Gay & Lesbian Comedy

Eric and Phil are an affluent Beverly Hills couple who want to adopt a child, preferably a baby or a toddler. However, they end up with a foul-mouthed 12-year-old and his younger brother. Dumped on Eric and Phil by a caseworker, the kids soon become permanent houseguests. Phil is quickly won over, but Eric proves a harder nut to crack, especially when the kids' mother, an alcoholic prostitute, moves in. Get Your Stuff premiered at the 2000 San Francisco Lesbian & Gay Festival. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

What happens when a man looking for the perfect body finds that he loves someone for his mind? Christopher (John-Michael Lander) is a gay lawyer who's young, good-looking, successful, and happily out of the closet. However, he's not good with long-term relationships: he tends to be more attracted to men with good looks rather than substance, and he hops from one relationship to another with little thought of a lasting love affair. One evening, Christopher meets Stewart (David Vincent) at a party, and to his surprise he's very much attracted. Stewart is a book editor who's witty, intelligent, and soft-spoken; he's also a bit overweight and no pin-up boy. But when Christopher asks him out, he's amazed to discover that Stewart turns him down; it seems that Stewart is looking for someone sincere, and Christopher hardly seems to qualify. In time, though, Christopher convinces Stewart to give him a chance, and they become involved. However, old habits die hard, and Christopher manages to put a stake through the heart of their romance thanks to a one-night-stand with Stewart's hunky roommate. All the Rage was produced, written, directed and scored by Roland Tec, who adapted the script from his play A Better Boy. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Ann Coppel directed this Seattle-based low-budget dark comedy, adapted by executive producer-actor Ted Sod from his own AIDS-themed play Satan and Simon DeSoto. Junior-high art instructor Simon (Sod) gets a 1995 HIV-positive diagnosis. Simon panics, since he had a friend who had suffered from AIDS before choosing to commit suicide. Satan (William Salyers) appears and offers to rid Simon of HIV. In return, Simon is forced to become a racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic stand-up comic, while allowing his former lover Carl (Dan Savage) to die instead. Shown at the 1998 Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Damion Dietz directed this low-budget indie comedy set in the Los Angeles suburb of Hope Springs, where Destiny Rutt (Stephanie Orff) enters a local beauty contest -- revealing her true feelings about this in voice-over. Unemployed gay slacker Scott (director Dietz) arrives in town and lands a job as Jesus, promoting the local Christian bookstore. Destiny is destined to meet Scott, and when it happens, he's overjoyed to find someone who believes his lies. This film was shown at Outfest '98 in Los Angeles. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

This hit arthouse ensemble piece traces the romantic and political ups and downs of a group of multicultural Chicago lesbians. The central story involves an unlikely romance between Max (Guinevere Turner), a hip young babe, and Ely (V.S. Brodie), a slightly older woman involved in a long-term, long-distance relationship that's basically a smokescreen for her fear of romantic risk. When the pair are introduced by Max's roommate, teacher/activist Kia (T. Wendy McMillan), Max isn't interested in Ely, whose long hair, hippie accoutrements, and fondness for decaffeinated herbal tea don't impress the younger, more fashion-conscious woman. Soon, though, fate, friends, and Ely's butch new hairstyle conspire to push the women closer together. As this new romance inches along, the pair's friends have problems of their own: Kia must help her closeted girlfriend, Evy (Migdalia Melendez), come to grips with the disapproval of her conservative Latina mother, while their pal Daria (Anastasia Sharp) incurs the disapproval of the lesbian community for her decision to sleep with a man. Filmed in black and white on-location in Chicago, Go Fish features a number of non-standard narrative devices, most notably the Greek chorus, or "jury," of lesbians who comment on not only the plot, but also the political and social ramifications thereof. Shown in competition at Sundance in 1994, Go Fish went on to earn critical and commercial success and establish the careers of director Rose Troche and actress Turner, who together co-wrote and co-produced the picture. Turner would appear in several additional indies and co-write the script for American Psycho, while Troche would go on to helm 1998's Bedrooms & Hallways. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

Two murderous drag queens whose lives are a blood-spattered blur of drugs and death embark on a violent rampage of stoned-out destruction in this tripped-out homage to the sleazy exploitations flicks of the 1970s. Ginger (Alexis Arquette) and Coco (Omar Alexis) are two psychotic transvestites who kill for money and pleasure. When their obsession with murder and insatiable appetite for drugs clash in a psychedelic frenzy of bullets and blades, Ginger and Coco begin a harrowing descent into madness from which death is the only escape. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

In this gay comedy, filmmaker Wally White assumes the lead role. He frequently pauses throughout the film to address the audience directly. Most of the film chronicles the protagonist Tommie's summer romance. He was in Provincetown on vacation and looking for a little fun. He needs to find a place to stay and a job. He attempts to work as a houseboy but gets few takers. He does however, find lots of casual sex. He is devastated when his favorite dream guy dumps him after a one-night-stand. This does not keep Tommie from wanting to go back and try again next year. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Director Mike Nichols teams up with his former partner/screenwriter Elaine May for the first time in many years and for the first time together in films to create this sophisticated, remake of the phenomenally popular French musical farce La Cage aux Folles that stars Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, Gene Hackman and Diane Wiest as two dramatically disparate couples who manage to reconcile their vast differences for the sake of their children who are getting married. Williams plays Armand Goldman, the owner of a popular South Beach drag club known for putting on elaborate showcases starring his long-time lover/wife Albert (Lane) who appears as "Starina." Lately poor flamboyant, flighty Albert has been in crisis over the inexorable onset of middle age. He has been moody, paranoid and unbearably. When he gets too inconsolably distraught, handsome but clumsy houseboy Agador quietly slips Albert "Pirin" tablets (which he explains to Armand are simply Aspirin tablets with the "as" scraped off). Still though Albert can be a royal pain, Armand dearly loves him and the two live happily in their splendiferous apartment above the club. One day Armand's son Val (the result of Armand's single foray into straight sex) comes visiting with joyous news: he has found his dreamgirl and is getting married. The only trouble is, Barbara Keeley's father is the blustery ultra-religious right-wing Senator Keeley (Hackman), the founder of the Coalition for Moral Order. Senator Keeley and his colleagues are not as upright as they seem and when his closest associate is found dead beside a black, underage prostitute, Keeley finds his house surrounded by ravenous newshounds, hungry for dirt. Knowing that they are poised to ruin him, Keeley and his proper but slightly addled-wife (Wiest) decide that a big, elaborate, church wedding will be just the ticket to save his reputation. Barbara has neglected to tell them that Val's parents are gay, preferring to claim that they are members of the South Beach social elite. In a panic, she panics and calls Val who breaks the bad news to Armand and begs him to make the apartment less flamboyant and worst of all to hide Albert (who functioned as Val's mother while the youth grew up) during the visit. Armand is angry, but loving his son, finally, reluctantly agrees, knowing that he will deeply wound his companion. Unfortunately, Albert finds out and as a compromise tries to learn how to be macho so he can pretend to be Val's uncle, he is too much the Great Dame to ever pass as one of the guys and so is banned from the party. Armand then locates Catherine and asks her to masquerade as his wife. She agrees to show up later that evening. Meanwhile their friends busily redecorate the apartment until it looks as if it were done in "Early Inquisition." During the fateful dinner party, Catherine is late and Albert gets uproarious revenge. Achingly comic chaos ensues as Armand tries to hold the increasingly tenuous evening together while outside the newshounds bay and threaten to make even more trouble for Senator Keely. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this gangster farce from first-time writer/director Ky Mo Lab, a pair of Irish pals become embroiled in a murder mystery upon their move to London. When Kenny (Glen Mulhern) arrives in the big city, he's dismayed to find his mate, Byron (Brendan Mackey), on the dole and boozing it up. But he's even more horrified to learn how Byron supplements his dole checks: by working as a rent boy in a gay pub. Despite his trepidation, Kenny soon embarks on a parallel career. But when a rich couple named The Queen (Michael Praed) and Golders Green (Simon Godley) turn up dead, Kenny and Byron think they've found the solution to their financial woes. Rumor has it that Golders Green kept a wad of cash squirreled away in his mattress. Unfortunately, several other colorful low-lives have their eyes on the prize, from The Desperate Dwarf (Raymond Griffiths) to The Iron Lady (Karen Sharman). As the queer corpses continue to pile up, Kenny and Byron wonder whether they'll ever locate the loot -- and whether their newfound occupation has deeper implications. Screened at the Palm Springs Film Festival, Nine Dead Gay Guys marked the feature debut for both Mulhern and Mackey. The character Golders Green is named after the neighborhood where he lives, a historically Jewish area of London. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

Actor and playwright Dan Bucatinsky wrote the screenplay for this adaptation of his play I Know You Are, But What Am I?, though for the big-screen version, his slightly fractured love story was given a same-sex twist. Eli (Dan Bucatinsky) is a journalist working with a major L.A. newspaper who is single and not loving it. Eli is also gay, and makes no secret of the fact that he's looking for a nice guy that he can settle down with. Eli's best friend Brett (Adam Goldberg) knows a woman named Jackie (Sasha Alexander), who says she has a friend who would be perfect for Eli. Thus Eli is introduced to Tom (Richard Ruccolo), a special education instructor and devoted nightlife enthusiast. Eli and Tom's first date turns out to be just short of a disaster; Tom indulges in his overweening enthusiasm for alcohol and tobacco, and Eli is disgusted to learn Tom has never seen Gone With the Wind. Things appear to be over for Eli and Tom before they even started, until they meet by chance while shopping a few days later; this time, a conversation rather than an argument develops, and the two end up spending the night together. Eli begins to think love may have finally found him, until Tom dashes off the next morning, leaving Eli to wonder if Tom has any interest at all in a long-term commitment. All Over the Guy also features small cameo roles by Lisa Kudrow, as an actress not skilled in voice-over work, and Christina Ricci as Eli's cynical sister. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Better Than Chocolate is a lesbian love story. Walking home from an evening at the lesbian club 'Cat's Ass,' Maggie is confronted by a gang of skinheads. Suddenly a minibus comes to a screeching halt and out jumps Kim. The skins move on, and Maggie thanks Kim, who watches her go. This is their first meeting. Maggie has recently dropped out of law school and now works in a women's shop. To avoid a confrontation with her mother, she makes up a success story and tells her that she's living in a beautiful apartment. As her mother is having her difficulties with her second husband, she decides to take her young son and come to live with Maggie for a while. Meanwhile, Maggie is housesitting the apartment of a female performer on tour. As fate might have it, she runs across Kim again and they find themselves at the new apartment making love in the shower -- at which moment Maggie's mother and little brother step in. The film was screened as part of the Panorama section of the 49th International Berlin Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide

This gay culture variation on the old theme of plucky kids looking for fame and fortune in the Big City concerns three recent college grads trying to make a name for themselves in Manhattan. Marc (Michael Shawn Lucas) is an aspiring actor who works a day job taking phone orders for tickets to the shows he wishes he was in. He shares an apartment in Greenwich Village with Cynthia (Mara Hobel), who wants to work for Vanity Fair and keeps leaving phone messages for Tina Brown that, to the surprise of Cynthia and no one else, never get returned. In the meantime, Cynthia supports herself with the help of her father's charge card. Robert (Aaron Williams) is another struggling actor who also dreams of getting a break as a writer and composer of Broadway musicals. He is also in love with Marc, but the rather ordinary-looking Robert doesn't meet the standards of hunky Marc, who is looking for a perfect 10. Marc thinks he might have found his dream man in the person of David (Hugh Panaro), until he discovers that David is not all he seems to be. Fans of high camp please note: one of Mara Hobel's more notable previous credits was playing the young Christina Crawford in the film version of Mommie Dearest. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide