What's straight about Jesse Rosen's
comedy The Art of Being Straight? Very little.
The film, which opens in New York's
Quad Cinema Friday, is among a crop of new films that favor
complicated characters whose sexuality is malleable – perhaps even
unbeknownst to themselves – over hardwired gays.
Rosen wrote, directed and stars in the
film being distributed by Here Media distributor Regent Releasing.
On a break from his girlfriend, John
(Rosen) rooms with college buddy Andy (Jared Grey) in Los Angeles
where Andy's girl-obsessed buds leave John, the former college ladies
man, feeling like an outsider as he begins sensing a shift in his
sexuality.
John's sexuality is soon tested at a
new job, where his boss, a man with stroke magazine model looks,
attempts to bed the twenty-three-year-old.
Meanwhile, lesbian friend Maddy (Rachel
Castillo) is also sexually confused as her budding crush on a
neighbor guy chips away at her relationship with Anna (Emilia
Richeson).
Also in theaters is writer-director
Chris Mason Johnson's freshman effort The New Twenty and
director Gregor Jordan's film adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' novel
The Informers.
Twenty looks at the friendships
of six New Yorkers. The group of hip twenty-somethings includes gay
and straight members unencumbered by sexual stereotypes, living in a
post gay urban setting where sexual diversity is embraced.
“The fact is, gay/straight
friendships – minus the drama – are more and more common for
young adults especially the urban and educated,” Johnson says in
the movie's press kit. “The casual attitude towards gay/straight
bonding for characters like those in The New Twenty might be
summed up as: What's the big deal?”
The Informers does casual too,
from sex to drugs. The film rounds up a group of young men and women
from all walks of life gambling with their lives in Los Angeles
during the early 80's. The film is so blasé about bisexuality that
many viewers might miss its inclusion entirely.
The three films approach sexuality from
different angles, but what they share in common is their rejection of
sexuality as fixed and, more importantly, the easy integration of
gay and straight characters.
The Art of Being Straight also
premieres on Here Media's gay channel here! TV Friday, June 5.
Gay Entertainment Report is a feature
of On Top Magazine and can be reached ontopmag@ontopmag.com.