Second Take

I am a member of the Rehoboth Beach Film Society so I receive periodic emails from the Society announcing special film screenings.

About every other month the film society invites me to a screening called 'Second Take'. I guess the idea is that the featured film is not a recent release (it has been traveling the indy film circuit for a while), so the screening offers me an opportunity for a 'second take' at the film. So far Spouse & I have been to 2 of these screenings, not having heard of either film prior to receiving the description in the invitation, and have really enjoyed them both.

The first one we attended was called "Coffee Date". It was smartly written and directed, and we found it genuinely funny! Here is a condensed version of the synopsis written by Kevin Thomas of the LA Times:

"Good-looking 35-year-old Todd has just been divorced. He allows his deadbeat brother (and roommate) Barry to set him up on a blind date via the Internet. The uptight and square Todd is surprised and uncomfortable when he realizes that the meeting place, a coffee shop, has a virtually exclusively gay clientele. While waiting for his date to show up he warily strikes up a conversation with a buff young gay man named Kelly.

Todd eventually realizes that Barry has played a prank on him — that the gay man is 'Kelly', the date he has been waiting for. By then the two men have discovered they share a passion for movies, and Todd invites Kelly to take in a Bergman double feature. Todd now sees a chance to oust his brother/roommate Barry, a decided homophobe, by taking Kelly home and leading him by the hand to his bedroom. (Kelly climbs out a window and goes home.) Not only does this send Barry packing but also inspires him to call his mother, who promptly gets on a plane to lend support to Todd, who she says she always knew was gay.

Todd's life soon becomes a nightmare, with friends, neighbors, co-workers — even his boss - smothering him with acceptance and absolutely refusing to give any credence whatsoever to his assertions that he is straight. At the same time his friendship with Kelly flourishes. As Todd's predicament intensifies, he becomes less confident about his sexual orientation. Could it be that mother knows best after all? Or could it be that Todd is discovering that a straight man can be good friends with a gay man? If they end up in a friendship rather than a relationship, Todd will forever face assumptions from others that he's gay when he is with Kelly."

For scenes and photos from "Coffee Date" visit http://www.myspace.com/coffeedate

The 'Second Take' screening we attended last Friday was for "East Side Story". Again we found the writing and directing to be better than average for an indy film, with many funny parts. Here is my expanded version of the film's synopsis as found on its MySpace page:

"Young, handsome Diego Campos has long felt trapped working in his family's restaurant in East LA and plans to move away and open an upscale restaurant with his ultra closeted boyfriend, Pablo Morales. But Pablo, an up-and-coming realtor, views their "down low" relationship differently. When Diego confronts Pablo about making plans for their future together, Pablo decides he was just going through "a phase", and to prove it he starts dating Bianca, Diego's hilarious and spirited young aunt.

Meanwhile, openly gay white men like Wesley and Jonathon are moving in, gentrifying the Latino neighborhood. The attraction between Diego and Wesley is immediate and electric, forcing both men to re-examine themselves, their boyfriends, and their futures. Tension mounts between Diego and Bianca after Pablo proposes to her, and between Wesley and Jonathon when Jonathon gets wind of Wesley's feelings for Diego."

For scenes and photos from "East Side Story" visit http://www.myspace.com/eastsidestorymovie.

Unfortunately neither films are available on Netflix yet, but make a note of these as they are definitely worth adding to your queue.

Drag Queen name of the day: Holly Wood