|
|
|
|
  ANOTHER GAY MOVIE USA, 2006 "I don't even want straight people to see us acting like that." That's what an openly gay actor from one of Outfest's shorts told me when I asked if he'd seen Another Gay Movie, possibly the most hyped gay film since Trick. I can't agree with him in that it would sound too much like the queers who cringe at flamboyance during Gay Pride—I find that sentiment psych-illogical. But I will confess I knew what he was getting at: The movie left me feeling vaguely...embarrassed? By what? For whom? I definitely liked Edge of Seventeen, the 1998 film directed by David Moreton and cleverly written by Another Gay Movie's director, Todd Stephens. I have to confess I've never even heard of Todd's directorial debut from five years ago, an oddball-sounding flick about Stevie Nicks fans called Gypsy 83 that featured Karen Black. I hear that Gypsy 83's distribution nightmare (it wasn't considered gay enough to be a gay film) led Stephens to conceive of Another Gay Movie as not just [insert film's title here], but as The Most Gay Movie. Ever. The concept is interesting—instead of another gay love triangle or another gay hustler movie (hey!), why not invent the genre of gay gross-out flick? One review I read in L.A. stated that if you could "get" the concept, Another Gay Movie was the best of Outfest. Not by a mile. First of all...what's to get? I just summed it up in a line or two and I'm sure you followed, right? Now that we've wrapped our minds around the gimmick, does it play? I'd say no. I'm not hostile toward Another Gay Movie, and there was some loud laughter in the screening I attended. But the laughter felt to me mostly forced and nervous, along the lines of, "Did they just do that?" rather than, "Wow, that was hilarious!" The story follows four gay virgins who make a pact to lose their virginity by graduation. Little Darlings, anyone? Or Porky's? Or American Pie, reinvented as American Quiche? All of the above, and on purpose. The guys are played by the magnetically adorable Michael Carbonaro, whose manic, Jason Biggs-time (but better) performance nabbed him an Outie as Best Actor; Jonah Bleckman, who plays a shrill queen whose scream can only be heard by dogs; Mitch Morris, the adorkable one; and Jonathan Chase, a movie-star handsome jock whose enthusiasm for getting naked on screen belies the fact that he later disassociated himself from promoting the project ("Mr. Chase is not doing any press for Another Gay Movie," is how NYC's HX quotes his management team). Oh, well, at least Chase and Morris cook up some nice chemistry in a nipple-tweaking scene. With Carbonaro—a potential future star—setting the bar-bonaro impossibly high, Morris and Chase manage to keep up with him admirably, investing what was an incredibly short shoot (days, baby, not weeks) with the requisite amount of enthusiasm. Blechman...the less said the better. He has the same energy, but feels off in every scene except for during his A+ dance routine. Though it must be said Blechman (an executive producer of the film, too) is not nearly as off as Ashlie Atkinson as a bull-dyke (don't get all PC on me—this movie has an Asian girl squeaking "me love you long time" with Chinese subtitles) or as every one of the stunt-casted gay celebs, from jailbird Richard Hatch to brow-lifted comic Ant to to talentless (if tasty) twink James Getzlaff, who doesn't...get any laffs. When porn titan Matthew Rush delivers lines better than you do, it's time to look into other careers. Might we suggest porn? When you're 35 and hot and can't act, it seems as good a way to go as any. The movie is basically a series of gonzo comic scenes revolving around anal sex and who's gonna get it first—or at all. Carbonaro earns his Outie if for nothing else by showing his balls in a scene destined for places like here or here. In this mildly fun scene, where he's screwing himself with vegetables and other objects under the covers, the potential of Another Gay Movie is glimpsed before it goes AWOL. The comedy is just so broad and the laughs just so few and far between, you're left to contemplate the cynical mess that it all boils down to—while there are certainly many wonderful gay movies (and wonderful tries!) that involve sexual situations, I couldn't help thinking, "Gee, is it right to get these guys to perform humiliating, borderline pornographic scenes in the name of comedy when it's really just to get dollars and leers from gay patrons with low expectations?" Well, the actors aren't babies and could have turned it down, and I certainly don't have a problem with porn...so what is my complaint? I can't rationalize it, but I definitely felt like the laughter was more at the actors than with them, and at the tackiness of the endeavor rather than at any inventive jokes and gags. And I really hope I'll never see even one more movie with pointless ’70s and ’80s references—these are 18-year-old characters...believe me, they would not hold Carrie in high esteem, making a lengthy Carrie sequence distractingly misguided. I wish I had more positive things to say about Another Gay Movie other than to re-emphasize that I just loved Michael Carbonaro—a star is horned, er, porn, er, born. I don't take pleasure in trashing it. I wanted to like a movie with cute guys, some good to greatish performances and an almost punk attitude about being in-your-face gay. But I'm afraid I have to come down on the side of those churlish critics who are constantly pointing out that too much of gay culture in the past 10 years is half-baked crap that we're conditioned to like strictly because the guys behind it enjoy being behind guys. This is a case, for me, where I have to step back and say, "I appreciate your gayness and I'll check out what you cook up in the future, but this is not my cup of tea room." Related Reading: This review was originally published on Matthew Rettenmund's blog, and is reprinted here with the kind permission of Matt.  Film Reviews - Interviews - Features - Film Festival - About - Contact |
Another Gay moment of craziness
TheDailyStud.com: All the beef that fits. (NSFW) |
