Five short films, all produced between 1996 and 1999 and ranging in length
from less than seven minutes to nearly half an hour, make up this gay-themed
compilation. They're all both professionally produced and surprisingly tame;
none has the sparkle of the ferociously witty Karen Black Like
Me, which is included in part two of the competing BOYS IN LOVE series. French writer-director David Fourier's Majorettes in Space
(1996) uses an absurd juxtaposition of images and voiceover commentary to
dissect societal attitudes towards sex. Set against a harsh desert landscape,
Bradley Rust Gray's hITCH (1999) follows two friends, one gay and one
straight, on a long, sexually charged road trip. The collection's centerpiece
and longest entry is Jason Gould's self-indulgent and apparently
semi-autobiographical Inside Out (1996). Gould — the son of Barbra
Streisand and Elliott Gould — stars as Aaron, the gay son of two
celebrities. He's hounded by tabloid reporters, attends group therapy for
celebrity brats (Christina Crawford, playing herself, runs the group), hangs
out with his father (played by his real-life dad), gets mixed up with aggressive Scientologists, attends his half-brother Simon's (Gould's
half-brother Sam) trial for streaking, and faces down the paparazzo (Jon
Polito) who's been stalking him. You'd think someone of Gould's background
would have something perceptive to say about the perils of celebrity, but
you'd be wrong. The short film that inspired the feature of the same name and
cast, Lane Janger's smug Just One Time (1998), chronicles the
comeuppance of loutish Anthony (Janger), who wants his financée (Joelle
Carter) to get with another woman just one time. The closing film,
$30 — directed by Gregory Cooke and written by Christopher Landon
— is a trifle in which a closeted teenager (Erik MacArthur) is given a
session with a compassionate hooker (Sara Gilbert, formerly of TV's
Roseanne) by his dad. The script is clichéd, but Gilbert and
MacArthur have charming chemistry that brings to life the unlikely bond shared
by their characters. --Maitland McDonagh
