RATING - 3 STARS
So it is a logical step to bring a gay character to centre stage, as Darren Stein's over-the-top social satire does. G.B.F. (Gay Best Friend) mines the teenager cat-pack canon (even throwing in Canada's Degrassi) to queer impact, with mixed results. Pop cultural reference–spotting (hey, remember LiLo?) and an overall brisk momentum keep things moving along, though uneven performances and a few off-notes within the story arc hold the feature back from truly hitting its mark.
So it is a logical step to bring a gay character to centre stage, as Darren Stein's over-the-top social satire does. G.B.F. (Gay Best Friend) mines the teenager cat-pack canon (even throwing in Canada's Degrassi) to queer impact, with mixed results. Pop cultural reference–spotting (hey, remember LiLo?) and an overall brisk momentum keep things moving along, though uneven performances and a few off-notes within the story arc hold the feature back from truly hitting its mark.
The gay-best-friend of the title is outwardly what the style bibles dictate is that the latest must-have handbag. Alas, North Gateway High is severely lacking during this social currency, thus prompting the feminine students to stage a witch-hunt for gay guys to tug out of the closet. When desperate schoolboy Brent Van Camp (Paul Iacono) concocts a scheme to become the prized possession, a mixup ends up in his own less flamboyant, more low-key GBF, Tanner (Michael J. Willett), being outed. And lo, Tanner becomes the item of a contest between girls fiercer than Beyoncé's alterego and Tyra Banks combined.
The school's Mean Girls triumvirate consists of the blond ambitious Fawcett (Sasha Pieterse), who is fairer on the within than she truly lets on; drama department queen Caprice (Xosha Roquemore, razor-sharp in delivering zingers), who minors in minorities; and goody-two-heels 'Shley (Andrea Bowen), leading her Mormon Blahniked entourage. Faster than you'll shriek "PROJECT!", Tanner is made-over into a gay fashionplate and pressured into conforming to stereotypes (when he says he's into comicbooks, he's told that's not gay, that's lame).
Predictably, Tanner gets swept up into living the glamorous life with these ladies, leaving a jealous and forlorn Brent and his real friends.
The competition to secure Tanner as a prom date turns into a gay-rights issue that divides the scholar body.
Along the way, Tanner has got to debar 'Shley's sexually aggressive closeted boyfriend (Taylor Frey), in scenes as forced as his advances, while Brent has got to debar his overly gay-supportive mom (the perpetually scene-stealing Megan Mullally, of Will and beauty fame).
Ultimately, while this offering might not rival the opposite films it so liberally and unabashedly references, G.B.F. may be a crowd-pleaser and one which will keep camp fans—and those with revenge fantasies about their highschool days—easily amused.
The gay-best-friend of the title is outwardly what the style bibles dictate is that the latest must-have handbag. Alas, North Gateway High is severely lacking during this social currency, thus prompting the feminine students to stage a witch-hunt for gay guys to tug out of the closet. When desperate schoolboy Brent Van Camp (Paul Iacono) concocts a scheme to become the prized possession, a mixup ends up in his own less flamboyant, more low-key GBF, Tanner (Michael J. Willett), being outed. And lo, Tanner becomes the item of a contest between girls fiercer than Beyoncé's alterego and Tyra Banks combined.
The school's Mean Girls triumvirate consists of the blond ambitious Fawcett (Sasha Pieterse), who is fairer on the within than she truly lets on; drama department queen Caprice (Xosha Roquemore, razor-sharp in delivering zingers), who minors in minorities; and goody-two-heels 'Shley (Andrea Bowen), leading her Mormon Blahniked entourage. Faster than you'll shriek "PROJECT!", Tanner is made-over into a gay fashionplate and pressured into conforming to stereotypes (when he says he's into comicbooks, he's told that's not gay, that's lame).
Predictably, Tanner gets swept up into living the glamorous life with these ladies, leaving a jealous and forlorn Brent and his real friends.
The competition to secure Tanner as a prom date turns into a gay-rights issue that divides the scholar body.
Along the way, Tanner has got to debar 'Shley's sexually aggressive closeted boyfriend (Taylor Frey), in scenes as forced as his advances, while Brent has got to debar his overly gay-supportive mom (the perpetually scene-stealing Megan Mullally, of Will and beauty fame).
Ultimately, while this offering might not rival the opposite films it so liberally and unabashedly references, G.B.F. may be a crowd-pleaser and one which will keep camp fans—and those with revenge fantasies about their highschool days—easily amused.
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