Sideline Secrets

With so many gay-movies being complete crap, sitting through another low-budget one wasn't exactly something I would take part in for fun. However, a friend invited me to the screening of the newest entry into gay-film the other night-- "Sideline Secrets", in Hollywood, CA. The film is very low budget. You will find the cast and crew listed several times throughout the credits, as they have all taken on the various tasks of bringing the film to completion. In recognition of such, the film itself is a very tight-knit piece of work. I was very impressed with it.

The movie has the basic "coming out" story intact. But, it ties it together with a very original mystery story as well. It almost feels like two different movies vying for your attention until they perfectly mesh together in a sometimes chaotic, fast paced film.

All in all, very well done.

The casting, overall is good. Watch closely and you will catch some fairly well known adult-entertainment models/actors in the film. Ahem *the Fisher Twins* to name just two! James is good. Alex is good. They work great together, I must agree with prior posts. The girl who plays Amy easily steals every scene she is in. She does serve as the comic relief and comes across totally natural in every scene. Simply put, she is very funny and doesn't even try to be. She had the whole theater laughing at her one-liners every scene.

The nudity is very tasteful. Will definitely be good for business in gaining the attention of a lot of people. This is one of the better, perhaps best, "erotic" films that I have seen in the genre.

"Sideline Secrets" is very well done. I'd be interested in seeing what the team at hand could do if they had a big budget. I think we would definitely be in for a treat if that were the case!

Overall Grade: B

I like the attempt to blend mystery and porn; the mixed genre has a lot of potential. But you HAVE to cast a desirable lead. That dude who played Devon is a chinless, slumped, monotonous waste of space with really awful hair. There were extras in the film who had more magnetism and appeal than the lead. Another thing: People don't call out one another's name every time they greet them--especially lovers and family. All the adults were pretty dismal as well. Hollywood is crawling with good-looking, semi-decent actors, so there's really no excuse for bad casting. A lesson for all actors: Just because "exasperated" is the easiest emotion to play, don't fall back on it in every line reading.

Hi, Everyone,

It was worth the wait. The Producer, Director and actors in this gay guy movie had many obstacles to overcome as they brought this project to the DVD market. Many of James Townsend's fans have followed step by step on the internet as this project was cast, filmed, recast and refilmed. When it was finally ready for mass production, a loss of hard drive information took the Editors and Director and Producer back to the raw stock to reassemble the movie.

Even though this movie was filmed on weekends and on oddball schedules to accommodate the actor's free time and the availability of locations, it still looks better than most of Hollywood's DVD offerings. The camera work and story line are excellent throughout.

This is a movie for gay guys more than anyone else. It is adult in nature. There is even frontal nudity. If any of that bothers you, you will not like this. Stay away.

If, like myself, you enjoy a steamy scene with a couple of guys having a rendezvous in bed or in a shower or in a dream, you will not be disappointed. This is not hard core, squirting, sticky type action. This is soft core with visible excitement and simulated activity.

The actors who are supposed to be young and gay, do indeed appear to be young and gay. If not, the acting is great and the scenes work to keep us wondering what will eventually happen.

In a gay or straight person's life, there are gay and straight friends and gay and straight baddies. That is the case with this movie. Not all gays are nice, not all straights are bad. It is just like in the real world possible for a gay guy to find his best friend is a straight woman. The characters were most likely composites of real people somewhere in the writer's life.

This movie is definitely not a high budget threat to King Kong at the box office. It is a nice DVD well worth the price that a dozen or more people put a lot of sweat into. If you enjoy the theme, you will have no difficulty watching it at least once a year.

The mom character is good with a part that builds to a surprise. Dan Swett is a believable bad guy. Brandon Alexander eats up the scenery in his or her role. Ryan Bauer has the face I am going to ask my plastic surgeon to design for me. Jourdain Dion is another good bad guy. He makes a convincing cop we don't want to meet up with. David Wright is much like Sal Mineo in Rebel Without a Cause. He does a lot with a small part. Sarah Kelly should be very proud of her work here. It is difficult to be the other girl between two boys. She makes us fall in love with her. Alex Wilson is on target all the way in his role which requires him to be sexy and vulnerable and secretive.

Then there is James Townsend. He is the lead, the Writer and the Producer. His acting is not over the top and it should not be for this project. He is ready for whatever Hollywood has waiting. I get the hint in several scenes here that James is ready to do a comedy. James Townsend let all his fans watch on his Yahoo Group as he put this movie together. He and everyone who worked on this are to be given an A in not only doing a good movie, but not letting the bumps along the way bring this project to a screeching halt.

I watched a rough cut. When I see the final version I will come back and make any edits needed. The sound and several scenes were not complete on the version I saw. I still liked it a lot.

UPDATE-December 17, 2005...

I was fortunate enough to see the Hollywood premier of Sideline Secrets last night, Dec. 16. It was shown on a big screen in a small Hollywood playhouse that probably has been host to many entertainment career beginnings. Outings in Hollywood might be common and this film was definitely about coming out.

The finished product is superb. There has been added music, mayhem, mirth and mystery that was not in the rough cut. A good laugh for all was provided in a scene that shows a bus passing from right to left with a very appropriate billboard on the side. Watch closely.

Great camera work and editing throughout. Much applause for Steven Vasquez. If he does nothing more, he has proved himself to be a top notch Hollywood cinematographer. The sound is much better than the rough cut. The sound is still less than perfect, but it works better for me than most of Hollywood's newer releases. The music was not annoying to my 67 year old ears.

The acting is not Oscar worthy yet, but no actor here has to worry about his/her future. All performances were well above what the budget might have expected. It was obvious some scenes were rushed and the actors were not allowed 20 takes to get comfortable with a moment.

The sex action was better than any big budget "love" stories and more believable than most male porn.

This is more than a story about a gay guy coming out. That has been done in a usually boring fashion in other movies. This is a story about a reaction to a gay guy coming out and sometimes being forced to come out by authority figures who have their own juices flowing. It is a look at straight people, good and bad as much as a look at the wild side or should I say "sideline" secrets? END OF UPDATE

Tom Willett

I'm a film festival junkie. I've seen over 1500 gay films in my life and I keep a bottom 10 list. This film made that list. I've seen worse films so this film doesn't really merit one other reviewers comment... "As bad as a movie can be."

However it IS well and truly bad. The problems starts with a disjointed plot that attempts to be a mystery but ends up being a missed try. Then there's amateurish dialogue, as stilted and heavy handed as any I've heard; and often it's as teeth-jarringly delivered as in the most graphic porn film.

Other reviewers have commented... "This film is just plain bad." and... "THIS FILM IS LAME, LAME, LAME!!!!!" and even ... "Everything about this movie is terrible, the script, the story, the casting, the acting, the direction, the photography, the editing, the music... what else goes into a movie? Whatever it is, here it's as bad as it gets."

That's not entirely fair, but unfortunately it's closer to the truth than the several laudatory reviews that are posted here. You'll notice that there are about 14 people who have ranked many of the reviews of this film. I'm tempted to ask "If a dozen people or so were friends of, or paid by, the film makers how would these reviews be scored?" I'm guessing that something along those lines would explain the wide variation in opinion about this film.

James Townsend who plays the lead also wrote the script. That's generally a bad combo though it stops short of the total lack of perspective one sometimes sees when the writer/star also directs. Talk about your real triple-threat!

I don't enjoy writing negative reviews, but I do think folks should be warned. I've given this film three stars. I have scored other films lower, but only when they were offensive or so disjointed and difficult to sit through that I wanted to punish the folks responsible for the crime. Here it's just a matter of a poorly executed attempt at making a movie.

It's probably unfair to rant about this film in general... Here are just a few specifics. There is an early masturbation scene which includes fantasy shots that stops just short of porno. Shortly thereafter there's a heterosexual kiss in the park that includes another gay fantasy. The boys are hot enough and the scene is pretty tolerable though it is over-thought. The scene is disrupted by cuts from full-color to artistic black & white & back. The acting by the mother was so bad at one time I swore she was cold reading from cards off camera... and that she was a poor reader. The father was even worse.

Generally I'm a pretty easy grader and a sucker for over earnest plots by novice film makers. Often gay-themed indie films have "diamond in the rough" moments that ring so true that they make sitting through the sometimes amateur film making, the frequent insufferable dialogue and the poor plotting worth it. This film may have a few rhinestones in the rough, but they're buried in a whole truckload of dross.

Oftentimes gay indie films have the problem that poor acting and poor dialogue make their characters more caricatures than character. Unfortunately here the characters here would need more detail to become caricatures.

Don't get me wrong. A few of the main characters turn in performances worthy of off off Broadway (maybe on an off night). However the parent roles and the police roles were even below that standard. I'm guessing that those making this film had no friends that fit those particular characters and had to settle for whoever they could con into doing the part. And let's face it the talent pool of those looking to play minor roles in gay themed direct to video indie films is pretty shallow.

Fortunately the boys playing the main roles were pretty. They should just try to exercise better judgment about what they let others put in their mouths, at least dialogue-wise.

Roger Ebert once described "Midnight Cowboy" as a good movie with a masterpiece inside, struggling to break free. Unfortunately this film is hollow inside.

Steven Vasquez directed and co-wrote with James Townsend, the star, this strange little drama cum horror flick with evidently very good ideas and intentions: make a gay film that takes a different storyline than the usual fare and make a drama that wants to be judged on its merits as a thriller. So why doesn't it work? For starters the film loses direction from the opening frame and wanders rather aimlessly throughout the film, dead set on making a suspense thriller but getting sidetracked into satisfying an audience who wants to see nude encounters. Not that that is a bad thing: it can certainly enhance some films that have been Hollywood successes. The film also tries to talk about coming out experiences in young men and women, relationships, disturbed parenting, the club scene with all the wild antics that accompany such events - and murder. It is all a bit much to cram into a 96-minute film.

Devon (James Townsend) by all appearances is a successful kid with a kind girlfriend Jenna (Sarah Kelly) but he has an eye for boys and visits a bar where he meets Brian (Alex Wilson) who has been down the same path and can offer Devon assistance on every level. They bond, Devon comes out, and the mysteries begin: boys are missing in the neighborhood, Devon's stepfather psychologist Dr. Kirk Tyler (Dan Swett) is not at all what he appears to be and despite Devon's consoling mother Donna (Sonja Fisher) Devon is cast into the streets because of his new relationship. It seems Dr Tyler is in a dark business with hunky Detective Cunningham (Earl McDougle) who apparently is investigating the missing boys... Devon gathers his resources from his understanding girlfriend Jenna and her cronies and together the group unveils the dark doings of Dr. Tyler and his detective sidekick. And through it all Donna radiates warmth and understanding as the perfect mother of a gay boy, etc.

Some of the actors are pleasing to the eye (and there is very little the eye doesn't examine frequently!) but the degree of acting is at an all time low. The only thing that makes us forgive that (and in some cases it is just too poor to forgive) is the feeling of commitment on the part of everyone involved. Yes, this is a low budget movie and yes, the director needs time to learn his trade. But in the end there is something to be said for the involved people to try to take a gay film to a different level. Maybe their next one will be more polished. Grady Harp