At the recent premiere of Gayby, (because I'm all about the name-dropping) I saw famed Chloë Sevigny's impressionist and Groundling Drew Droege who starred last year on stage in The A-List and did a stellar job directing Jersey SHOREsical. He probably thinks I stalk him, as I also saw him at the Scream 4 opening night at the Cinerama Dome last year (which had to have been the largest congregation of white Gen-X gay men I've ever been a part of). Much to my delight, the LA Film Festival wisely ditched the poorly produced pre-film promo from last year that only elicited one big WTF (various faces morphed into each other ala Michael Jackson’s “Black of White” music video conveying a series of emotions that one can feel "at the movies" and had the worst eye-gauging cinematography imaginable) and was absolute torture the fifteen or so odd times I sat through it (the DP owes my eyes, as well as everyone else who was blinded by it, new contact lenses). The Festival still struggles with the organization of the ballooning size of the event, but puts on quite a deal. Drea Clark provided her bubbling personality as host of the screening, where she introduced the SXSW entry, which, only one year previously from its premiere, had no script to speak of. The screening finally got underway after a twenty minute delay and three subsequent sound gaffes. Gayby is Jonathan Lisecki’s feature length version of his recent short about two best friends—one gay, the other a fag hag—from college who decide to have a baby together. Before you go running from this film screaming, “Not another poorly produced independent gay film rife with annoying clichés,” (not like anyone screams that, but I digress) be prepared to be at least mildly surprised and, gulp, entertained. Yes, this is a gay movie. But, like most gay films these days, it isn’t one of those gay movies. It’s actually well-executed and entertaining. Yay for the gays!
The aforementioned premise doesn’t break new ground as even the trailblazing sit-com Will & Gracewent down that road after it jumped the shark around season five or six (or whatever). And movies about untraditional procreation involving white people living in Brooklyn seem to be the rage or the recent Friends with Kids from Jennifer Westfeldt was just a coincidence (er, wait, wasn't Grace living in Brooklyn at one point with Leo, I forget; so sue me, I never lived in New York; I get all those boroughs mixed up). With Friends, it got the Kid-making part out of the way fairly quickly: those predictable feelings that surfaced after the characters took on the responsibility of parenting fueled the movie. With Gayby, the focus doesn’t quite get to the birth part so swiftly, and smartly so as the leads endeavor even less introspection than their Friends counterpart, while they go through the sexual motions (and otherwise) to create their child. Jenn (Jenn Harris) works as a yoga instructor and Matt (Matthew Wilkas) runs a comic book store and is an aspiring artist. Getting on in years and feeling her life is missing something, Jenn is the one who is struck by her biologically ticking clock. Matt is excited and open to the idea of becoming a father. She only has one caveat, “I want to do it the old fashioned way … surprise.”
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| Director Jonathan Lisecki also plays Nelson: "It seems so early for a mid-life crisis and yet here we are." |
With no Photoshop skills necessary, old pictures of the leads, who are best friends in real life, incidentally, are used in the film’s opening credits. Their chemistry is obvious and lends a great deal of heart to the feel of the film. The deadpan Harris is in full-effect here and receives ample support from Wilkas, who has one of the less showier rolls but can still get appropriate mileage out of lines like, “I just kissed him so he’d shut up.” And, the writing is often just as sharp and a great deal of fun. Nelson, a friend of Matt’s (played by director Lisecki) who later plays an ad hoc gynecologist to the proceedings, remarks to Matt on his decision to help Jenn have a baby, “It’s nice to see you’re opening up a closed locations in these troubled times.” He’s full of comic-relief as an effeminate newly-bearded man exploring his masculine side, “I’m here, I’m bear, get used to it, woof, paw.” (Accented with appropriate gesticulation.) He’s full of acerbic and/or thoughtful observations. Concerning the main plot-point, perhaps in a nod to Westfeldt’s comparable film or, well, modern reality: “That is so Brooklyn.” Each protagonist has his/her own chorus of friends/romantic interests/enemies. Playing the shrew of a sister Kelly is the lusty-voiced Anna Margaret Hollyman (who was there for a Q & A along with producer Zeke Farrow after the screening).
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| Producer Zeke Farrow and actress Anna Margaret Hollyman at the LA Film Fest screening 6/16 |
The quirky direction never goes too far and there’s a zany randomness that Lisecki injects seamlessly into the proceedings like the sound of Matt squirting lube and mounting Jenn during their first baby-making session, heaving a couple of hooah's. In a kind of a Laugh-In moment, Jenn receives doctor recommendations and diet advise from coworkers Jamie (Jack Ferver) and nemesis Valerie (Joanne Tucker), the latter of which has nothing vested in her best interests whatsoever, but it works. There’s even a short pole-dancing sequence which plays like a DVD outtake, but manages to make itself at home in the narrative. Judicious, but never over indulgent, Lisecki is in complete control of his material and aware of his audience, taking gay stereotypes and milking just the right amount of screen-time and humor out of them. The film just debuted at the Provincetown International Film Festival and will screen at BAMcinemafest, as well as Outfest 2012. Angelenos can find Oufest tickets here:
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