COME AS YOU ARE

Official Selection, 2019 SXSW Film Festival
Audience Award for New American Cinema, 2019 Calgary International Film Festival
Audience Award, 2019 Philadelphia International Film Festival
Audience Award for Best Feature Narrative, 2019 Tallgrass FIlm Festival

How will two men in wheelchairs and one blind guy get to a Canadian “special needs” brothel to lose their virginity … without telling their moms? Remaking the Belgian film Hasta La Vista (2011), itself loosely based on a true story, Richard Wong directs an all-star cast on a virgin road trip filled with comic misadventures. Hayden Szeto (Edge of Seventeen, SDAFF ‘16) stars opposite Grant Rosenmeyer (The Royal Tenenbaums) as two 20-somethings stuck in wheelchairs, unable to find meaningful sexual relationships. In their longing for intimacy, they find the one place in Canada that embraces them. They just need their blind friend played by Ravi Patel (Meet The Patels, SDAFF 2014) to split the costs of a wheelchair-accessible van driven by Sam (Gabourey Sidibe, Precious). With a panicked mom (a hilarious Janeane Garofalo) on the chase, let the road trip hijinks begin!

COME AS YOU ARE is a dark comedy meant to put a human touch on everyone’s longing for connection and the sometimes heroic efforts needed to find it. With signature snappy dialogue and straight-faced humor, Wong adds another hit to a buzz-worthy resume that already includes Colma: The Musical (SDAFF ‘06) and Yes, We’re Open (SDAFF ‘12).

–Erwin Mendoza

Preceded By

Prom Time!

Directed by Jessica Liu

Two sisters talk about prom sex while their mother accidentally takes some of her home-grown aphrodisiac in a story of cross-generational desire.