Who knew there’d be a sellout crowd at the Roxie for the Frameline film festival‘s movies about the ex-gay movement on Saturday morning at 11 a.m.? It seemed a little too early for popcorn or candy, which was probably a mistake on my part because I spent the entire 90 minutes of the movies starving.
I don’t know if my hunger put me in a bad mood or what, but I’m sorry to say I didn’t really enjoy Cure For Love. It’s an interesting idea for a documentary — following four people active in the ex-gay movement (the Christian groups that try to teach gay people to become straight, or at least celibate), where one gay male and one gay female marry each other even though they admit they’re not attracted to each other, and two other gays drop out of the movement — and people had a lot of interesting things to say about being Christian and gay, but the documentary was marred by extremely overlong and not super insightful interviews and very dull visuals.
I kept thinking this would have been an excellent idea for a This American Life radio episode — good idea, but no need for blurry visuals of the Pacific coast and/or so many shots of crucifixes, and Ira Glass is famous for both asking good questions and ruthlessly editing his material. Oh, and the other good thing about the movie is that my favorite Amazing Race racer from last season is interviewed, Mike White’s dad Mel. I LOVE YOU, MEL!!!
My mood might have been further worsened by the short film that aired before Cure For Love, “Flight to Sinai.” Though obviously made with a lot of love, the Afterschool Special air to the plot, the high school theater class level of the acting, and the movie’s extremely mixed message (gay teens should go to ex-gay summer camps or your parents will never accept your sexual orientation) irritated me so much, I couldn’t even enjoy that it was a musical that Colma the Musical‘s H.P. Mendoza assisted on.
Finally, I’ll just note that I wrote this review after eating something — so you can imagine how bad of a mood I was in when I left the theater! 11 a.m. is not a good time to show movies.
