Queer writer/director Jonathan Wysocki’s debut feature film is based on his own high school days where a bunch of geeky best friends prefer to play dress-up drama than actually deal with the reality of their own lives
It all takes place in Escondido California back in 1994 and as the summer has ended it is finally time for this quirky group of tight-knit friends to finally separate as College life now beckons them. Well for most of them anyway.
As close as they are none of them really open up to each other directly, preferring to communicate by acting out their favorite roles in plays. As they all make their way to Rose’s house for a final murder mystery slumber party each of them are harboring their own secrets which little do they know now, will be exposed one way or another by the time the night is out. Gene (Nick Pugliese) desperately wants to finally come out as gay to them all but as well as being very nervous, he has this underlying sadness as he won’t be leaving town to some fancy College but will have to follow his watered down dreams in the local Community College. All five of have theatrical ambitions but the bravado they have been putting on about their future plans is slowly chiseled away throughout the evening . The night is interrupted at one point with pizza being delivered by JD (Zak Henri) a classmate who had dropped out of school a while back. No matter how the group tries and disdain his dead-end job, all of them envy not just a carefree attitude to life, but unlike them all, he is not a virgin by any stretch of the word. |
As the night continues their very theatrical host Rose (Anna Grace Barlow) loses her bravado and she admits her parents don’t believe in her acting talents and are insisting she takes a more practical as well. The very ebullient Oscar (Nico Greetham) who is happy enough having frequent homoerotic tussles with Gene, still cannot admit to how he feels. Unlike shy quiet Claire (Megan Suri) who finally wants to tell Gene how much she has always loved him before the night is out.
It is obvious that the world of these high school drama nerds is very dear to Wysocki and it’s good to be able to wallow in his very funny nostalgia. Whether it will appeal to tall hose whose school days finished years ago is yet to be discovered, but every gay man will be able to relate to Gene’s life-changing moment
