Being a displaced Brit here in the US is one continuous learning curve, trying to learn and adapt to American practices.  Joining that list now is ‘Exit Interviews’, which my trusty Oxford English Dictionary explains is a survey conducted with an individual who is separating from an organization or relationship …. a kind of ‘what went wrong (or right).

It’s the subject of a brand new fictional movie that is doing the film festival circuit, and did more than simply appeal to my imagination; it had me glued to the screen until the final credits rolled. 

The central focus of this pseudo-documentary is Robert (Tuc Watkins), who is a TV filmmaker struggling for ideas for his next project.   He has one of those light-bulb moments and decides that for the next project he should film all his ex-boyfriends to see why they left him.  He whittles the list down (considerably!) and sets up to film a series of individual interviews to see where each relationship went wrong.

In doing so he opened up a can of worms in a series of heart-string-pulling man-to-man intimate conversations with a bevy of his (not-too-unattractive) exes who separately shared their thoughts on why their relationships failed in the end.

Credit to writer/director Garrett Abdo for making this film such compulsive viewing which ensured we soon got so committed to find out why did indeed these intelligent and articulate men would all become yet another of Robert’s exes.  In doing so he examines the complexities of queer love, and how after even all these heart breaks, we (like Robert) are still anxious to try it all over again.  But would we all have the sam courage as Ribert and actually confront our past so up frint and is such vivid detail?

Tuc Watkins  makes a prefect  Robert, but credit to Abdo for casting such a strong talented group of actors to play his ex-beaus.

After the final credits come up on the screen for a brief moment you maye be tempted to do your own series of Exit Inteviews.  Trust me, that will pass. 

Member of G.A.L.E.C.A. (Gay & Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association) and NLGJA The Association of LGBT Journalists. and The Online Film Critics Society. Ex Contributing Editor The Gay Uk & Contributor Edge Media Former CEO and Menswear Designer of  Roger Dack Ltd in the UK ‘one of the hardest-working journalists in the business‘ Micheal Goff of Towleroad