7.2 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Patrick searches for closure and resolution regarding his relationships with Richie and Kevin.
Starring: Jonathan Groff (II), Frankie J. Alvarez, Russell Tovey, Lauren Weedman, Raúl CastilloRomance | 100% |
Drama | 66% |
Comedy | 37% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: DTS 5.1
Spanish: DTS 2.0
English SDH, French, German, Spanish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Spoiler warning: The following review assumes familiarity with Seasons One and Two of
Looking. For a spoiler-free introduction to the show, see the Season One review.
If you listen to the commentaries accompanying Looking's Season Two, it's plain that
showrunners Andrew Haigh and Michael Lannan anticipated the series' renewal by HBO. When
the pay-TV network declined to order a third season, both fans and the creative team were left
hanging. Main character Patrick (Jonathan Groff) was stranded in relationship and professional
limbo, while aspiring restaurateur Dom (Murray Bartlett) was facing the potential loss of both his
fledgling venture and his life-long friendship with roommate Doris (Lauren Weedman), after the
financial support she promised did not materialize. Meanwhile, Agustín (Frankie J. Alvarez)
remained on the cusp of a possible rescue from his downward slide, thanks to a developing
relationship with Eddie (Daniel Franzese), the HIV-positive "bear" who runs a shelter for LGBT
runaways.
When HBO gave Haigh and Lannan the opportunity to cap off Looking with an hour-and-half TV
movie, they co-wrote a script that was fundamentally different from the show's previous half-hour episodes. For two seasons, Looking's
creative team had done their best to avoid tidy conclusions, allowing the show to reflect the tentative and unresolved quality of everday life. For
Looking: The Movie, however, Haigh and Lannan decided to tie up everything in a neatly
wrapped package. The result is a satisfying sense of closure, even though the outcomes smack of
the kind of overtly crowd-pleasing contrivances that Looking previously avoided.
Season Two's cinematographer, Xavier Pérez Grobet, returned for Looking: The Movie, and his digital cinematography continues the style he established in previous episodes. HBO has placed the 85-minute feature on a 1080p, AVC-encoded BD-25, which displays good sharpness and detail, an absence of noise, distortion or interference, and the desaturated palette that is a hallmark of the series. The average bitrate of 21 Mbps is consistent with the Season One Blu-rays.
The lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack for Looking: The Movie continues the style established in Seasons One and Two, supplying effective environmental ambiance for locations that will be familiar to series fans from earlier episodes. Club scenes remain vibrantly loud, with deep bass extension, and dialogue is always clear, centered and correctly prioritized. The musical selections are more sparse than previously, because the movie has to cover so much dramatic ground that it can't afford to waste time idling at party scenes.
In a disappointing turn, Looking: The Movie has no extras.
At present, Looking: The Movie can only be acquired as part of the complete series set, but
anyone with an HBO subscription can watch it through HBO's on-demand service. Despite a few credulity-straining plot turns, the feature aptly rounds off
an innovative series. HBO deserves credit for letting
Haigh and Lannan give Looking a proper sendoff.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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