GAY
FILM REVIEWS BY MICHAEL D. KLEMM
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GAY
FILM REVIEWS BY MICHAEL D. KLEMM
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Role/Play Guest
House Films, Director/Screenplay: Starring Unrated, 85 minutes |
Fame
Rob Williams (3 Day Weekend, Make The Yuletide Gay) is one of the most prolific gay filmmakers working today and his films get better with each successive title. His latest, 2010's Role/Play, is a love story between two gay men on opposite sides of the ideological fence. Steve Callahan (East Side Story) stars as Graham Windsor, a closeted soap opera star who has just been outed in the worst possible way - a leaked sex tape, Fired from his longtime television gig, and hounded by the press for a statement, Graham hides out at a private Palm Springs resort to lay low as he assesses his options. While lounging at the pool, his desire for anonymity quickly goes out the window when he is recognized by an arriving guest. |
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More
on Rob Williams;
Matthew Montgomery also appears in Steve
Callahan also appears in David
Pevsner also appears in: Jim
J. Bullock also appears in |
Queer
indie favorite Matthew Montgomery (
The
audience's first glimpse of Trey is not a pretty picture when, after he
hangs up on his ex, he takes off his wedding ring and angrily tosses it
on the floor of his car. He can be a bit on the sanctimonious side and
Alex (
Trey
is channeling 
Most
people, when they hear the words role and play, think of S&M sex games
but, in this case, it's about the difference between public and
private personas. Both men are pretending to be something they are not
- Trey played the marriage activist while his own union was falling apart,
and Graham tried to maintain a relationship while playing the network
publicity game that painted him as a red blooded heterosexual male. Some
people act one way at the office, Graham rationalizes, and another way
at home and that's the way we survive. Wouldn't it be nice, Trey asks,
if these public and private lives could be combined?
Perhaps
it's only rebound sex, but our lads overcome their initial animosity and
become quite enamored with each other. There must, however, be third act
drama and it erupts with the discovery that there is more to both men's
stories than we were first led to believe. These revelations deepen the
characters and I will leave the rest for the reader to discover on his
own.
Outing
has always been a contentious debate in the gay community. One side holds
that it is every gay person's responsibility to exit the closet and be
counted, the other insists that coming out is a personal matter unique
to each individual. Others, like Graham, feel that outing is only acceptable
in certain cases. He concedes that the public needs to know about closet-case
politicians who vote against gay rights, but he feels that his
sex life is none of anyone's business.
Director
Williams' sharp script is an indictment of the fickle way queer media
covers celebrities. Trey expected the backlash from Fox News but
is surprised at how viciously the gay press turned on him. A hero one
minute and a pariah the next. Graham points out how young gay actors are
fawned over but older established ones are ignored unless there is a salacious
scandal. Dreading how he will be smeared by some bitchy columnist,
Trey offers Graham this alternative: "You can become a professional gay.
Unfairly outed by the homophobic press, you serve as the Grand Marshall
in Pride parades all over the country, you speak out against double standards
in the industry, and then you go on a reality TV show, have someone ghostwrite
your memoirs, and do local theatre productions of Bent." Trey's
cynicism is understandable. It is his opinion that queer media is dying
because it turned its back on its own community, ignoring gay artists
while spotlighting cool straight people on the covers. "Every other niche
market supports its own," he rightly points out, "Ours doesn't."
There's
some heavy political stuff in the movie but it also doesn't forget to
be funny. Graham informs Trey that he was offered the starring role in
a movie - a porn film called The Hung And The Restless. (Trey asks
which one he would play.) There's a running gag with Alex constantly barking
at Graham, every time that he goes swimming, that this is not
a clothing optional resort. Williams mines a lot of humor from the age
gap between the two lovers. Graham is 40 and Trey, who is in his 20s,
doesn't get any of Graham's cultural references to Dallas and Dynasty.
When Graham asks Trey if he's ever seen Whatever Happened To Baby Jane,
Trey thinks it's a TV movie about "that girl who fell down the well."
Role/Play
looks great. The sun-drenched resort is picturesque and the pool scenes
are breathtaking. The film moves at a good pace and the music is mostly
unobtrusive. The artfully framed interior photography compliments the
long dialogue scenes. The cast was well chosen. Pevsner plays a nice supporting
role as Alex, and 
Thus
far, Williams' film output has been impressive.