In his native Canada, actor, writer, sketch Comedian and Improviser CHRISTIAN SMITH is known as the co-Creator of the CBC Digital Comedy, Soul Decision Comedy and one half of YouTube darlings Christian & Nat, so its odd to us that for his feature film directing debut, he would choose SURFACING.  It’s a story about dysfunctional families and is so full of hate and angst ……. and for the first part of the film, an excessive amount of explicit casual sex, both gay and straight    So much s,o that you find yourself sitting anxiously on the edge of the seat for at least  a major part of the story

One of the main characters is bad-boy Cole (an excellent performance by the talented Damian Romeo), who, it turns out, is justified in his anger after his traumatic childhood.    Having said is seems like everyone is dealing with family issues which seem to get worse with every encounter.  All their interwoven relationships will have to get worse before they can even start to get better, especially as everyone is either playing a therapist or is in therapy

There is one bright spot on the horizon for Cole in the shape of an unlikely boyfriend, Jackson (played by Johnathan Sharp  , who as the writer, penned himself a good part in this multi-layered story).  There again, it’s almost impossible not to be taken in by his undeniable charm, even when is angry’

However kudos to Sharp who avoided the temptation to tie up all the loose ends as after that doesn’t need to happen to ensure there is a happy ending in this intriguing wee indie movie that I still cannot stop thinking about