DARREN STEIN

Bil’s rating (out of 5):  B.5. 

USA, 2013.  School Pictures, Parting Shots Media, Logolite Entertainment, ShadowCatcher Entertainment, Steakhaus Productions.  Screenplay by George Northy.  Cinematography by Jonathan Hall.  Produced by Richard Bever, Stephen Israel, George Northy, Darren Stein.  Music by Brian H. Kim.  Production Design by Michael Fitzgerald.  Costume Design by Kit ‘Pistol’ Scarbo.  Film Editing by Phillip J. Bartell.  Podcast:  Bad Gay Movies.

An attempt to make a gay version of Easy A or Mean Girls, but one that fails miserably because of the poor quality of writing and direction.  At a high school where teens are obsessed with being first at everything, nobody who is gay or lesbian is in a rush to come out.  When circumstances force Tanner (Michael J. Willett) out of the closet, he finds himself alienated from his closest friends and targeted by the three most popular girls in school.  Not targeted for derision, however: these girls are not just okay with his sexuality, they see it as an opportunity to be the first girls in school to have the status symbol of a gay best friend, and in trying to make him their pet, are also in league with each other for the first time ever.  It’s a cute concept that should make for easy, pleasurable watching, not to mention the edge you’d expect from the director of Jawbreaker, but even the professional actors in cameos (including Rebecca Gayheart, Jonathan Silverman and Megan Mullally) give terrible performances, and the jokes are far too canned to be funny.  The whole thing feels like it was put together in a massive hurry, and the ragged effort shows.