Outing Riley

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.

That's why it's called ACTING? HELLO? I loved this film! I thought it was well done. WTF is wrong with people? I thought it was a typical macho straight family response to act the way they did, and 'OF COURSE' a family member who is a priest is going to act the way he did. Yes, there were a lot of stereotypes in this film. Hell, stereotypes have got to come from somewhere, right? I know many queer people and gee, we're all one big diverse family just like the rest of the world!

Too many GLBT people are shunned by their family when they 'come out'. Many gay and lesbian bi and trans people lose all contact with family and may end up committing suicide. Especially people under 25. Everybody needs to know that they are LOVED.

Please don't shut GLBT family and friends out of your life.

I loved this movie!

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!

Here's a novel idea: a movie about a closeted gay Irish-Catholic whose sexual preference is really secondary to his general personality as a sloppy, stupid grown man who acts like a child. With three brothers (one a priest) and a sister, Pete Jones' Bobby Riley finds he has to use a lesbian as a beard and make lots of small talk about women around his siblings (except for sis, who knows the truth). Thirty minutes into the movie, Bobby is up on a neighbor's roof ogling the female resident as she spreads lotion on her legs, while his voice-over informs us he was a voyeur long before a homosexual. So what was writer-director Jones before he was a pseudo-filmmaker? Offensive to just about everyone (gays, lesbians, Irish-Catholics, priests, women in general), this low-budget effort is filled with innuendo-crazed dialogue and a sniggering familial unit by way of a TV sitcom ('funny' scene example: Riley, after sneaking into his priest-brother's confessional booth, pretends to be a little boy who spies on his grandma in the shower). This is just the thing is kill off cinema (not just Queer Cinema, but ANY cinema) forever. Pure drivel. NO STARS from ****