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Just
Another Coming of Age Fuck-Fest ANOTHER
GAY MOVIE: Written by Tim Kaltenecker and Todd Stephens.
Directed by Todd Stephens. Cinematography, Carl Bartels. Music, Marty
Beller. Starring Jonah Blechman, Michael Carbonaro, Jonathan Chase,
Mitch Morris, Richard Hatch, Darryl Stephens, Ant, Lypsinka, Scott Thompson.
TLA Releasing, 2006. Not rated. 93 minutes. "'Queer as Folk,' eat your fucking heart out!" That quote from Andy (Michael Carbonaro)says pretty much all you need to know about Todd Stephens' Another Gay Movie, except that this candy-colored dreamland comedy is a mix of Heathers (without the angst, though with a nod to the famous croquet mallet-and-balls shot), The Brady Bunch (complete with a father who may not be quite what he seems), David Levithan's breakthrough happy gay book Boy Meets Boy and, well, a few industry-nonstandard porn flicks. Brokeback Mountain this ain't; if the M2M sex in that movie shocked you, best bring a blindfold — and definitely earplugs — to this one. From the first John Waters-influenced scene, involving a few too many vegetables and one of the immortal Lypsinka's campy cameos — not to mention a "Hot for Teacher" fantasy that flies directly from Ferris Bueller's Day Off to energetic penetration — the film doesn't stop to take a breath. The hysterically laughing audience probably won't either. The bare, er, bones of the plot (it's impossible to resist the smart-high-school-kid punning of writer/director Stephens' script) involve four boys who have just graduated from a very gay Southern California high school. Andy plays a lot of video games and works in the store owned by the mother (Stephanie McVay in a spot-on imitation of Edie McClurg's secretary character in Ferris) of his friend Nico (Jonah Blechman). Nico's a beautiful flamer boy who just wants a daddy and even tries to woo "Survivor"'s Richard Hatch (playing himself, in the all-together, all the time). Then there's jock Jarod (Jonathan Chase) and super-nerd Griff (Mitch Morris, gorgeous in his glasses and perfect mouth), who have been friends forever and might, just might, be interested in more than friendship. The four boys haven't quite popped their cherries yet, and they make a pact at a graduation party that by Labor Day, they'll get some butt-love. The knowing slyness of Stephens' script ("Let's make the GAYEST FILM EVER MADE," he claims, was his plan) includes a stupid prep boy who wants to bareback (he gets his comeuppance, so to speak), a GHB-snorting hottie who tries to overwhelm little Nico, the bulldyke best friend who gets all the cheerleaders and so many references to both straight and gay films, life and theory that it's a miracle the movie holds together. But it does. Like any good postmodern flick, Another Gay Movie doesn't hide its heart despite its over-the-top comedic desires. The boys get into a couple of horrifying situations (one hilarious, tears-streaming-down-your-face gay bar scene seems ripped from the pages of Brian Sloane's recent YA romp, A Really Nice Prom Mess), proving that they may be hot and adorable but, like all teenagers, they just don't quite have a handle on the intricacies of human relations. And that's sweet, unexpectedly so in the middle of deliberately cliché-ridden moments. The four leads tug at the heartstrings of viewers as they bare their souls, and their asses (over and over and over again), in their quest for luv. There are some ridiculous subplots here, and I wouldn't say that Stephens has much of a clue about women, not to mention the outrageously offensive portrayals of a blind girl and an Asian-American cheerleader (yeah, I know, that's supposed to be all Japanaphilia-cool, but it's not). One bit about Andy's dad hits dangerously close (for a second) to the serious waters of Alison Bechdel's memoir Fun Home. But the movie's at least consistent. When you see that Andy's mom has made him a quiche, you know what's, so to speak, coming. Although — or, more likely, because — this movie's theories about becoming a man would shock the MPAA into submission, at its heart, it's telling a simple story of growing up, getting laid and maybe even finding love.
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