Fat Girls

This is a movie, that has all the basic elements of its genre. It makes you wanna cry, it makes you laugh, it disgust you, it makes you angry etc.

The topic of the story is fortunately not about some disease or drugs, what is the common trend in gay themed movies in these days, but it focuses on the social interactions between characters what could be considered not to be in the high school elite. The play and the direction could be a little bit more sophisticated, but on the other hand it's somehow better so, because it really shows the distress of the characters, that they are experiencing. If this was intended, then this is a remarkable job and assuredly an achievement, specially for such an young director.

It's actually a good story that gives you a little inside into, how it is to be a fat girl and to acknowledge it to yourself.

My friends and I saw the movie last night in Austin at a showing for AGLIFF (a film festival). This movie was one of the best I've seen this year. It was a great comedy - very original and heartfelt - and FUNNY AS HELL! Everyone in the audience was laughing throughout the entire movie. Texas is a big state - with LOTS of small towns - and of course, plenty of teenagers who grew up as "fat girls." I know a lot of people will relate to this film on a personal level. Ashley Fink and Robin de Jesus were awesome - they were so great in these rolls, it was like the script was written with them in mind. And speaking of the script, it was very well written (very believable), and Ash is a great actor (his facial expressions alone made me giggle). It IS an independent film - but don't let that fool you...It's a good one! Seeing this caliber of work from someone so young is truly inspiring.

"Fat Girls" is among the worst films within the indie gay genre.

The premise is promising: an average-looking gay teen is trapped in a repressive small TX town. His only kindred spirits are the other village HS misfits: the class 'fat girl', a naïve immigrant from Cuba, and the sensitive drama teacher. So far, interesting. In theory, this plot line creates a decent setup for an appealing coming of age story with a built-in audience---the thousands of gay men who grew up in small towns across America and experienced this adolescent anxiety first hand, peppered with a dose of self-deprecating humor.

Unfortunately, rather than a nuanced dramedy, Ash Christian approaches his autobiographical subject matter with a poorly executed attempt at irony and dark humor. The result is a cast of unlikeable, derivative, two-dimensional characters which the viewer cannot but help feel indifferent toward. Sabrina (Fink) is a quasi-Goth bitter navel-gazer. She is such a prickly, unsympathetic person; there is little doubt as to the reason for her friendless condition. The chemistry between her and Rodney (Christian) registers zero. This may have been bad casting, but is more likely due to a screenplay which is simply unsalvageable. Consequently, one is left wondering when there is such a non-existent bond, what could possibly warrant their near-constant companionship throughout the story.

Sabrina's newfound boyfriend, Rudy (de Jesus), and Rodney's mother Judy (Theaker) are among the most exaggerated of the clichéd stock characters ripped off from dozens of other films. Rudy is the horny undersexed immigrant/nerd lifted directly from every raunchy adolescent "comedy" ever made within the realm of TV or film. Judy is the born-again obsessed with Jesus- talk and big hair. Just when you thought the Tammy Faye thing had been done to death, Christian inserts a scene where Judy's mascara is running with her tears! Is there anyone in the civilized world that can possibly think this tired old stereotype gag is still funny after seeing it ad nauseum for 20 years?

In addition to the failed attempts at sardonic humor, there are many puzzling story inconsistencies. Rodney considers himself a "fat ugly" loser. However, he simultaneously manages to participate in casual and regular impromptu trysts with the ubiquitous school jock/hunk, Ted (Miller). Although these liaisons are devoid of emotional fulfillment, most gay teens (filled with raging testosterone, just like their hetero brethren) would find this to be a rather enviable arrangement given the more common alternative of involuntary celibacy.

Rodney finds an object for his affection in Bobby (Bruening), an exotic transplant from England. Against all believable odds, the lad not only happens to land in this tiny TX hamlet, but is conveniently openly gay to boot. Like Sabrina, Bobby is an icy, angry smart aleck and the viewer is left head-scratching as to his magnetic appeal.

Much to his delight, Rodney is invited by his new crush to the town gay bar, where Bobby claims to be the DJ. Upon arrival, the boyfriend-to-be promptly leaves Rodney solo and heads off to another area of the bar for a quick encounter with a rather handsome young man. This is yet one more of the ridiculously inexplicable plot elements since Rodney's feeling as an outcast are supposedly derived largely from his lonely existence in a parochial town. As tiny as the town is, they have openly gay students at the high school? A secretly bisexual football captain? Lesbian moms? A Gay teacher? and it has a gay bar downtown (patronized by attractive men, no less)? Apparently, the place is not so backwater after all.

Ten years earlier, Todd Stephens' "Edge of Seventeen" covered nearly the same material with a much more creative, honest, touching, and humorous film.

If you go into this knowing that it's basically some kid's film project, it's fantastic! Or, it's fantastic if you were drunk while watching it like I was the first time. It wasn't so great 10 years later when I was sober.

It was written, directed, and starred 20-year-old Ash Christian, and it was obviously a school film project that was cultivated during his teen years, and was somehow granted a bigger budget than could be achieved in high school. The bigger budget wasn't really needed as it's nothing you and I couldn't do with our phones and friends. Though I'm sure renting prom props wasn't cheap.

This is a fairly entertaining movie if you like movies that rely only on the verbal exchanges of supposedly witty teen angsters. It's got no real plot, but the general idea is something about the slice of life revolving around the prom. People have compared it to Napoleon Dynamite, but there's a heavy dose of a Will & Grace inspiration, but if Grace was overweight instead of underweight, and Will got laid.

None of the 20-somethings who played the teens look young for their age. Ash doesn't look like a fresh teen, but a man in his 20s who has been sleep-deprived and stressed out from being a triple threat on his first real movie project.

However, if you do enjoy this movie, I recommend watching 29th and Gay. It almost seems like a sequel since they seem so similar.

The premise of the film was very promising - sort of a gay Napoleon Dynamite type of film. And to be fair, there were some funny moments and funny lines but it really wasn't very good overall. The script and dialog felt like a local sketch production, full of clichés and scenes that were predictable.

However, there was enough that was amusing, that I stuck around to see how it finished, since there were hints that something special happens at the end. But it seems that either the film ran out of money or the writer ran out of ideas because the ending is extremely abrupt, almost skipping directly from what looked to be the key conflict in the film to the final credits.

Overall, it was very disappointing but not completely unwatchable...