A Poignant Coming-of-Age Drama That Cuts Deep and Lingers Long

Terrific film, superbly written and directed by the biographer.

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Riley Quinn Scott and Jake Holley in Riley (2023)

Colin McCalla and Jake Holley in Riley (2023)

Jake Holley

Colin McCalla

Riley Quinn Scott

Benjamin Howard

The life of a disciplined high school athlete begins to unravel when his queer identity competes against the idea of who he was supposed to be.

Riley

Not bad at all

Not the greatest LGBT film ever made, but it&apos;s certainly not the worst I&apos;ve seen either. But it was fair.

Riley has a really good premise, and though it tells a coming-of-age story where the characters discover and question their sexuality, which we see all the time, we finally a story that we don&apos;t really see too often, and that&apos;s from the world of athletics. Very rarely have I seen a movie or TV show feature a character, a high school character, who is athletic and a football athlete. Athletics is a touchy subject, especially football, as its always protrayed as this macho man environment where only straight people play. We know for a fact that gay athletes exist, and it&apos;s refreshing to see a story from that perspective that highlights some of their struggles, too.

As a whole, the actors did a pretty good job of portraying their characters and emphasizing their feelings. It was a bit cringy at times, with some of the acting not feeling entirely real, but this isn&apos;t a blockbuster film production so I didn&apos;t go into this movie with that expectation.

My biggest complaint is the age gap of the &apos;high school&apos; actors. Having 25-27-year-old actors play 17-18-year-old kids isn&apos;t too realistic, and it was too obvious watching the movie that the actors did not fit the age of their characters. Instead of a high school-based film, they would have been better suited to play college kids, and it would have been much more believable. But I get that it would alter the story too much, mainly because of how Riley revolves around the character&apos;s athletic future and college aspirations.

Official Trailer

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNjQzMTk0OTYtNGY4MS00ODQ5LTllZmItMDAwNTI2ZGI5OTAxXkEyXkFqcGdeQXRyYW5zY29kZS13b3JrZmxvdw@@._V1_.jpg

Not the greatest LGBT film ever made, but it's certainly not the worst I've seen either. But it was fair.

Riley has a really good premise, and though it tells a coming-of-age story where the characters discover and question their sexuality, which we see all the time, we finally a story that we don't really see too often, and that's from the world of athletics. Very rarely have I seen a movie or TV show feature a character, a high school character, who is athletic and a football athlete. Athletics is a touchy subject, especially football, as its always protrayed as this macho man environment where only straight people play. We know for a fact that gay athletes exist, and it's refreshing to see a story from that perspective that highlights some of their struggles, too.

As a whole, the actors did a pretty good job of portraying their characters and emphasizing their feelings. It was a bit cringy at times, with some of the acting not feeling entirely real, but this isn't a blockbuster film production so I didn't go into this movie with that expectation.

My biggest complaint is the age gap of the 'high school' actors. Having 25-27-year-old actors play 17-18-year-old kids isn't too realistic, and it was too obvious watching the movie that the actors did not fit the age of their characters. Instead of a high school-based film, they would have been better suited to play college kids, and it would have been much more believable. But I get that it would alter the story too much, mainly because of how Riley revolves around the character's athletic future and college aspirations.

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Riley

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