Outing Riley

This film is about a young man having to come out to his 4 brothers, including a catholic priest, that he is gay.

I find "Outing Riley" a lot more entertaining than many gay films. For a start, it is made really professionally. It has got nice sets, good camera work and also people who can act! The most refreshing thing of all is that it has no campness, stereotypes or clichés that plagues a lot of these films. Much of the time, I thought I was watching a straight film. It's just like watching "American Pie" at times, for example having 4 guys drinking and goofing around, peeping at hot girls. If the character Andy was changed to a woman, then "Outing Riley" could well have been a typical Hollywood romantic or teenage sex comedy.

OUTING RILEY may feel a bit self serving, as though Bobby Riley, the main character of the film, is sitting in a Confessional Booth revealing his secret, and in fact that is certainly the case as the film was conceived, lived, written, directed and stars Pete Jones as Bobby. This may account for some of the awkward sense of some of the dialog: it is difficult to be up front about an issue with a history as embedded as the theme of this film. But despite these minor flaws, this little film has a heart of gold and a cast of actors who bring it to life in a good way.

Bobby Riley (Pete Jones) is an Irish Catholic closeted gay man living in Chicago with his partner Andy (Michael McDonald). Bobby is being pressured by Andy and by his informed sister Maggie (Julie Pearl) to come out to his family - a good Irish Catholic family of four brothers, a sister, and a dying father (Bob Riley). His facade with his brothers is a mime of voyeurism of 'chicks' and a beer drinking butch life. Each family member has a secret: Maggie can't hold a relationship and is unable to keep secrets; Connor (Stoney Westmoreland) is addicted to internet porn; Jack (Dev Kennedy) is a priest who has problems with the conflicts the church places on his own beliefs; Luke (the always outstanding Nathan Fillion) is a pothead. Once Maggie decides she must out Bobby, the brothers are conflicted: homophobia raises its ugly head despite the bonds of close family ties. How the family comes to grips with Bobby's being gay, individually and as a family, is the crux of the tale.

This is a fine cast (especially Fillion and Pearl) and the story rolls along at a fine pace. At times it feels 'dishonest' but that is in the script, not the acting. This is not a major film, but it just may be a helpful one to families and friends who are curious about the lifestyle of someone who has surprised them with a similar secret! Grady Harp

It's raw, powerful and hilarious. Director Pete Jones takes risks here- no compromises! He lets it ALL hang out! He draws upon deep personal stuff here from his youth. This is the type of material that you need to see to believe and then you still don't believe it so you have to see it again and again and again!

As far as I know, from what I saw on Project Greenlight, Pete Jones isn't gay. So, I'm curious what motivated him to make this film, and to play the gay lead. It's not forbidden - and I'm always happy to see filmmakers portraying gays positively in their work - it just seems a little odd. And, in fact, that's one of the weaknesses of the film: Pete Jones doesn't really come across as gay. I'm not saying he should act effeminate or anything like that. It's just that that there was something not quite "on" about the scenes between his character and the character's boyfriend. At other times, I really got the impression that he'd watched "Jeffrey" a few too many times, and was trying to imitate it.

The other element that really didn't work for me was the voice-over and talking to the camera. It drew too much attention to itself, wasn't as funny as he seemed to think it was, and often didn't tell us anything we couldn't have learned from watching the characters interact.

Having said that, though, I think the film also has some excellent writing and strong performances, especially by Nathan Fillion. The best parts of the movie are when the brothers are trying to deal with Riley being gay. Jones is brilliant, when it comes to writing realistic - and very funny - dialog between characters he obviously relates to. This film, and his earlier film, "Stolen Summer", prove him to be a talented writer and director, and it turns out he's not half bad as an actor, either. I really hope he continues to make movies, and they get distribution.

I don't think there was a single gay person working on this film...and it showed. This is not a gay film, it is what a straight guy, who has probably never seen a gay film, thinks a gay film should be. Like Brokeback Mountain, which was made almost entirely by straight people, I never felt the sincerity of the gay thing. However, unlike Brokeback, this didn't have the story, the scenery or the strong acting to keep me entertained (even if I never fully believe that Jake and Heath were in love.) I knew nothing about this film, or writer/director/star Pete Jones, yet after watching it I was absolutely sure that he was straight and probably not all that familiar with gay people. As it turns out, he is straight and in one interview he admitted to very limited exposure to gay people. No surprise there. But I was further disappointed to read his kissing-a-boy-is-icky interview where he talks about how nervous he and everyone else was when they filmed the kiss in bed. He talks about it like it was so difficult and it was some big deal that they made it through the scene. Ugh. You didn't cure cancer...you touched lips with a guy. Stop acting like it was some huge achievement. All of these straight actors doing gay films need to take a lesson from Patrick Swayze who did some wonderful interviews after To Wong Foo and didn't turn into a giggling fifth grader when he talked about playing gay. Also Hilary Swank -- great interviews on playing queer. So, while this is not the worst film I've ever seen (not even the worst gay film) this film did nothing for me and I do not recommend the rental.