|
|
DVD REVIEW Is It Just Me?
MOVIES Special to the Online Edition of Windy City Times
by Steve Warren 2010-12-29
|
|
This article shared 5374 times since Wed Dec 29, 2010
|
|
If it seems like it's only been a year since the "mistaken identity caused by fake online profile picture" plot has been used in a gay romantic comedy, that's because it has been. I remember it from the forgettable Eating Out: All You Can Eat, and here it is again in Is It Just Me?
This one has a good setup and two appealing leads, but it goes to absurd lengths to keep them apart after establishing them as soulmates. The comic complications that come between them aren't funny and the Big Lie that causes such drama over a breach of trust is no big deal.
Nicholas Downs stars as Blaine, an Everygay who's looking for love. He writes a column about his search in USA ToGay, which leads us to expect a gay, West Coast version of Sex and the City. Well, Blaine doesn't have as many friends as Carrie Bradshaw. He only has one, Michelle (Michelle Laurent), who forgets to tell him she doesn't appreciate him calling in the middle of the night.
Blaine also has a roommate, Cameron (Adam Huss), who seems to be having all the sex in the city of Los Angeles. He's a dim-witted hunk who dances in a bar. "My brains and your looksa dangerous combination," Blaine tells him jokingly, before the idea becomes serious. Blaine, you see, is cursed with "being average in a world of physical perfection."
He makes an Internet connection that leads to a six-hour phone conversation with Xander (David Loren), "just some hick from Texas" who said online he had just moved to L.A. and was looking for friends, but says on the phone he's been renting a room for six months from Ernie (Bruce Gray), a sweet, campy, lonely old man. So much for strict honesty. After another conversation the next night they agree to meet.
Somehow because Cam's been using Blaine's computer his photo winds up on Blaine's profile and Xander sees it before Blaine realizes it. Despite the strong bond they've formed he thinks Xander is shallow enough to lose interest if he doesn't match the picture. He begs Cam to come along to the first meeting and pretend to be him, even offering to pay him to do so. Cam shows his class and intelligence by replying with the classic line, "I'm an actor. I don't pretend to be someone else for money."
It gets stupider from there. After all those hours on the phone Xander doesn't recognize Blaine's voice or not recognize Cameron's. After a two-minute conversation Blaine goes to get coffee and Xander leaves before he gets back. There are several more instances of perfect bad timing before the truth comes out and the agita overflows.
I don't recall seeing Downs before but he looks very familiar. Maybe he reminds me of Keanu Reeves in his Bill & Ted days, or maybe he's just perfectly cast as the average guy we overlook in our search for perfection. Loren doesn't have much chemistry with him but if you buy the premise you'll root for the characters to get together in spite of the actors.
Writer-director JC Calciano is correct in his message about settling for the right guy, even if he's not everything we've been looking for; but he shouldn't expect us to settle for subpar writing that drags a potentially wonderful gay date film down to a passably entertaining level.
|
|
|
|
This article shared 5374 times since Wed Dec 29, 2010
|
ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE |
---|
|
| | SHOWBIZ Dionne Warwick, OUTshine, Ariana DeBose, 'Showgirls,' 'Harlem' 2024-03-29 Video below - Iconic singer Dionne Warwick was honored for her decades-long advocacy work for people living with HIV/AIDS at a star-studded amfAR fundraising gala in Palm Beach, per the Palm Beach Daily News. Warwick received the "Award of ...
|
| | WORLD Israel court, conversion therapy, death sentences, Georgia bill, fashion items 2024-03-29 - Israel's Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the Population Authority must register female couples as mothers on the birth certificates of their children they have together, The Washington Blade reported. The decision was made following a petition ...
|
| | JP Karliak morphs into non-binary character for Disney+'s X-Men '97 2024-03-22 - series X-Men '97, a revival of the popular X-men: The Animated Series that's both continuing the ongoing mutant storyline and breaking new ground along the way. The character of Morph now looks more like the comic ...
|
| | WORLD Uganda items, HIV report, Mandela, Liechtenstein, foreign minister weds 2024-03-21 - It turned out that U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Senior LGBTQI+ Coordinator Jay Gilliam traveled to Uganda on Feb. 19-27, per The Washington Blade. He visited the capital of Kampala and the nearby city of ...
|
| | SHOWBIZ Queer musicians, Marvel situation, Elliot Page, Nicole Kidman 2024-03-21 - Queer musician Joy Oladokun released the single "I Wished on the Moon," from Jack Antonoff's official soundtrack for the new Apple TV+ series The New Look, per a press release. The soundtrack, ...
|
| | SHOWBIZ Lady Gaga, 'P-Valley,' Wendy Williams, Luke Evans, 'Queer Eye,' 'Transition' 2024-03-15 - Lady Gaga came to the defense of Dylan Mulvaney after a post with the trans influencer/activist for International Women's Day received hateful responses, People Magazine noted. On Instagram, Gaga stated, "It's appalling to me that a ...
|
| | SHOWBIZ Jinkx Monsoon, Xavier Dolan, 'Frida,' Lena Waithe, out singer 2024-03-08 - Two-time RuPaul's Drag Race winner Jinkx Monsoon is headed back to the New York stage, joining off-Broadway's Little Shop of Horrors as Audrey beginning April 2, according to Playbill. The casting makes Monsoon the first drag ...
|
| | SHOWBIZ Queer actors, icons duet, Hunter Schafer, Oscars, Elizabeth Taylor 2024-03-01 - Queer actor Kal Penn is set to star in Trust Me, I'm a Doctora film that chronicles the final days of actress/model Anna Nicole Smith, whose overdose death in 2007 at age 39 sparked a tabloid ...
|
| | Dorian Film Awards: 'All of Us Strangers' takes top prizes 2024-02-27 - February 26, 2024 - Los Angeles, Ca. - For its 15th Dorian Film Awards, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics fully embraced All of Us Strangers, writer-director Andrew Haigh's fantastical and tear-inducing tale of two ...
|
| | SAG Awards honor Streisand, few LGBTQ+ actors 2024-02-25 - Queer entertainers made their markalthough not a major oneat the 2024 Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards, held Feb. 24 in Los Angeles. The event was live-streamed on Netflix for the first time. Indigenous and Two-Spirit actor ...
|
| | WORLD Caribbean ruling, Pussy Riot, Russian raid, Canadian warning, anti-trans bar 2024-02-23 - The top court in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines dismissed a challenge to colonial-era anti-gay laws, Reuters reported. Javin Johnson and Sean Macleish—two gay men who had pushed to decriminalize ...
|
| | SHOWBIZ Kristen Stewart, Rock Hudson, Talia Keys, 'True Detective,' Marvel comic 2024-02-23 - At the Berlin Film Festival, Kristen Stewart defended her photo shoot for a Rolling Stone magazine cover that went viral and divided audiences on social-media platforms, per The Hollywood Reporter. "The existence of a female body ...
|
| | Second Glance Productions hosts LGBTQupid Soiree 2024-02-16 - In celebration of Valentine's Day, Chicago based film and media production company Second Glance hosted The LBGTQupid Soiree. The event, which was focused on spinning attitudes on this particular day, was presented at The iO ...
|
| | SHOWBIZ Elton John, Hannah Gadsby, video game, Jennifer Lopez, queer thriller 2024-02-16 Video below - Sir Elton John has sold his Atlanta home and is now auctioning off more than 900 of his personal items that were kept in the 13,500-square-foot condo, The Daily Mail noted. The massive collection includes rare ...
|
| | GALECA announces nominees for the Dorian Film Awards 2024-02-07 --From a press release - Feb. 5, 2024 - GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, consisting of over 500 entertainment critics, journalists and media icons, today announced the group's democratically chosen nominees for its 15th Dorian Film Awards. All of ...
| |
|
|