"High school football star Dakota Riley (Jake Holley, adroitly handling a difficult role) lashes out at anyone who suggests or even jokes about his being gay. Truth is, he is buried deep in the closet in a macho world and it’s not only eating him up alive but destroying relationships. Writer/director Benjamin Howard’s debut feels like you’re watching a lived experience, and that’s because it is based partly on his life. It is that rawness and realness that gives “Riley” its extra edge, making it a more formidable queer drama about how repression in a hyper-masculine setting can strangle and suffocate someone until they come up for air."