Showboy

Fiction? "Faction?" A "Mockumentary?" Whatever you call it, Showboy is good fun. A showing at the 15th annual Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival filled the house, and elicited howls of laughter and cheers of appreciation. The film works best if you just go with it--don't think too much about it, suspend disbelief and let the characters get under your skin, as they will. Think "Blair Witch Project" pseudo-reality meets the antic desperation of "Living In Oblivion." Sort of.

Christian Taylor is wonderful, and his dance lesson with Adrian Armas truly smolders. It is easy to get caught up in the fun, and the trials and tribulations of a nice guy currently down on his luck. Well produced, nicely shot and featuring a look behind the scenes in Las Vegas and the movie and television industry, Showboy is not what you might expect--a pleasant surprise.

This movie is filmed in the style of a documentary but it's not. It's a make believe world in which Christian Taylor(the writer of the great T.V. show "Six Feet Under")is fired and goes to Vegas in order to become a dancer, a Showboy! He's too short, he's too old and he is TERRIBLY funny!!! Watch out for cameos of Whoopi Goldberg and Siegfried and Roy. Funny!!! I laughed all the way to the parking lot, and I'm still laughing... Best 'mockumentary' I've seen and best comedy in a long while...

What? That's the question I kept asking myself while watching Showboy. I thought I was in for a great satirical mockumentary in the christopher guest tradition. What I got was an unfunny, depressing, and at times, boring movie full of gay stereotypes. Why in the world movies made by gay men have to be full of stereotypes still is beyond me. You want to know some of them? Okay lets go: Christian lives with numerous "roommates" most of which lisp. Multiple choice time, Christian gets fired from his job and tries to find work as a (a) construction worker (b) office professional (c) auto mechanic (d) vegas chorus dancer. Duh the answer is d! Christian is obsessed with the tiny itty bitty amount of extra skin he has in his mid section. Christian insists on wearing white socks and shorts. Do I have to go on? The other main annoyance was how mean spirited the whole movie was. Guest can take characters and basically tear them apart, making fun of them the whole way, but there is this over the top jest to the proceedings that make it funny, not harsh. This movie has a gritty voyeuristic quality to it that makes the constant failure of Christian and the impossibly cool nature of the documentary crew (example time, Christian pours his heart out telling the crew that the only reason he lets them follow him around is because he'd feel so empty and lonely without them, they continue letting him believe they are actually trying to film a nice documentary about him and his script) really really hard to take. I chuckled a few times, mostly during early scenes of an inappropriately attired Christian learning to dance, but mostly I sat through the whole thing tempted to turn it off and watch something else. .5 out of 10 stars

If you've ever found yourself down and out, you may want to take a lesson from Christian Taylor. He's our hero in the mockumentary Showboy, a story of the triumph of persistence in the face of marginal talent.

This feature doesn't strive to achieve the rhythm or style of a Christopher Guest comedy. There is something far more genuine in the gently comedic portrayal of Christian as a man whose life takes an abrupt left (or right) turn and who is forced to come to grips with one dream lost as another emerges.

Christian is being featured in a documentary about young brits working in Hollywood. Unfortunately for him, as the movie starts, Christian is being fired from his writing job on the show Six Feet Under. On the pretext of researching a character for a nonexistent screenplay he claims to be writing, he leads the documentary crew on an excursion through Las Vegas as he auditions to become a "showboy". There's only one thing holding him back - Christian is not in any way a dancer.

As we follow him from dance hall to strip club and beyond, we meet a sprinkling of celebrities, including Whoopi Goldberg and Sigfried and Roy, all of whom make you believe that this is really "for real". In fact, one of the biggest surprises about this film is that I found myself, on several occasions, wondering whether this wasn't an actual documentary. The performances from top to bottom were all so natural that I really began to believe.

The other big surprise for me is that I fell utterly in love with Christian.

He's a gay character who is inoffensive without being bland, and sexy without being salacious. He gets knocked down but he never quits. And I love that there's nothing saccharin in the portrayal. And darn if he doesn't pick up a dance move or two.

This movie warmed my heart. And trust me, that's no easy feat. If you're willing to sit down and participate in a slice of a life that's humorous and touching, this one is definitely worth your while.