Presented by Chicago Filmmakers, the 28th Reeling festival runs Thursday, November 5, through Sunday, November 15, at Chicago Filmmakers, Columbia College Film Row Cinema, Landmark’s Century Centre, and Music Box. Unless otherwise noted, tickets for all screenings are $10, $8 for matinees (before 4 PM), and passes are available for $45 (five shows), $80 (ten shows), $125 (all shows, excepting special admissions), and $175 (all shows and events). Tickets can be purchased online at reelingfilmfestival.org, in person at Chicago Filmmakers, and at the venue prior to the show. Following are reviews for selected films screening through Thursday, November 12; for more information, including a complete schedule, see reelingfilmfestival.org.
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The Big Gay Musical This comedy by Casper Andreas and Fred M. Caruso focuses on two young actors (newcomers Joey Dudding and Daniel Robinson) costarring in an off-Broadway spoof of religious-right antigay bigotry called “Adam and Steve Just the Way God Made ‘Em.” One of the men is a virgin terrified of coming out to his Baptist parents; the other is a compulsive cruiser using promiscuous sex to avoid emotional commitment. Juxtaposing the heroes’ campy onstage antics with their unsettled offstage lives (whose action ranges from West Village cabarets and pickup bars to an HIV-testing clinic), the film is by turns clever and cloying. 90 min. —Albert Williams Screening as part of the opening-night program; tickets are $14, $10 for members of Chicago Filmmakers. Thu 11/5, 7:30 PM, Music Box
Boy Set in a small town in the rural Philippines, this thoughtful, heartfelt drama chronicles the sexual awakening of a shy teenager (Aeious Asin) who falls for a “macho dancer” (Aries Pena) he sees performing at a gay bar. The teen, an aspiring poet, lives with his mother, while the dancer, who hustles on the side, is holed up in a slum; the social gulf between them is only widened by the difference in their sexual experience. Aided by Asin and Pena’s honest and appealing performances, this gently erotic film makes up in emotional authenticity what it lacks in sophistication. Auraeus Solito directed. In Tagalog with subtitles. 80 min. —Albert Williams Fri 11/6, 7:15 PM, Landmark’s Century Centre
Eating Out: All You Can Eat Before creating the TV series Rick & Steve the Happiest Gay Couple in All the World, Q. Allan Brocka wrote and directed the feature Eating Out (2004), which proved so popular on the gay-festival circuit that it’s generated two sequels, Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds (2006) and now this gleefully raunchy comedy. The proudly slutty Tiffani (Rebekah Kolchan, very funny) and her stripper ex-boyfriend try to arrange a romantic match between Tiffani’s nervous friend Casey (Daniel Skelton) and a hunky guy he met at the “Larry Craig LGBT Center.” Packed with campy jokes, lewd sight gags, and explicit sex, this is clumsily made and amateurishly acted (except for Kolchan), but that rather enhances its horny, home-movie charm. Glenn Gaylord directed; with cameos by Leslie Jordan and Mink Stole. 78 min. —Albert Williams Sat 11/7, 5 PM, Landmark’s Century Centre
Shank In this compelling, sexually explicit, sometimes brutal British drama, a teenage member of a queer-bashing gang (Wayne Virgo) sublimates his secret passion for a fellow gang member (Tom Bott) by engaging in anonymous sex with men and then assaulting them. After rescuing another youth (Marc Laurent) from the gang, the conflicted young thug falls for him, and the only person they can turn to for help is the other kid’s schoolteacher (Garry Summers), who turns out to be one of the gang member’s former tricks. By turns lyrical, tense, and graphically violent, Shank is an impressive feature debut for director Simon Pearce, writers Darren Flaxstone and Christian Martin, and its young cast. 90 min. —Albert Williams Wed 11/11, 9:15 PM, Landmark’s Century Centre
