Sign (2016) User Reviews

Good gay short that involves reality

[Irishchatter · 8/10 · 31 October 2018]

I have to say this gay short really did involve a lot of reality within the couple. You'd think it's gonna be all gonna be about being lovey dovey. However it doesn't seem the case with this short. Ben and Aaron had their own quarrels along with breaking up and dating other men. Then of course, they seem to get back together by reuniting to the train station where they first met.

At least they did get back together but they probably had to take it slow at the same time. This short definately wasn't plain sailing and I'm proud that it took a realistic approach in realtionships. I mean c'mon, maintaining realtionships are hard work man lol! Definitely a good gay short to watch if you need that reality bite!

Visual images tell a love story

[alanjj · 9/10 · 22 October 2016]

This film is silent because it is meant for the deaf to be able to fully understand it, while the hearing (or at least those who do not know ASL) to be left partly in the dark. In the course of this movie, two gay guys repeatedly cruise each other in northern Manhattan, then one starts the talk, and the other indicates that he is deaf. The hearing man is smitten, and starts communicating with exaggerated lip movements, then by text message, then learns sign language. They fall in love, they move in together. Then, jealousy and complications arise--non-ASL people will find it difficult to know exactly what the problem is. Finally, the two lovers run into each other on the subway and they feel the same heat that they felt when they first met.

This is a short film with a simple story, told entirely through visual imagery and music. It is like a great silent film of the 1920s, but without the intertitles. The cinematographer (who is also the director) makes great use of New York backdrops, especially vivid images from the underground. He also must focus on the signing, because one of the points of this film is that deaf people will be able to appreciate it just from reading hands and expressions. There's a great beauty to the signing, which non-ASL people can appreciate, even if they can't necessarily read the signs.

Simple, beautiful and effective

[mirrigold · 10/10 · 3 December 2016]

It's difficult to know where to start or what to say about SIGN. At its heart, this is a film about relationships, about falling in love, about finding your place in the world.

But it's also so much more, it's about communication, it's about frustration, it's about pain and it's about redemption and hope. Mostly, it's about love.

That the film has no spoken dialogue until the very end would, you'd think, make it difficult to understand, but it doesn't. Not knowing American Sign Language also doesn't make it hard to understand. Everything you need to know can be seen on the screen as Aaron and Ben meet, fall in love, have problems, split up, try to move on but, eventually, come back to each other.

It is, simply, beautiful.

And, in the spirit of full disclosure, I was a backer of the film, not a huge amount of money, but I am so glad I did something to help this film get distributed.

Being deaf should not exclude someone from life and this film is simply a love story.

a story

[Kirpianuscus · 1 May 2018]

One of stories so simple than, at first sigh, the temptation is to say than it has not subject. or only a blank love story. with its steps, levels, beginning, troubles, gestures. but not words. after its end, you understand. it is more. a story about solitude. and hope . one of stories easy to ignore. because seems be an ordinary one. but, on screen, it could change you. your perspective. and, maybe, about the meanings of love.

Distilled love

[mirkobozic · 10/10 · 21 September 2021]

"Sign" took me by surprise: I expected something corny, littered with stereotypes or banal prejudice. Instead, what I got was a story that compressed into a breathtaking short movie what the usual romantic films need at least 90 mins to accomplish. It's a love story that starts in an unassuming encounter that's defined by the sign language the two men need to communicate. The passion evolves into something so profound that the other one decides to learn sign language in order to create a bond without communication barriers. The view with no sign language proficiency might find the storyline occasionally puzzling, but the scenes of the two men's social life that swings between the one's sensorily unimpaired friends and his own, where the other one feels like a stranger. It's a perfect metaphor for problems we encounter in our own communication-sensorily impaired or not. The director of this little gem teaches us that sometimes, the barrier of speech is easier to mend than an emotionally impaired heart. And that it's never too late unless we decide it is.

A positive aspect here and there, but overall too generic and medicore

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 4 September 2018]

"Sign" is an American 15-minute live action short film from 2016 that got director Andrew Keenan-Bolger (most of the time an actor though) a pretty solid deal of awards recognition. It is the story of a gay couple basically from start to finish and the big difference to all other gay couples here is that one character is deaf. We find out how they meet, how they are together, how they struggle, how they break up and in the sadly very unrealistic feel-good ending how they seem to get together perhaps again, even though it is only implied, not depicted. But yeah really, there is nobody outside or inside this metro train. Anyway, this is a silent film, well except the station voice near the endtalking about the doors, which I found pretty distracting and completely against the idea and approach of this movie. i don#t know what they were thinking there, maybe implying change, but it was not working out well at all this exact moment. Only other sound is the music which is there from start to finish. On the one hand I liked the soundtrack, even to an extent where I could say it is possibly the best thing about the entire film. But it still took away attention and focus from the plot I must say, not only during the weaker moments where it would have been fine, but also during the better moments early on especially. As for the acting, the healthy guy I find extremely forgettable, the actor playing the deaf guy is fairly solid early on, but gets dragged down by his co-lead pretty quickly too. So all in all, not a failure film by any means, but very irrelevant and forgettable ultimately. I think the subject deserves better, but it just turns into another example of style over substance I must say. Thumbs down, not recommended and does not really say anything too positive about Boys on Film if works like this one get picked up. Watch something else instead.