Two gay men are feeling emasculated for not displaying adequate 'decisiveness' at a sales conference and as a result decide to have sex with two of the girls at the conference.
There is a lot at play here which makes the film's basic premise work well. Mostly the film plays with stereotype and cliché. The gay men, the conference motivational speaker, the two girls, all of these fit the expected types and play out as such. Within this the writing takes the 'pretending to be a different sexuality' idea from several big budget comedies, and plays it out crudely for the gay couple. The resulting scenes are played for laughs but are awkward, pained, and end with a downbeat conclusion which put it more in the real world while still being a comedy.
The Search Party vibe is strong here in terms of the delivery and tone of the piece; it is very modern New York in how it folds into itself and how the characters are all essentially terrible people in their own ways. Of course part of this might be me projecting since the writer/director/lead and one of the other cast are from that show. The cast do very well with the material though, getting the delivery right throughout, and bringing the cringe and comedy out of the piece. At the same time it does still allow for serious points in there, about the nature of stereotypes, what it is to be a man, and other ideas. In the end it is about the comedy, but it is well informed and delivered within that.
There is a lot at play here which makes the film's basic premise work well. Mostly the film plays with stereotype and cliché. The gay men, the conference motivational speaker, the two girls, all of these fit the expected types and play out as such. Within this the writing takes the 'pretending to be a different sexuality' idea from several big budget comedies, and plays it out crudely for the gay couple. The resulting scenes are played for laughs but are awkward, pained, and end with a downbeat conclusion which put it more in the real world while still being a comedy.
The Search Party vibe is strong here in terms of the delivery and tone of the piece; it is very modern New York in how it folds into itself and how the characters are all essentially terrible people in their own ways. Of course part of this might be me projecting since the writer/director/lead and one of the other cast are from that show. The cast do very well with the material though, getting the delivery right throughout, and bringing the cringe and comedy out of the piece. At the same time it does still allow for serious points in there, about the nature of stereotypes, what it is to be a man, and other ideas. In the end it is about the comedy, but it is well informed and delivered within that.
