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ANOTHER GAY MOVIE
Directed by: Todd Stephens.
Produced by: Jesse Adams & Karen Jaroneski.
Written by: Stephens, based on a story by Tim Kaltenecker.
Director of Photography: Carl Bartels.
Edited by: Jeremy Stulberg.
Released by: TLA Releasing.
Country of Origin: USA. 90 min. Not Rated.
With: Michael Carbonaro, Jonathon Chase, Jonah Blechman, Mitch Morris, Scott Thompson, Graham Norton, Ashlie Atkinson & Lypsinka.

It’s so refreshing to see a gay teen comedy rather than a tearful coming-out story or a romance under oppression. The angst that friends Andy, Griff, Jarod, and Nico face has nothing to do with parental condemnation or getting hit by a steel pipe by a wayward heterosexual. For these recent graduates of San Torum High, the only pressing anxiety is whether or not they can get rid of their “A” cherries (“anal,” of course) before college. (Well, that and coming out to each other as bottoms.)

Writer/director Todd Stephens has made an American Pie for the TLA set. No one here is pining for the straight quarterback to play for the other team. As daddy-chasing Bette Davis buff Nico (Jonah Blechman) remarks, “This is not the ‘90’s.” Although the film does have its token gay jock in Jarod (Jonathon Chase), he’s out, proud, and no one cares one way or the other. The four friends may be stereotypes – Griff (Mitch Morris) is the shy nerd, and Andy (Michael Carbonaro) is as average and milquetoast as lead characters come – but their situation is anything but stereotypical, cinematically speaking. Like every other movie about All-American teens, they just want to have sex. Another Gay Movie’s normalcy is what makes it so atypical.

It makes sense for a director like Stephens to make a parody of gay movies. Considering he made his share of them (2001’s Gypsy 83 and 1998’s Edge of Seventeen), he’s certainly knowledgeable enough about the subject matter to make the politically incorrect humor as acute (and raunchy) as possible. While each of the four leads gets ample screen time, Andy’s exploits through the confusing world of young gay sex will elicit the most laughter. Besides having a father (Scott Thompson) with a little bit of latent homosexuality himself and a mother played by Lypsinka à la Joan Crawford, Andy’s life is as gay as gay can be. He scavenges for Internet affection, seeks pleasure with a cucumber, discovers that water sports don’t ordinarily require a bathing suit, and finds out what Belgian chocolate means. And throughout, Stephens never lets us forget that this is all just as normal as warm apple pie and band camp. Zachary Jones
July 28, 2006