron so upset. I was shocked, at how original and hallarious what I saw was.

Anyways Urbania moves on like I said not a moment wasted to a conclusion that really lets you give this tale the ending you feel is your personal idea of just! More than anything the classy way Urbania ends by letting the viewer determine for themselves which of two very different endings actually occured is a master stroke of the art! I honestly can not say enough good about Urbania. The subject matter was awesome. The characters were tight, well defined. The subplots were both funny and interesting. I loved near the end the character gave his jacket to the homeless gentleman he had worked toward befreinding during the entire film. That's the MAGic of Urbania it developed so many elements that came together making it such an awesome treat to enjoy! Urbania is not a film you watch once and forget. I know there is something about Urbania its richness its deepness and so much more that will force me to view it again and again. There are so many subtle and hidden messages in Urbania that I can not imagine watching it just once or twice. Urbania is on my A list of DVD's in my collection and I think it should be in yours as well!

if not 5 stars, what?.......2006-07-04

There's no more typical yet odd treatment of our queerness than this film: too fantastic to be real but so marred by greatness that anyone who cannot identify is dead to himself and this world of ours. See it again and then again to find it's subtlety: not pretty, not nice language, but a bit of love and light in a dark place.

Heard Any Good Stories Lately?.......2006-04-23

"Heard Any Good Stories lately?", says Charlie. After watching this dark, upsetting film as Charlie walks on the edge of madness, you won't ask that question again, ever again.
Charlie's search for sanity and retribution after watching his lover's brutal exodus wil mark you. Charlie, played by Dan Futterman, in a role that should have made him a star, goes from story to story in flashbacks. The urban myths we tell each other, the poodle in the microwave, the baby left on the car top, the man with the stolen kidney and the upstairs neighbors all come together to merge into real life and to haunt him and us.

The characters surrounding Charlie all slink in and out of his life; they are dark and deep. Paige Turco as Cassandra, John Hamilton as Matt the bartender, William Sage and Barbara Sukowa as his upstairs neighbors. All disturbing and real. Charlie, as he wanders the New York night has become a lost soul. He has this pent up anger and bubbling sexual desire and memories invade his mind. He meets strangers at every turn. And finally is forced to decide the fate of the man he lusts and despises. This is a story of love and loss, homophobia and revenge.

"Urbania" may not be a film for everyone. It is dark and brooding. As Charlie, a gay citizen walking the streets of New York, violent and disturbing things happen, are they real or are they a figment of Charlie's imagination? You will be left guessing until the very end. "Urbania" is a thrilling look into the dark regions of grief. How Charles deals with this and the look at the `urban legends" that come to life are a bright spot in this film.

"Urbania" has won several awards. The director, Shear suggests how horrifying and heartbreaking real life can be. This is a film you will walk away from with a haunting feeling that you have been there or seen that. Recommended. prisrob April 22, 2006

Amazing acting and script.......2005-08-10

"Urbania" is one of the best films I've ever seen. If the director had been more disciplined with his editing and chopped out about ten minutes in draggy spots, this easily would have been much, much bigger at the box office. Dan Futterman is incredible -- I knew he could act, but I never knew he was SO excellent! I bought one copy of the film and lent it to a friend who won't give it back because he loves it so much, and I bought another copy for another friend. Now I have to buy a new one for me. "Urbania" is not a lighthearted film but it is fearless, horrifying, gratifying and beautiful.

Average customer rating:

Ok, I got one and this really happened. I sware.......
URBANIA IS Hard To Follow At First But Eventually YOU GET IT AND THEN SOME!
if not 5 stars, what?
Heard Any Good Stories Lately?
Amazing acting and script

Urbania
Starring: Dan Futterman , Paige Turco , Scott Denny , Sanjiv Jhaveri , and Lothaire Bluteau
Director: Jon Matthews (IV)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Thrillers | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video