This movie certainly took me back to my youth as a young gay man trying to find romance, in a culture where youth and beauty usually wins out over true romance.
The story follows Billy, of the title, a young aspiring photographer looking for success and love in LA. Dis-satisfied with being the "other woman" in his current relationship, Billy "discovers" Gabriel (Brad Rowe) at a coffee shop and asks him to model for him for a new project. Along the way, Billy develops a crush on Gabriel, even though he's not certain of Gabriel's feelings for him.
There's some old dogs hauled out and given new polish in this flick. Three drag queens serve as sort of a Greek chorus throughout the movie, usually lip-synching to Petula Clark and camping it up. The opening credit sequence featuring these three was truly hilarious. Heterosexuals (especially males) are portrayed as slabs of meat following their slavish desires for women, but it's done humorously. Paul Bartel goes *way* over the top playing a Bruce Weber like photographer, openly and contempuously laughing at the people who purchase his "art" (the character obviously is doing it just to be near stunningly handsome, near-naked men that are young enough to be his grandchildren) and the character of Whitey was just plain annoying.
However, despite some of the cliches, Hayes' performance reveals the splendid sense of comedic timing we would later see in his supporting role on "Will and Grace"; he often puts Brad Rowe to shame in their scenes together, Rowe often seems a stiff and wooden next to Hayes, often looking like he just doesn't "get it".
Overall the movie's a cute piece of fluff, a nice popcorn date movie.
The story follows Billy, of the title, a young aspiring photographer looking for success and love in LA. Dis-satisfied with being the "other woman" in his current relationship, Billy "discovers" Gabriel (Brad Rowe) at a coffee shop and asks him to model for him for a new project. Along the way, Billy develops a crush on Gabriel, even though he's not certain of Gabriel's feelings for him.
There's some old dogs hauled out and given new polish in this flick. Three drag queens serve as sort of a Greek chorus throughout the movie, usually lip-synching to Petula Clark and camping it up. The opening credit sequence featuring these three was truly hilarious. Heterosexuals (especially males) are portrayed as slabs of meat following their slavish desires for women, but it's done humorously. Paul Bartel goes *way* over the top playing a Bruce Weber like photographer, openly and contempuously laughing at the people who purchase his "art" (the character obviously is doing it just to be near stunningly handsome, near-naked men that are young enough to be his grandchildren) and the character of Whitey was just plain annoying.
However, despite some of the cliches, Hayes' performance reveals the splendid sense of comedic timing we would later see in his supporting role on "Will and Grace"; he often puts Brad Rowe to shame in their scenes together, Rowe often seems a stiff and wooden next to Hayes, often looking like he just doesn't "get it".
Overall the movie's a cute piece of fluff, a nice popcorn date movie.
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