Harry + Max (Harry and Max) (2003)

5% of critics liked it
(22 reviews)
27% of users liked it
(422 ratings)

Following up his critically acclaimed third film, 2001's The Sleepy Time Gal, filmmaker Christopher Munch helmed this dramedy about a pair of brothers who embark on a camping trip together. Harry (Bryce Johnson) is the eldest of the two, a 23-year-old former teen idol who has stopped off for the… More Following up his critically acclaimed third film, 2001's The Sleepy Time Gal, filmmaker Christopher Munch helmed this dramedy about a pair of brothers who embark on a camping trip together. Harry (Bryce Johnson) is the eldest of the two, a 23-year-old former teen idol who has stopped off for the long-promised expedition while en route to a gig in Japan. Max (Cole Williams) is Harry's 16-year-old younger brother, a burgeoning pop star himself. As the siblings begin spending time together in seclusion, their cordialness erodes and strong feelings begin to come out, exposing old emotions that were never dealt with. Also featuring performances by Michelle Phillips and Rain Phoenix, Harry and Max premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 14 min.
Directed By: Christopher Münch
Written By: Christopher Münch
Genres: Drama, Gay & Lesbian

In Theaters: Feb 4, 2005 Wide
On DVD: Jul 20, 2005
Studio: TLA Releasing

Critic Reviews

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
Seems like the work of a novice, with self-conscious expository passages and emotionally false conversations.
Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
To consider Harry and Max as being about incestuous feelings would be shortchanging it, because the film is really about the evolving nature of love and the need to define it.
Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
Provocative without being especially thoughtful or credible.
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News
Too superficial to shock or surprise.
Debra Birnbaum, New York Post
Director Christopher Munch deftly raises disturbing questions, but he fumbles badly when groping for answers.
Stephen Holden, New York Times
There are brave, boundary-breaching movies, and there are mad, foolhardy ones. Harry and Max belongs to the latter breed.
Brad Slager, Film Threat
As disturbing and unsettling as the subject matter is what is truly sad is that the performances of the two leads were impressive and they ended up being wasted by the trash content of the script.
Scott Tobias, AV Club
Though Williams and Johnson fit comfortably into the European naturalism that's become Münch's stock in trade, they can't quite wriggle out of his high-concept premise and become plausibly real.
Michael Szymanski, International Press Academy
The actors are tender and raw and believable as boy band fodder.
Rob Blackwelder, SPLICEDWire
...incest...pedophilia...the film seems to be nothing more than an attempt to affirm a sense of I'm-OK-you're-OK normality for any viewers with such issues in their own lives.
David Noh, Film Journal International
You watch this prurient would-be porn, treated with kid-glove 'sensitivity,' in a state of disbelief.
Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly
The movie is a congeries of half-formed ideas about pansexuality and other social taboos, but Munch fails to accomplish what he seemingly sets out to do.
Annlee Ellingson, Boxoffice Magazine
The blurred boundary between intimacy and sexuality ... isn't broached with the sensitivity and maturity that it demands.
Eric Henderson, Slant Magazine
Harry and Max is writer-director Christopher Munch's seemingly candid exorcism of any number of self-consciously naughty fantasies.
, E! Online
Chatty scenes ramble on and on, supporting characters are underdeveloped, and all the sibs' angst does little to make their tortured relationship very credible or interesting.
Ken Fox, TV Guide's Movie Guide
The film winds up dancing around the 500-lb gorilla in the middle of the room rather than facing the pathology of its real subject head-on.
David Sterritt, Christian Science Monitor
Intermittently insightful, but a disappointment from the talented Munch.