The Art of Being Straight

The Art Of Being Straight

Set in the late 1990's this movie attempted to examine two rather absurd assumptions

Firstly when young people are exploring their sexuality it swings backwards and forwards between gay and straight eventually landing on a determined sexuality for life, quite ridiculous.

Secondly that even in the 1990's people were conflicted over their sexuality, an even more ridiculous assertion. Exploration is not confliction.

The only shred of sense lay in that it is up to any individual to decide the moment when they decide to come out to their friends

The script was bland, the situations contrived, the liaisons unbelievable and the acting had more ham than the supermarket.

What I really hated was the portrayal that being gay was linked to guilt, deceit and around something bad.....how crass!

This film is about a young man who moves to Los Angeles to pursue his dreams. His life gets complicated when his boss takes a special interest in him.

"The Art of Being Straight" is a realistic down to earth story. The lead character Jesse Rosen is handsome and is convincing as a confused man. However, the story telling is not so good. It fails to create tension or suspense. There is little to stir the emotions of viewers, which I find a fatal flaw. The only interesting character is Rachel Castillo, whose performance is the most natural and convincing. I guess "The Art of Being Straight" might be an autobiographical account from the writer. It is not terrible, it is not particularly entertaining either.

If there were an actual a story tying the scenes together. If there weren't such heavy reliance on cliches. If the audience were given some idea of what motivated the central characters.

One is tempted to believe that the screenwriter doesn't have much social interaction with anyone other than gay men, since the straight and lesbian characters are so peculiarly drawn. The straight men are obsessed with homosexuality, the straight women are talking set decoration, and the lesbians are just obsessed (or perhaps possessed, depending on which scene you're watching).

There's something about this movie that makes it watchable, perhaps the actors doing a creditable job without much to work with; but I would only choose it if you've run out of other things to do.

So... What's supposed to be the point of this movie? That straight white men are the most retarded, obnoxious sub-human species on the planet? That residents of Los Angeles County are the most vapid, self-obsessed, boring people in the US? That in an LA gay movie gay bosses can get away with sexual harassment and even rape of employees as long as they're hot and have fabulous tans, buff bodies and blindingly white teeth? Don't we already know all this?

The only thing this movie has going for it is the one thing I care about least in a movie: the technical quality of the production - flawless sound, lighting bright enough that everything on screen is always easy to see, and a camera that never EVER shakes - so that you can easily keep up with everything that happens in this movie while simultaneously eating, texting, playing your X-Box and trying to remember what day it is.

This is the kind of movie the geniuses who impress us all with such pronouncements would NEVER complain about as looking like a film-school project. Everything else about this movie is pretty bad, except for some of the acting, which is passable at best. None of the characters is the least bit believable or interesting at all, and the story is about as dumb as they come.

If what you care about most in a movie is bright lighting and a camera that never shakes, this one is for you.

This film is a real surprise sleeper. It starts out so slow and casual that it lulls you into the story and before you know it you are zapped as though hit on the head with a two by four and it just takes you for the ride which has you gnawing your knuckles. The cast is as perfect as can be and beautifully written in terms of character and motivation. In fact the script is a real gem written with not only a great deal of heart but real understanding of human nature. The ending was a shock, however, and my buddy and I sat there in silence trying to grasp the idea that the film was actually over. Then it hit us both almost at the same time that the story really had gone as far as it could and that the title of the film said it all.