• ALL
  • NEWS
    • GAY MOVIE/ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
    • GAY FILM TRAILERS
    • GENERAL MOVIE NEWS & TRAILERS
  • GAY SHORTS & SERIES
  • REVIEWS
    • GAY FILM REVIEWS
    • CINEMA REVIEWS
    • DVD & BLU-RAY REVIEWS
  • BGPS BLOG
  • COMPS
  • ABOUT
    • Contact Us
    • Join The Team
    • Terms & Conditions
    • Gays On Film – A Short History

Big Gay Picture Show

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema and more

Taking a look at the world of film through gay eyes - news, reviews, trailers, gay film, queer cinema & more

Tumbledown (DVD)

August 26, 2013 By Tim Isaac Leave a Comment

Starring: Brad Hallowell, Brett Faulkner, Todd Verow
Director: Todd Verow
Running Time: 82 mins
Certificate: 18
Release Date: August 26th 2013

Todd Verow is a virtual one-man gay film industry. He started making films in the mid-90s and has become increasingly prolific since, with the likes of Vacationland, Between Something & Nothing and last year’s Bad Boy Street. His last few films have been narratively and tonally more ambitious than the ones that came before and that continues with Tumbledown, which is based on Verow’s own experiences (and also stars him in the role of Jay).

The film centres on three characters – Rick, Mike and Jay. Rick meets Mike and they hit it off, particularly as he can supply Mike with pills behind the back of Rick’s older boyfriend, Jay. The trio head off for a weekend at a summer house, but afterwards Mike seems to fall off the face of the Earth. A while later Jay invites Mike out to the house again. Soon after arriving, Mike slumps to the floor unconscious and wakes up the next morning in Jay’s bed.

A few weeks afterwards Mike receives a camera. On it is a video of Jay having sex with Mike while he’s lifeless, seemingly drugged, on the floor at the summer house.

Those are the basic events, but the film shows them from all three of the character’s perspectives, one after another, telling us what they said happened. It’s an interesting and potentially contentious way to deal with a topic as sensitive as date rape, allowing all those involved to have their say. In many films that use this narrative technique, the events remain exactly the same with the difference coming from how each character views it, but here it’s what each of them says happened, so certain things change with each retelling, leaving the audience to piece together what they think is the full truth.

In some ways it works well, exploring each character’s stated actions and the repercussions of what occurred. There are also aspects that some will like but others will hate, such as that because this ‘based on a true story’ film is about what each person said happened, there’s no objective truth or ‘ahh’ moment where suddenly everything becomes clear. Many will like the murkiness and how different people can paint different events so that objective truth becomes impossible to ascertain. Others, who prefer a simple narrative, will find it frustrating. (It should be noted though that none of the perspectives try to say what happens to Rick is okay, even if Jay attempts to justify it in his own head).

However, like several of Verow’s other film, it feels like a really good idea that doesn’t work as well as it might have. From the script to the visual style, there’s a sense that it’s nearly there but not quite fulfilling its promise. Some of this is down to the extremely low budget, so that certain scenes have a slightly unfinished quality. Luckily though this is easy to overlook.

More problematic is the screenplay. To really make such a potentially fascinating but controversial idea really hit hard, the script needed to be pin-sharp. Unfortunately it’s a little loose at many of the moments where it needed to be really tight, and leaves things open at moments when more insight would have helped. For example, while it shows us the story from different perspectives, it often feels like it’s merely retelling the surface of what these people said happened, rather than getting under the skin of it. Even this could have worked, perhaps by more fully handling each character’s possible actions and motivations (irrespective of what they say they were), but it needed to be more fully fleshed out to truly be successful.

It’s one of those films that is worth watching as it constantly suggests something really interesting, but much of that relies on the audience looking beyond the movie itself to what it could have been and the things the themes promise rather than what they actually fulfil.

Overall Verdict: Todd Verow is a filmmaker who really needs to be applauded for his ambition, particularly as he works on such limited budgets, but such ambition does tend to have a bit of an all or nothing quality – it’s either amazing or feels like it’s falling short. Sadly while Tumbledown nearly makes it, it’s not quite sharp enough to be a complete success.

Reviewer: Tim Isaac

Wanna share?:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr
  • Click to share on Flipboard (Opens in new window) Flipboard
  • More
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window) Pocket
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp
Overall Rating 5outof10

Related

Filed Under: GAY FILM REVIEWS

Leave a Reply (if comment does not appear immediately, it may have been held for moderation)Cancel reply

Search this site:

We're Needy, Be Our Friend

RSSTwitterFacebookStumbleUponMySpace

E-maily Stuff

Get the latest in our daily e-mail

Most Recent Posts

Young Hunter Trailer – First teen gay love takes a dark turn into blackmail

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie Trailer – The hit gay, drag West End musical is coming to the screen

Iris Prize Festival LGBT+ International Short Films 2020 – Part 3 (Short Film Reviews)

Iris Prize Festival LGBT+ International Short Films 2020 – Part 2 (Short Film Reviews)

Iris Prize Festival LGBT+ International Short Films 2020 – Part 1 (Short Film Reviews)

The Scottish Queer International Film Festival 2020 Has Opened, & It’s Online Across The UK

The Iris Prize LGBT Short Film Festival Returns Next Week, & It’s Online & Free!

An Apology From Big Gay Picture Show

Win The Miseducation of Cameron Post DVD & Book!

Seventeen Trailer – The vagaries of teen romance erupt in the lesbian-themed film

My Best Friend Trailer – Gay romance flickers between two teen boys

New Sauvage Trailer – The gay prostitute movie that divided Cannes is coming soon

We're Needy, Be Our Friend

RSSTwitterFacebook

E-maily Stuff

Get all the latest from BGPS in our daily e-mail

Blogroll

  • Blinkbox – Gay & Lesbian
  • DoorQ
  • Movie Muser
  • Peccadillo Pictures
  • Peccapics Blog
  • TLA Gay (UK)
  • TLA Releasing (UK)
  • TQS Magazine

Copyright © 2025 Muser Media · Powered by WordPress & Genesis Framework · Log in

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're OK with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Read More Accept Reject
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT