ANOTHER GAY MOVIE must represent some sort of milestone -- and nadir -- in gay cinema. For the longest time gay themes were rare in movies and if dealt with at all, homosexuality was suggested (SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER), hidden in subtext (REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE) or a subject of secondary concern (KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN). When homosexuality came to the forefront, there had to be a reason to justify the matter: to teach a lesson about AIDS (PHILADELPHIA), to deliver a heavy-handed social commentary (MAKING LOVE), or to wallow in camp in order to rub queer culture in straight America's face (THE RITZ, THE BIRDCAGE, JEFFERY, etc.).
The point is that a "gay" movie, however you define the term, had to serve a purpose, because the opportunity to show gay life was so rare that filmmakers couldn't dare waste it. ANOTHER GAY MOVIE shows we have reached a time when such an opportunity can be wasted; here is a movie with no motive, no message, no point. It just wants to entertain -- and the fact that it doesn't even do that reveals that even a wasted opportunity can be wasted.
The film's generic title implies that we have also reached a point where gay cinema is so plentiful that there are ample clichés to both justify making a movie self-satire and to give it a generic title (as in SCARY MOVIE, NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE, DATE MOVIE and even MOVIE MOVIE). And though that may be true, you couldn't tell it from this film, which despite the misleading title is not really about gay cinema or gay life or even a gay lifestyle. Though ANOTHER GAY MOVIE will mostly attract gay audiences, it is homophobic in the worst way imaginable: it uses the standard straight-boy coming of age premise purely as an excuse for making gays, once again, the butt of all the jokes. The snide little homophobic slurs that were once used as hurtful asides, now make up the entire film. Worse than merely being a straight movie in gay drag; it is an anti-gay movie in gay drag.
For reasons that aren't clear, ANOTHER GAY MOVIE strives to be a gay version of the "horny teenager movie," a coming of age tale which has always been a purely heterosexual genre. From PORKY'S to AMERlCAN PIE, the focus of such films has always been the sexual humiliation of young American males; punishing boys for, well, being boys. Such films are always seen as being sexist -- anti-woman -- because they tend to objectify females, but it is always the guys who bare the brunt of the real abuse. Such films may seem amoral, yet they're really condescendingly moralistic, seeing sex as being basically dirty. Their message seems to be that sex is natural, but degrading -- human, but animalistic. These unsophisticated, low-brow films sell sex, while showing nothing but contempt for the very people who come to them in the hopes of enjoying the sex.
Why any gay film would shoot so low for inspiration is a mystery, but that is AGM's sorrowful aim. The film features three tired stereotypes from the horny teenager genre -- the boastful jock, the know-it-all nerd and the sex-obsessed boy-next-door. The fourth musketeer in the group is an over-the-top sissyboy of the "FABulous" sort whose grating presence is annoying even in genuine gay movies. These four cliché characters are just-graduated, openly gay, high school boys who vow to each other to lose their virginity before college. In "horny teenager" fashion, this sets each up for humiliation, only changing the sexual orientations from straight to gay. Different cruel jokes -- same cheesy punch lines.
As unbelievable as the notion that these handsome young men can't find sex partners is the idea that these types, gay or straight, would be hanging together at school or any place else on earth. This is further tested by the addition of a fifth wheel, a loud-mouth slob of a butch-lesbian whose overt masculinity is supposed to underscore just what little sissies the male characters are. The assumption that all gay people are buddies is just one of the film's minor inscrutable bigotries. But then, the whole film exists in a strange fairyland where everyone is gay and obsessed with sex, homophobia doesn't exist and no one notices that Mom is a guy in drag.
The four main actors -- Michael Carbonaro (boy-next-door), Jonah Blechman (sissy), Jonathan Chase (jock) and Mitch Morris (nerd) -- at least bravely face each degrading situation with good grace, doing what they can with terrible, creepy material. It's difficult to admire their work here, but they are personable enough that you hope they have the talent to overcome this embarrassment. (Let's generously assume they just desperately needed the money.) There is far less reason to be charitable with director and co-writer Todd Stephens, who is best known for making the 1998 film EDGE OF SEVENTEEN, a well-received and sweet little coming of age drama -- which, come to think of it, had all the gay clichés that should have been in this film, if it, indeed, had been about being gay.
Watching this film is like watching a black comedian telling racist jokes; he is supposed to be in on the joke rather than the butt of it, but whether the joke is funny or not, it is still laced with hate. And though it is all supposed to show just how absurd the images are, like most lame satire, the jokes reinforce rather than challenge. This film doesn't even qualify as being campy. Camp is a vaguely defined term, but certainly its hallmark is its joyous self-mockery. Camp can be naughty and it can be dangerous, but it is not mean. ANOTHER GAY MOVIE is just mean -- and petty and shallow; it has no right to use the word "gay" in any of its forms.
The point is that a "gay" movie, however you define the term, had to serve a purpose, because the opportunity to show gay life was so rare that filmmakers couldn't dare waste it. ANOTHER GAY MOVIE shows we have reached a time when such an opportunity can be wasted; here is a movie with no motive, no message, no point. It just wants to entertain -- and the fact that it doesn't even do that reveals that even a wasted opportunity can be wasted.
The film's generic title implies that we have also reached a point where gay cinema is so plentiful that there are ample clichés to both justify making a movie self-satire and to give it a generic title (as in SCARY MOVIE, NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE, DATE MOVIE and even MOVIE MOVIE). And though that may be true, you couldn't tell it from this film, which despite the misleading title is not really about gay cinema or gay life or even a gay lifestyle. Though ANOTHER GAY MOVIE will mostly attract gay audiences, it is homophobic in the worst way imaginable: it uses the standard straight-boy coming of age premise purely as an excuse for making gays, once again, the butt of all the jokes. The snide little homophobic slurs that were once used as hurtful asides, now make up the entire film. Worse than merely being a straight movie in gay drag; it is an anti-gay movie in gay drag.
For reasons that aren't clear, ANOTHER GAY MOVIE strives to be a gay version of the "horny teenager movie," a coming of age tale which has always been a purely heterosexual genre. From PORKY'S to AMERlCAN PIE, the focus of such films has always been the sexual humiliation of young American males; punishing boys for, well, being boys. Such films are always seen as being sexist -- anti-woman -- because they tend to objectify females, but it is always the guys who bare the brunt of the real abuse. Such films may seem amoral, yet they're really condescendingly moralistic, seeing sex as being basically dirty. Their message seems to be that sex is natural, but degrading -- human, but animalistic. These unsophisticated, low-brow films sell sex, while showing nothing but contempt for the very people who come to them in the hopes of enjoying the sex.
Why any gay film would shoot so low for inspiration is a mystery, but that is AGM's sorrowful aim. The film features three tired stereotypes from the horny teenager genre -- the boastful jock, the know-it-all nerd and the sex-obsessed boy-next-door. The fourth musketeer in the group is an over-the-top sissyboy of the "FABulous" sort whose grating presence is annoying even in genuine gay movies. These four cliché characters are just-graduated, openly gay, high school boys who vow to each other to lose their virginity before college. In "horny teenager" fashion, this sets each up for humiliation, only changing the sexual orientations from straight to gay. Different cruel jokes -- same cheesy punch lines.
As unbelievable as the notion that these handsome young men can't find sex partners is the idea that these types, gay or straight, would be hanging together at school or any place else on earth. This is further tested by the addition of a fifth wheel, a loud-mouth slob of a butch-lesbian whose overt masculinity is supposed to underscore just what little sissies the male characters are. The assumption that all gay people are buddies is just one of the film's minor inscrutable bigotries. But then, the whole film exists in a strange fairyland where everyone is gay and obsessed with sex, homophobia doesn't exist and no one notices that Mom is a guy in drag.
The four main actors -- Michael Carbonaro (boy-next-door), Jonah Blechman (sissy), Jonathan Chase (jock) and Mitch Morris (nerd) -- at least bravely face each degrading situation with good grace, doing what they can with terrible, creepy material. It's difficult to admire their work here, but they are personable enough that you hope they have the talent to overcome this embarrassment. (Let's generously assume they just desperately needed the money.) There is far less reason to be charitable with director and co-writer Todd Stephens, who is best known for making the 1998 film EDGE OF SEVENTEEN, a well-received and sweet little coming of age drama -- which, come to think of it, had all the gay clichés that should have been in this film, if it, indeed, had been about being gay.
Watching this film is like watching a black comedian telling racist jokes; he is supposed to be in on the joke rather than the butt of it, but whether the joke is funny or not, it is still laced with hate. And though it is all supposed to show just how absurd the images are, like most lame satire, the jokes reinforce rather than challenge. This film doesn't even qualify as being campy. Camp is a vaguely defined term, but certainly its hallmark is its joyous self-mockery. Camp can be naughty and it can be dangerous, but it is not mean. ANOTHER GAY MOVIE is just mean -- and petty and shallow; it has no right to use the word "gay" in any of its forms.