Cast: Max Talisman Joey Pollari, Charlie Tahan, Jackie Cruz, Eric Roberts,

Written and Directed By: Max Talisman

Release Year: 2025

Runtime: 99 minutes

There is no known audio description for this title in existence.

What is it?: Two guys named Zack meet and fall in love, but things get complicated, as their worlds lash, and they ponder how weird it is to date someone with the same name as you. One is a writer, the other a burgeoning talent manager. Can they find love in a film without audio description?

What Works: OK. This is super indie. Eric Roberts is legally the most famous person in the cast, because, and I know we’ve all forgotten this, he’s an Oscar nominee. I’m not kidding. I know it isn’t funny, because his career is on life support. I think he was probably paid in gift cards. But, he’s barely in the film, so it is more of a flex to be able to include him as an Oscar Winner, even though it’s like saying you’re proud to be a selected member of Costco.

But yes, this is an indie comedy, and a gay one at that. And as a blind and gay film critic, I notice that I’m a niche inside of a niche. it’s like Inception, but less fun. the thing is so many queer centric films never get audio description. This isn’t the first I’ve seen this year, and it won’t be the last. but dammit, I deserve to see myself represented. And while this can be a mixed bag, I’ve found a few delights with no audio description, and a few too hard to follow. I could follow this, and this is fine.

The concept is cute enough, and each of the actors playing a Zack have enough presence on screen to carry. Zack #1, the first one we meet, has a running gag about coming across as straight, but to me as a blind person, he sounds like Kieran Culkin. He could be his voice double.

There was a singer that Zack #2 goes to visit, who gave a killer vocal. Loved her. I also really enjoyed Zack #2’s female best friend, who I believe was played by Jackie Cruz. A lot of guessing involved, due to lack of audio description. She was sassy and funny, while Zack #1’s friends were just alright. They didn’t bring her level of fire to the scenes she was in.

What Doesn’t Work: Zack #2’s boss feels like a favor. Like. She’s related to, or is a friend of someone in the cast, because her acting just doesn’t fit. She’s trying to put out Miranda Priestly vibes, and it just isn’t working. And, yes, I had some trouble following this, even though it is dialogue driven. On its side, it is fairly easy to follow, with everything in the dialogue, and set in modern times without the focus really being on fashion too much, or set decoration in general. There seems to be very few times a character actually references something you want to see.

I’m a bit more forgiving of indie filmmakers, and this is in a genre a little easier to pull something out of. It is a comedy, not a horror film or a science fiction or action film. If we keep pushing audio description forward, I won’t be as kind to films like this, because some indie gay comedies did drop with audio description this year. A Nice Indian Boy managed to create audio description, and that wasn’t a huge film. Queer directors and producers be on notice.

Why you Might Like it: You’re like me, and you find the lack of audio described LGBTQ content low, and are willing to make an exception for pride’s sake. you could do worse.

Why You Won’t Like it: As you might expect, most of the people interested in my blog are blind or low vision, and they typically just don’t fuck with this. Some blind and low vision people will watch things without audio description if it predates their vision loss, or if they’re doing it with family, but selectively choosing a title with no accessibility is a hard sell, even if I gave this a perfect score. Which I’m not.

Final Thoughts: A simple and accessible plot makes this gay romantic comedy enjoyable enough without audio description. I’m a big proponent of asking myself, did I enjoy that? And if the question is yes, then I need to find it a spot on the positive side. i enjoyed this, even if there’s one role that needs to be recast, and accessibility added.

Fresh: 7.1/10