Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Looking: The Movie Blu-ray Movie Review

All's Well That Ends Well

Reviewed by Michael Reuben December 23, 2016

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.

As Looking: The Movie opens, we discover that Patrick dealt with his problems by running away to Colorado, where he now works for a gaming startup. Nine months later, he is called back to San Francisco to attend a wedding. Since Haigh and Lannan delay revealing the couple's identity for as long as possible, it would be a spoiler to name them here. But whoever the participants, weddings are notorious, in both fiction and life, for provoking attendees to review the state of their own lives, which makes the occasion of Patrick's return an ideal opportunity to revisit old baggage. A reckoning with former boss and ex-lover Kevin (Russell Tovey) is a critical item on the agenda, as is an encounter with ex-boyfriend Richie (Raúl Castillo). The latter is still one half of a couple with Brady (Chris Perfetti), the ginger-haired reporter, but cracks in the relationship that were already apparent in Season Two have only grown deeper and more extensive.

Patrick's tour of his former adopted hometown includes a visit to Dom's eatery, which has miraculously weathered the financial setbacks from Season Two (exactly how is never explained), as well as catching up with Doris and boyfriend Malik (Bashir Salahuddin). Wedding celebrations, both before and after, supply occasions for the club and party scenes that have been a staple of Looking throughout the series. An impulsive one-night stand provides Patrick with unexpected insight into both his past and his future. But perhaps the most memorable encounter of Patrick's visit is a chance conversation with the Justice of the Peace performing the ceremony, who is played with quiet authority by the great Tyne Daly. Still searching for relationship answers, Patrick seizes the opportunity to ask the official about the many couples she's married, and her answers are unexpectedly illuminating. (The exchange contains a quick reference to Haigh's most recent film, 45 Years, which was just announced in a forthcoming Criterion edition.)

A long-standing dramatic tradition holds that comedies conclude with a marriage (or at least the prospect of one). Looking: The Movie isn't exactly a comedy, but marriage and relationship fulfilment hover over events like a benevolent spirit until the very end, when Haigh and Lannan deliver the happy ending (more or less) for which series fans were hoping.

Looking: The Movie Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

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.

Looking: The Movie Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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.

Looking: The Movie Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

In a disappointing turn, Looking: The Movie has no extras.

Looking: The Movie Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

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.