Children of God (2011)

Ooooh i so enjoyed this movie. Everything about it was wonderful. Love the actors, black and white. Love the melancholy in everything you see. Love the beautiful scenery of the Bahamas's and really loved the music in the back. This movie has so many dimensions. It is a love story but it is also a statement that shows that homophobia is harmfull for the people we love and that gay people are everywhere. Being gay i could really relate to Johnny because i now how it feels to be left out. So that performance was really convincing. The role of Romeo was also pretty convincing. I've learned that there are gay people acting like they are straight around others but when you are alone with them they hit on you. The only thing i hate in gay movies overall is that the gay character always dies in the end. That is so cliché and it spoiled the fun.... a bit. Because all the other things are sublime i forgive the director for this bit.Overall it is a very good movie and one of my recent favourite gay flicks. I would certainly recommend it to anybody who loves a gay romance movie or people who need to open their minds about the gay topic. Well done!!!!!

I'd read reviews elsewhere that were mostly high in praise of this movie, so I ordered it. I really liked the Bahamian life shown as it is away from the casinos and cruise ship areas. The acting was good, especially by the two leading guys, Johnny Ferro and Stephen Tyrone Williams. There is a great progression of self-understanding in short order. Photography and filming was very good, including beautiful scenery. Editing was good too, with excellent continuity. The music was a treat. It seemed to also be Bahamian. I'll be looking for more from these actors and director. I definitely recommend this movie and am glad to own a copy.

Children of God is the feature-length expansion of a short movie called Float, about an uptight young gay white guy (Johnny) and a laid-back, mostly straight black guy (Romeo) who hook up in the Bahamas, where they both are natives. It was made by the same writer/director as Float and stars the same actor (Stephen Tyrone Williams) in the role of Romeo.It differs from Float primarily in three ways: a different actor plays Johnny; a parallel story of an intensely homophobic woman and her lying preacher husband is added; and the ending is changed. Only the first of those changes is an improvement.Johnny Ferro (playing Johnny) is gorgeous, charismatic, sensitive, sweet, shy, brooding, and very, VERY sexy; so it is totally believable that anyone on earth would fall for him. (The huge flaw in Float was that the poor actor who played Johnny was none of the above.) The story between Romeo and Johnny is practically identical to Float, and adding Johnny Ferro really makes it shine.But the side story of the lying preacher is just too corny and overwrought to believe. It doesn't fit with the Romeo/Johnny story at all, so it is only an annoying distraction. And the ending is just as bad: forced, clumsy, and painfully predictable all at the same time. The director should have cast Johnny Ferro in Float and stopped there, or remade Float with the vastly improved Johnny.Float with the right Johnny would be a lovely gem, but Children of God just does not work. However... I have never seen Ferro anywhere before, so just for introducing him to the world I gladly give this movie five stars. Except that Johnny Ferro is not in it, Float is a better movie.

I am not aware how strong is the state of repression and bigotry that governs or not Caribbean societies, but the director and writer of this film is a Bahamian; it is then a shame that the way he addresses these issues derives from a sitcom approach. This is enough to stall matters into a regressive political state.The boys share a nice dance, and dancing the way they do it, popping out of bed instead of doing the sex routine, and do "how they feel like", as one of the two admonishes, is something we do not come to expect from gay themed movies. This much is true. It is also true that the soundtrack is good, but it is like it does all the work that should be put into a more cinematic approach.The stories do not interconnect, they are left on the device of some sort of nebulous plea that should run by itself. And then, at the film's final spin, the script abandons its spine for an unabashed melodramatic, quasi-metaphysical last seal that brings the house down.We then gather lines spoken before that foreground that sentimentalized last installment that comes out of and into the blue. This is bad, and it is a pity because the two leads are good, though Jonny Ferro is better by far. And then the summer-drenched cinematography proves that colors only are God's children in this film, and humans fail to connect with them, unless it is at the moment of their death. This does not sing the blues, it is just irrelevant.