Oy Vey! My Son Is Gay!!

I saw the world premiere at the World Film Festival(FFM) in Montreal. The film is hilarious, and will appeal to a wide range of communities - gays, Jews (of course!), Italians (a surprise), mothers who lay awake at night worrying about their unmarried sons, etc. The film explores a sensitive issue with humour and passion. The acting is quite good, and the cinematography is colourful. I liked the pace of this film - it definitely does not plod along! Filmed in Seattle (of all places), the setting is quintessential NYC. I found the ending a bit strange and perhaps out of sync with the rest of the film. I definitely recommend this film, and hope it gets a commercial release.

I caught this film at the Montreal Film Festival and absolutely loved the film. The writers did a great job of blending serious subject matters with humor seamlessly.

The film's cast couldn't have been chosen more perfectly. Lainie Kazan and Saul Rubinek were really great together.

The film made me laugh at times and cry at others. If you can imagine blending My Big Fat Greek Wedding with Mambo Italiano, you have Oy Vey...

The music to the film was great as well.

All around a good film.

I also saw OY VEY MY SON IS GAY in Montreal and was very disappointed. Full of clichés, both Jewish and gay, it was hard to believe that families would behave the way they did in today's western world. Maybe in the 70s. The acting was over the top; mugging to the cameras; gratuitous use of Carmen Electra's physical charms. The cast of characters were all stock: Jewish parents, relatives both pro- and anti-gay, opposite types as male lovers, siblings who understand but stay silent. The list could go on. One could have predicted the denouement of the movie after 10 minutes. I don't recommend this film unless you are amused by trashy, Hollywood-type entertainment masquerading as an independent movie.

I saw Oy Vey My Son Is Gay last week when I was visiting a friend in NYC. They were doing a screening of the film for amfAR.

After the cartoon intro, the actual film started off odd and very choppy. It was almost uncomfortable to even watch. As the film progressed, I had high hopes for the movie. A good cast and with so much going on in the gay community, a good chance to really talk about relevant subject matters through comedy.

I was disappointed on all levels. The film was simply embarrassing to watch. Instead of focusing on relevant subject matter it perpetuated obvious stereotypes of the GLBT community. I'm a proud parent of a gay child and I was offended that this was the best that they could come up with.

I'd highly recommend seeing something else. It was waste of an hour of my time. No good messages to walk away with. I doubt it will ever make it into a theater.

This had so much potential for being a moderately humorous, somewhat heart-warming movie. Even if it used recycled subplots from other ethnic comedies about families coming to terms with a son who announces he's gay and a son coping with their response to the news, with this cast, it could have at least achieved mediocrity. Mediocrity remained only an unrealized dream

I kept watching this with the hope that the cast would eventually come to the rescue, given the apparent absence of both a director and script, but about half-way through the movie I admitted defeat, cut my losses and hit the stop button.

There is nothing to like here and it is amazing to think this disaster was produced in the 21st century. Lainie Kazan seemed to struggle with the whole concept of being the stereotypical Jewish mother. When she repeatedly spat out "shiksa" or "mazel tov" she sounded like a southern Baptist speaking a foreign language and her self-absorbed inability to hear anything her son or husband said wasn't cute & comical. It was ham- fisted, poorly timed and sophomoric.

I actually felt sorry for Saul Rubinek. He sometimes had a glazed look as if he was aboard a sinking ship with no more lifeboats. His occasional displays of despair were probably less motivated by his character's son coming out than by the realization that he had signed onto this disastrous production.

If you have fond memories of the Bates Motel in Psycho, I think they used some of those old sets in this movie. The greatest expense in producing this film must have been for plywood.