Very low production values. Was this a hand held Apple I phone video camera? The shots of the dancers taking ballet class was either a lower leg shot or an upper body shot. At no point could you see the entire dancer's body. And the ballet star Brandon was obviously not very good at ballet. His hands were very effeminate; unlike in another dance based low budget film "The Five Dances", where the two male leads danced in a refined manly way. Hard to get into the plot as the age difference between the two love birds was at least 30 years and destined to implode. I assume whoever hatched the idea for this movie was obsessed with bringing it to fruition. Unfortunately, it didn't succeed at delivering anything meaningful or interesting to watch.
11 Reviews
Dancing
BandSAboutMovies26 May 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Dr. Jason Holden is in his early 50s with a family reeling from a tragic automobile accident that has placed his daughter in a wheelchair. Meanwhile, he is going through his old dark night of the soul, as a new job as a piano accompanist at a local ballet studio leads to him coming out and falling in love with Brandon a troubled young dancer.
Frederick Keeve is the auteur behind this, as the writer, director and star. This film is the result of a shorter version of the movie that he made in 2018.
He also is making The Accompanist Awakening, which will feature the newly engaged lovers as they return to Los Angeles after two years in New York City.
While this is a world I've never lived in, I could really feel the emotion in every scene. If this sounds like a story you'd be interested in, you should check it out when its released. While we don't have much information as to how you can see yet, as soon as we do, we'll list it here.
Frederick Keeve is the auteur behind this, as the writer, director and star. This film is the result of a shorter version of the movie that he made in 2018.
He also is making The Accompanist Awakening, which will feature the newly engaged lovers as they return to Los Angeles after two years in New York City.
While this is a world I've never lived in, I could really feel the emotion in every scene. If this sounds like a story you'd be interested in, you should check it out when its released. While we don't have much information as to how you can see yet, as soon as we do, we'll list it here.
Underdeveloped, but has potential
sidneyhummel27 August 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Honestly, if we supported more indie queer films, stories like this one would have the budget and attention they need in order to be developed and rich in quality. The storyline itself is simple, and carried my interest despite both the acting and camerawork feeling amateurish. The supernatural powers for the pianist did not mesh with the rest of the story, which was a bummer because near death experience becoming raw talent is a concept I find fascinating. That could have been weaved in way better from the start of the film, or maybe the whole film could have been structured differently, and personally I would enjoy seeing this film set somewhere colder like NYC. The parallels of both men having partners who don't trust them interested me.
Low budget rubbish!
qui_j28 July 2021
Just 15 minutes of this tells the viewer to not continue! Seriously bad acting all round and a script that looks like it was filled with improvised dialog. Who wastes money to actually make rubbish like this? It's the kind of movie for which Imdb should have a negative rating scale!
Unbearable and unwatchable
Davalon-Davalon9 October 2022
Warning: Spoilers
An accompanist who doesn't know the difference between a mazurka and a tango gets involved with a ballet dancer. They're both men. The accompanist is older. He was/is married with two kids, now divorced/separated. The ballet dancer has a sick but abusive boyfriend. "Fate" brings them together. A lot of time people say the f word for no particular reason. Drone shots of beaches are thrown in to make it seem like something is happening. Nothing is. No one has any acting talent. The script (?) is atrocious and after 40 minutes I didn't care about anyone.
Ricky Palomino as the ballet dancer gives his best shot, and he has a spark and attractiveness, but the script is horrific so he can't do anything to save it.
Poorly edited, cheaply lit, locations look like they belonged to the cast members. Not engaging.
Note: When people angrily yell the "f" word, it does not create conflict and does not engage audience members in the scene. If there is a legitimate reason for it, great; if not, don't use it. This film uses it extensively and I couldn't think of one time it was called for.
I gave it two stars: One for Ricky Palomino's enthusiasm and natural charisma (although it's not really coming through in this poorly written part) and Writer/Director/"Star" Frederick Keeve, who plays his own piano.
Ricky Palomino as the ballet dancer gives his best shot, and he has a spark and attractiveness, but the script is horrific so he can't do anything to save it.
Poorly edited, cheaply lit, locations look like they belonged to the cast members. Not engaging.
Note: When people angrily yell the "f" word, it does not create conflict and does not engage audience members in the scene. If there is a legitimate reason for it, great; if not, don't use it. This film uses it extensively and I couldn't think of one time it was called for.
I gave it two stars: One for Ricky Palomino's enthusiasm and natural charisma (although it's not really coming through in this poorly written part) and Writer/Director/"Star" Frederick Keeve, who plays his own piano.
Wow, was this bad
rklein12313 November 2022
Others have already touched on the major (weak) points. The acting, the script, the story... all pretty bad. Wish I had followed my gut feeling and bailed early on.
The progression of events don't always make sense, and the time travel aspect is confusing. I found it tough to know for sure until the very end whether the accompanist's family was alive, or not.
There is a supernatural aspect to the story, but I don't think it works. And to emphasize the channeling of celestial and metaphysical powers of the universe, there are interspersed scenes of the cosmos, with the camera whizzing by Saturn, Jupiter, and the stars. It seemed like someone accidentally edited in pieces from "2002 A Space Odyssey."
Here and there, you also see a beach. Very artistic.
In one (overly) dramatic scene the dancer and the ceiling tiles in the rehearsal hall come crashing to the floor. I thought it was an earthquake, but something tells me it was supposed to be other powers at play.
This film is an eye-roller from start to finish. Painful to sit through.
I'm sorry to say the goldfish just might have put in the most convincing performance.
And WHAT was up during the final credits!?
Not just the fact that we hear Ave Maria, but we have to sit through a seemingly endless series of family photos of the accompanist, his wife and kids. It would have made more sense to put those at the opening - or were they time traveled to the end?
I think we (the audience) were supposed to be blown away by how beautiful, profound and artistic the film is. Only it isn't.
The progression of events don't always make sense, and the time travel aspect is confusing. I found it tough to know for sure until the very end whether the accompanist's family was alive, or not.
There is a supernatural aspect to the story, but I don't think it works. And to emphasize the channeling of celestial and metaphysical powers of the universe, there are interspersed scenes of the cosmos, with the camera whizzing by Saturn, Jupiter, and the stars. It seemed like someone accidentally edited in pieces from "2002 A Space Odyssey."
Here and there, you also see a beach. Very artistic.
In one (overly) dramatic scene the dancer and the ceiling tiles in the rehearsal hall come crashing to the floor. I thought it was an earthquake, but something tells me it was supposed to be other powers at play.
This film is an eye-roller from start to finish. Painful to sit through.
I'm sorry to say the goldfish just might have put in the most convincing performance.
And WHAT was up during the final credits!?
Not just the fact that we hear Ave Maria, but we have to sit through a seemingly endless series of family photos of the accompanist, his wife and kids. It would have made more sense to put those at the opening - or were they time traveled to the end?
I think we (the audience) were supposed to be blown away by how beautiful, profound and artistic the film is. Only it isn't.
Ugh. Another one.
dan_9080210 August 2021
These written by/directed by/starring turds really need to stop. Amazon and Netflix need to stop picking them up so maybe these "auteurs" will stop making them. Unsympathetic characters poorly portrayed wandering through a thin plot. Enough!
Resist temptation to watch
stuartho-6738616 October 2021
Absurd storyline and premise. Why would a young dancer go for a 50yr old, then bounces back and forth to jealous boyfriend. The old guy is gifted with a special power, give me a break. We learn about boyfriend's upbringing towards end of film. The acting is barely tolerable, particularly the actor portraying Brandon. Sadly he's not even good looking to make it forgivable. The dramatic sound track at the end of the film is just so overdone. I fast forwarded several times, my curiosity for a better end was denied with such a disappointing close to the film. Really a complete waste of time.
Awkward bad-acted tearjerker
johannes2000-127 July 2023
First red flag: writer, producer, director en main actor are all one and the same person (Frederick Keeve). That isn't very promising, since there's no-one to look critical at the work of the other. Second red flag: hardly 20 seconds in the movie we have to watch a 50-something man having a crying-fit, while playing a sorrowful melody at the piano. A bit of a turn-off when you have just installed yourself on your couch, while the tone for the coming one and a half hour is immediately set: this is going to be a Very, Very Tragic Story.
It's clear that mister Keeve is an accomplished pianist, and his co-star Ricky Palomino is an equally accomplished classical ballet dancer, but they really shouldn't try to act: Palomino produces his lines at best adequately, but Keeve stumbles and mumbles and sleepwalks through his part. The writing is terrible, with cliché and often cringing dialogues, and no-where in the movie is the supposedly passionate love between Jason and Brandon made even remotely credible: there's zero chemistry between the two, the age-difference must at least have been some 25 years, and both men are unsympathetic and not even attractive.
The script kept amazing me, at many times it seemed that whole pieces of the story were missing. All of a sudden this divorced father falls for a guy? All of a sudden he is known to have supernatural healing powers?? All of a sudden his young lover jumps in bed with his former abusive boyfriend??? All of a sudden at the end of the movie there's some vague suggestion that maybe the whole family of Jason is in fact dead and the kids we saw are just figments of his imagination????
The whole project looks lackluster and low-budget, with cheap settings, bad photography, and a hollow, cold sound. The drone-views of the Californian shores and some National Geographic images of clouds, planets and the universe seem only intended to fill up the time. And sure: Rachmaninoff's pianoconcerto is ravishingly beautiful, but using it to start and end this awkward and superfluous movie felt almost disrespectful.
It's clear that mister Keeve is an accomplished pianist, and his co-star Ricky Palomino is an equally accomplished classical ballet dancer, but they really shouldn't try to act: Palomino produces his lines at best adequately, but Keeve stumbles and mumbles and sleepwalks through his part. The writing is terrible, with cliché and often cringing dialogues, and no-where in the movie is the supposedly passionate love between Jason and Brandon made even remotely credible: there's zero chemistry between the two, the age-difference must at least have been some 25 years, and both men are unsympathetic and not even attractive.
The script kept amazing me, at many times it seemed that whole pieces of the story were missing. All of a sudden this divorced father falls for a guy? All of a sudden he is known to have supernatural healing powers?? All of a sudden his young lover jumps in bed with his former abusive boyfriend??? All of a sudden at the end of the movie there's some vague suggestion that maybe the whole family of Jason is in fact dead and the kids we saw are just figments of his imagination????
The whole project looks lackluster and low-budget, with cheap settings, bad photography, and a hollow, cold sound. The drone-views of the Californian shores and some National Geographic images of clouds, planets and the universe seem only intended to fill up the time. And sure: Rachmaninoff's pianoconcerto is ravishingly beautiful, but using it to start and end this awkward and superfluous movie felt almost disrespectful.
As a writer, I give this film 8.762. Personally, I give this film a 10.
steve-83-60201529 April 2023
Warning: Spoilers
The subject matter of Jason's powers are salvific and that is important to share with a willing audience. (I'm writing this while listening to Grigory Sokolov playing the Rachmaninoff Piano Conerto #2.)
Subject matter 7/5.
Read The Energy Cure by William Bengston, as I have, to appreciate this subject matter. You can also watch the youtube video: iclif. Energy Healing Dr. Bill Bengston.
Powerful Moment, Wisdom Thought Passed on to Audience, not even a sentence: Leaving the children you loved, leaving them at their graveyard (tragic life experience to go through)
Powerful seconds of powerful ballet classes - In 1983 I had powerful seconds of ballet classes as an elective at NYU where my fellow students learned important lessons of alignment, balance, strength, and serene movement.
Powerful soundtrack of classical music and the talent of the accompanist, Jason, and the talent of the dancers in that class.
The arc of Adam portrayed by Aaron Cavette The height of his arc was sufficient but the length of the arc lacked gratitude.
I did not agree with. Brandon portrayed by. Ricky Palomino when he said Jason couldn't say he loved him when Jason evidenced his loving care for him throughout the movie.
Subject matter 7/5.
Read The Energy Cure by William Bengston, as I have, to appreciate this subject matter. You can also watch the youtube video: iclif. Energy Healing Dr. Bill Bengston.
Powerful Moment, Wisdom Thought Passed on to Audience, not even a sentence: Leaving the children you loved, leaving them at their graveyard (tragic life experience to go through)
Powerful seconds of powerful ballet classes - In 1983 I had powerful seconds of ballet classes as an elective at NYU where my fellow students learned important lessons of alignment, balance, strength, and serene movement.
Powerful soundtrack of classical music and the talent of the accompanist, Jason, and the talent of the dancers in that class.
The arc of Adam portrayed by Aaron Cavette The height of his arc was sufficient but the length of the arc lacked gratitude.
I did not agree with. Brandon portrayed by. Ricky Palomino when he said Jason couldn't say he loved him when Jason evidenced his loving care for him throughout the movie.
Keeve Will Make You Heave
myronlearn15 April 2024
Here's another Southern California yawn fest courtesy of Frederick Keeve, the writer and director of this Cali monstrosity. Keeve needs a refresher course in both writing and directing, the sooner the better. Chances are, judging from this mess, is he has no talent at all. 'The Accompanist' centers around a piano player in a dancing school who falls in love with much younger, and personally troubled dancer. Meanwhile, he's still in a terrible relationship with a recent ex wife and sees this new and exciting relationship as not only a diversion, but hopefully a way out as well. That in a nutshell describes what transpires in this hour and a half mess. Perhaps Keeve believed that 'Californiaizing' his terrible script would make it better. Guess what? It didn't. I strongly recommend that this excuse for a picture be avoided. If you decide not to take my advice, don't blame the talentless Keeve, blame yourself. The only one who suffers here, other than the viewer, is poor Ricky Palomino, the problemed 27 yo co star, who tries his best despite a sub mediocre script and lousy direction.
I gave the film one star only because of Ricky.
I gave the film one star only because of Ricky.
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