Elliot Loves (2012) User Reviews

A Funny Wise Take on a Young Gay Dominican's Quest for Love and Acceptance

[mrgogonyc · 7/10 · 8 June 2013]

Just watched "Elliot Loves" On Demand from HBO.....It is a fine, fun character study of a young Domican gay man trying too hard to find love. It covers his many attempts interspersed with well edited flashbacks covering his challenging childhood. His mother had him when she was very young and she is in the dangerous habit of not only taking up with the wrong guys, but bringing them home to live with her and the 9 year old Elliot.

It might sound heavy and downbeat, but trust me there are a number of lighter scenes/situations with good laugh lines. I was hooked from the first scene of the young Elliot locked in his bathroom secretly performing a woman's shampoo commercial. The actor's combination of seriousness and sense of fun(especially in not letting his mom's nagging and knocking at the door deter him) is quite a tour de force. This kid has a future.

The other remarkable aspect of this film is that with a budget of $77,000 there is no embarrassing or bad performance. All are quite good with some being naturalistically excellent. Both actors playing Elliot possess great charm while keeping you interested and entertained Elena Goode as Elliot's mother is gorgeous and to the point in her interpretation.

So, if you'd like to see a charming, intelligent and witty film about a young man looking for love only to realize that you find it when you're not looking for it, check out "Elliot Loves".Such a good film to watch during Gay Pride Month! It will be quite interesting to see what the impressive director Terracino could do with $770,000.

Quirky and loveable

[elgatony · 7/10 · 17 March 2019]

Elliot is a young love-starved 21 yo in search of a real relationship. He's a goofy, energetic, likeable Romantic (with a capital R) with a bad history of hookups and failed relationships; paralleling that of his mother's disastrous love life. Elena Goode deserves special mention as his mother who is the real emotional core of the film. She's amazing, charming and mesmerizing as a young single mother trying to hold on to her youth and dreams yet constantly finding the wrong boyfriend. And poor Elliot has to put up with that. There's even a montage of Elliot reuniting wih a failed hookup side by side with his mother's backstory of dating a BMOC and getting dumped with a pregnant Elliot in spire of her mother's warnings. Both Goode and the actor playing Elliot's emoting during this scene are the reason to watch this movie. The director makes some really weird choices such as having young Elliot bare-bottomed on the toilet telling his story as if it were an interview and there are random animated scenes probably meant to hide the low budget. The other actors are flaky and campy but this IS a comedy first, drama second so expect Elliot not to end up the same as his mother and have the 'heppy ever after' ending one can expect. There a lot of terrible films out there but happily this is not one of them though it could be better. Let Elliot and his family charm their way into your hearts and maybe you'll see yourself in them. Look for a young pre-Queer Eye Antoni Porowski as one of Ma's lovers.

Sweet & Simple

[JJ-Chi · 7/10 · 27 February 2021]

Nothing profound, original or surprising here ...but still a truly enjoyable film: simple and sweet.

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[FloralSunglasses · 3/10 · 3 December 2018]

This movie is more of a comedy and i love that so much. Plus Elliot's actor has a real energy to his character. But so much is weighed down by everything the film isnt as far as a movie goes. Like, most of the acting and the editing is just straight up bizarre and all over the place with an animated sequence that was quirky but again was just kind of bizarrely placed.

I wish that there were more lgbt films that could really shine. Especially because I particularly like Elliot and his position with his relationships, but I felt like the presentation was just so barren and devoid of the life that his life is filled with. I also love the latino culture in this movie, but it didnt really feel entirely flesh out and included.

If Only I Could Be Fortunate Enough To Meet Someone Like Elliot In Real Life!

[interestingfunstuff · 10/10 · 9 June 2013]

Elliot is real, fun-loving, passionate, trusting, intelligent, loyal and tough. A young man who will do what it takes to find a healthy, loving relationship with another man. He's looking for a boyfriend and a mate. Life is hard and sometimes even quite brutal. But every time you knock Elliot down, he gets back up again! He's not capable of giving up. He loves life too much!

Elliot Loves is about relationships. There is zero camp in this film. The sex scenes are tastefully done. There is very little stereotyping. Homophobia and prejudice against LGBTQ people within and outside the Hispanic community is not addressed at all, which I see as a sign of progress. The Gay community in 2013 is finally free to exam love, commitment and the difficult process of finding a mate as heterosexuals have been doing since the birth of filmmaking in the early 1900's!

Both actors who play Elliot, one as a child, and the other as an adult do a magnificent job. They put their hearts and souls into their respective performances and it shows. I felt like I got to know them, that's how good the character development is!

Why can't Hollywood make more beautiful gay films like Elliot Loves? The good news is that HBO has bough this film and now it will be seen by millions of people around the world on cable TV! That's huge for a gay friendly film! To quote Bob Dylan: Times They are a-Changin!

See my other two favorite LGBTQ films: "Latter Days" and "Common Ground," staring Ed Asner.

Totally Totally Wonderful

[hjames-97822 · 10/10 · 19 April 2015]

A beautiful tale of life, love, child abuse and separation in our time in New York. I can not recommend this highly enough.

Told through a series of flashbacks there are two Elliot's. Elliot the boy and Elliot the teenager and man. Both actors are phenomenal. For some reason it's hard to find out much about newcomer Fabio Costaprado who plays the teen Elliot. He's Brazilian and he plays a Dominican character with grace and feeling beyond what you would think his year allow. --He absolutely steals the whole film!-- His name should have top billing.

Who cast this thing? They did a perfect job. Every single actor seems almost destined for their role. The script is a marvel. Tight, never lags and is well paced. I understand the director is also the writer. You have a bright future.

I have read that the whole budget for this was just $77,000. You would never know it. (HBO spends more than that on catering.) It's honest, warm and doesn't patronize the audience with a lot of gratuitous junk scenes that leave you to wonder just whose butt you may be looking at this time. This director invites you into the scene to become an extension of the cast and forces you to use your own imagination to participate.

I urge you to turn off that serialized, sterile cable junk America has come to think of as "creative" entertainment. Start looking at great indie films like this one and another the same year called "Morgan." Come and see what truly creative artists and crafts people are doing with very little money and no budget for fancy computer animation or silly body doubles. This is how great films used to be made. They just don't have the budget to be heard.

I love this movie

[mmuentes-29233 · 8/10 · 19 July 2020]

I loved this indie film about a gay Dominican kid growing up in Queens New York. This film treads lightly and with humor through some subject matter that could have easily been disturbing and serious. I love the humor, the insider views to Dominican family dynamics that are so rare in film, and the performance by the main character Elliot. This film has that essential indie feeling where the story is more important than the production value and that ultimately leads to something that feels much more authentic than a Hollywood film.

Amazing, show stopping, and a must watch

[lickupyourblood · 10/10 · 17 March 2022]

I never really leave reviews but I definitely wanted to for this one. I'm not a film expert so bare with me but I do watch plenty of queer films. It takes a lot to weed out the bad gay movies, but this one was definitely one of the best.

The main character, Elliot, is young and naive but he is lovely. The movie switches from him as a child to him trying to find love as a young adult.

A lot of movies don't give enough emotion to the characters so you never truly get to know or connect with them. This movie does exactly that tho. You get to know the characters and not just Elliot. It has a lot of depth. This movie is a combination of funny, happy, and sad. The entire movie I was either laughing or crying. I don't normally feel all those emotions while watching movies but this one was different.

I'm also always scared that when I watch a gay movie it will have a sad ending but I felt very content with the end of this movie. I think the sad parts were very necessary and make it all the more better. By the end of the movie I think Elliot had grown a bit as a person which is what he really needed.

I will most definitely watch this movie again. Its amazing and I definitely recommend.

Underrated Movie--Elliot Loves

[mmzxqzvq · 10/10 · 29 April 2021]

The movie is about a boy named Elliot; his life and quest for love.

The movie can a times be an emotional rollercoaster, switching from from comedy to tragedy. Some reviews I've read said that (adult) Elliot tries to hard to be funny, I think this is an interesting character detail because since Elliot was abused for almost his whole life, he tries to make people laugh, though sometimes be it to hard.

My favourite parts of the movies were when Elliot was young, due to the amazing acting of young Elliot and his mother.

The story is well written and acted out, the actors all appear to be really close and do an amazing job at portraying the story.

I truly believe this to be the best movie I've ever watched, the only movie to make me cry; I think the rating is so low because it's not relatable to the general, white, population-that's one of the things I especially love. The movie is very diverse and strays from the normative white protagonists, in having mainly POC actors, with only two non-POC actors having lines.

When I first found this movie by accident, I had no idea what to expect, because I didn't read any reviews or watch the trailer, but to my surprise it's unlike any movie I've seen before or most movies to come. What holds this movie from being more known or appreciated is homophobia and racism.

In conclusion, this is a well written story with an excellent movie portrayal, and though it may be hard to understand the story for some, people whom do not understand the culture and phenomena of the movie, it's a movie I would and have recommended to my friends.

In truth, this movie may more be worthy of a 9 but I love it so much.