The Young, the Gay and the Restless

Joe Castro wrote and directed THE YOUNG, THE GAY AND THE RESTLESS with an obvious attempt to make us giggle at just how preposterous the daytime TV soaps are. In many ways he manages to show us that madness: quick scenes between characters that flash on and off the screen in seconds with only a few lines delivered to make room for the next split second vignette suggestive of commercial breaks; actors that are attractive despite being unable to demonstrate even the basics of the art of acting; situations so over the top that they require one-ups-manship in the next moment to keep the plot from sinking into the absurd.

The plot is simple: a dying unpopular mother Victoria Gaylord (Ms. Elliott is the actor's moniker) is wealthy, married to a lecherous Francis Gaylord (Joe Haggerty), and has a wild group of children of questionable heritage - Cynthia (Holly Karrol Clark) and her narcissistic husband Phillip (Caleb Campbell), Nicholas (Justin Marchert) who has his gay eye on Phillip, Josh (Jeremy Dubois) etc. all of whom have an eye on Victoria's fortune. The Gaylord house is filled with party fixings and among the decorations are the topless butler and his entourage of would be assignations - Damien Christopher, Michael Oliviera, Dennis Richardson, and Kerry Liu. The 'good doctor' Dr Bender (Buck Davis) is called along with his nurse/illegitimate child/fortune hunter (Chris Brown) and the many secrets of this absurd family all surface with the subsequent murder, brain transplant, ménage a quatre...it just goes on and on.

Parody on the order of, say, Gilbert and Sullivan can be witty, acerbic, naughty, and very intelligent. Castro seems to have written this little bit of treacle in an evening, called in his friends and neighbors to pose and read lines with the emphasis on exaggeration, and quickly turned out a movie for public consumption. Unfortunately the mixture (though a good idea) just doesn't work. One 'good' but still annoying aspect of the film is the presence of a music score obviously added in the editing room at a level that covers the lines so that they are inaudible: that is a mixed blessing. This is a film for the curious viewer who has a lot of patience and easy laugh quotient. Grady Harp

In this clever, over-the-top satire of daytime soap operas, "The Young, The Gay and The Restless" (2006) especially pokes fun at the current trend of including gay characters in such shows, by providing a storyline where everyone seems to be gay, married to someone gay, flirting with someone gay, or contemplating murdering a gay character. And, like actual daytime "soaps", there's several plots going on simultaneously, as well as instances of cheating spouses, sexual predators, people holding grudges, incest, sluts, suicide, jealousy, gold-digging relatives worried about their inheritance, a secret criminal record, and even a bisexual foursome as a bit of icing on the cake.

In charge of this extended dysfunctional family is elderly but feisty and rich matriarch Victoria Gaylord, who brings everyone together for her birthday celebration, which is cut short when she has a fainting spell. Her husband, Francis (who has some skeletons in the closet as well), calls Dr. Bender who arrives on scene and proceeds to argue with Francis about who has her best interests in mind. Daughter Cynthia arrives at the party late with her husband Phillip, who is concerned that his wife is a bit TOO close to one of her brothers, and is also afraid of being "hit on" by gay brother Nicholas. Meanwhile, flirty gay houseboy Andrew is juggling a couple of prospective future as well as one former boyfriend, all of whom show up to court him, as does a young lady who wants to be Andrew's "try it once" woman. Dr. Bender's sassy assistant, Nurse Jones, arrives last, but her treatment plan for Victoria isn't exactly what others had in mind.

A well-written, campy, tacky, sarcastic, (intentionally and brilliantly) overacted and hilarious treat, not to be missed! The only negative is a technical gaffe: the background music is way too loud, and sometimes drowns out the dialogue. But I can't hold that important enough to give this creative confection less than a full five stars out of five! DVD has no extras, other than chapter stops.

Official site, with trailers: http://web.mac.com/jescofilm/iWeb/YGR%20Site/About%20YGR.html