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FilmLover wrote on 05/04/2011:

That DVD cover had me wondering what sort of pandering we were gonna get - Matthew Montgomery, we love that you get naked a lot but it's getting a bit old (and yet who's complaining) - but this film was such a pleasant surprise that I was glad I gave it a chance.

Here are two sexy out actors who aren't given much more than a boutique hotel in Palm Springs to work with (because there sure as hell wasn't a large wardrobe rack!), and yet they are both engaging and evoke pathos for their respective stories and couple up in a reasonable way that generates a lot of heat without causing you to lose a few brain cells in the process. Can it be than this is best we can hope for in U.S.-based 21st. C. gay features?

Thank heavens for Rob Williams respecting the actors and audience enough to push us both - many of his contemporaries would do well to emulate his talents.

chromo_man wrote on 04/18/2011:

This film does have a lot going for it right out of the gate, with a fine director, great cast, wonderful setting and beautiful cinematography. But, as many of the reviewers have noted, there are a lot of slow, talky stretches, where our characters seem obliged to deliver polemical treatises that do not sound like any honest-to-goodness dialogue that you could image real people saying in a situation like this. Don't get me wrong: I appreciated that the writer tried to present weighty issues and flawed characters dealing with true-to-life dilemmas. And I do not fault the actors in their delivery of these diatribes. Yet some judicious editing might have helped move the stoy along at a more reasonable clip, causing us viewers to yell at the screen less. Still, I eagerly look forward to the next endeavor of this cast and crew, and so will you.

3 stars

cc wrote on 04/07/2011:

I love the movie it is HOT so and i have the movie

p.s.
buy it

Paul in New York wrote on 03/27/2011:

In our social media culture of diminishing privacy the line between everyone's public persona and his private life is erased which throws gays into a quandary of bad options. Either a gay person publicly broadcasts his sexual orientation and risks career setbacks and community ostracism, or he chooses to keep his privacy and is penalized by falling out of the social norm.

Rob William's film ROLE/PLAY cuts to the quick of the issue and raises thought provoking questions that will be discussed long after the film ends.

Though the central characters (played by Steve Callahan and Matthew Montgomery) are media megastars, the issue is something gay men and women confront every day in their less than public lives. How does someone live truthfully without opening their bedroom to the scrutiny of their employer, their neighbors, their church, their bowling league or their kid's scouting troop?

It's not an easy film. It's not a vapid, campy comedy or a thinly plotted soft-porn. For that reason alone the gay community is fortunate Williams is making a political statement that doesn't pander to sextease. ROLE/PLAY delves into the deep end of American gay culture and risks being drowned by its targets: the paid critics of corporate gay media. This is exactly what independent film should do. Rob Williams' film isn't a cheap exploitation to bring in gay dollars, it's an insightful and probing discussion of queer culture in America.

The dvd also has two behind the scenes segments which were charming and completely entrancing. Unlike most actor “interviews” with scripted soundbytes, I felt like I know these guys after watching Anthony Palato's behind the scenes footage.

Incognegro wrote on 03/26/2011:

Role/Play is one of those movies that if you stick with it you wont be disapointed. The plot is simple, closeted soap opera actor Grahm played by Steve Callahan gets outed by a sex tape, he meets and falls in love with Trey, played by Matthew Montgomery, a gay marriage equality activist going through a divorce . The commonality is that both are running away from issues they're not ready to deal with, each for his own reason. The movie itself is slow paced but gets to the love story rather quickly, the key to making the storyline work is having the right actors playing the main characters. Callahan & Montgomery's chemistry is what holds everything together, making a movie that at times can be preachy & predictable a believable love story. Its the seconds half of the film where when all truths come out that makes you think "What would I have done?". I like the fact that what may comes off as predictable gets flipped upside down, questioning things like the perceptions of what is marriage, what it means to be out & who should be out, and where & when does one draw the line between ones responsibility to self and their responsibility tward the gay community. The chemistry between Callahan & Montgomery is the glue that makes role/play worth watching. It's not your average run on the mill lover story, it make you think and poses the question "As a gay person who am I responsable to first, myself or the community"