Looking: The Movie

Looking: The Movie is pointless and boring.

Haigh and Lannan raise a few compelling questions about our litmus test for happiness, and Groff deserves praise for pulling off a handful of sentimental climaxes. But there's a lingering sense that Looking used its rare second chance to purposefully leave its audience longing for closure that simply doesn't exist. [22/29 Jul 2016, p.96]

As a film, Looking: The Movie is really just a long episode of the series. It isn’t very well structured, is all talk and little drama, and bogs down halfway through because of the same insularity that made the second season pretty much a big shrug.

Exquisitely nostalgic, it's as comfortable, and as complicated, as a reunion with an old friend, poring over the past in search of its promise and risking the sharp pang of regret.

While Looking: The Movie (premiering at Outfest before airing July 23) isn't as astonishingly fine as Looking the series, there's enough greatness in it to make fans (we're out there!) agonize anew over the fact that, yes, this time it's over for real.

It has the show’s virtues--its loose, casual vibe, the gorgeous San Francisco locations and the excellent performances by Mr. Groff and by Murray Bartlett, as Patrick’s levelheaded friend Dom. It also has its faults, including some surprisingly flat acting for an HBO project and a tendency to get dull when the script moves away from the personal and into the larger issues of the gay community. Those glitches are more noticeable in an 85-minute film than they were in half-hour weekly episodes.

It's all very naturalistic, and at times, a little slow. But the affectionate, accepting atmosphere casts a warm glow over everyone.

For fans, Looking‘s conclusion will be welcome. For the uninitiated, it’s a moodily made argument to check out a series that deserves a long afterlife.

Fortunately, Looking: The Movie is a lovely coda to a lovely show. It’s not always possible to get a satisfying ending out of television. But this one is also graceful, a closing pirouette that drops the curtain on these characters so that we can let them go, however unwillingly.

As the film finishes, there’s a desire to puzzle out Patrick’s life a little more, to give him the ending you think he deserves. And maybe a small wish that there would be just a bit more Looking left to see.