Eating Out

Caleb (Scott Lunsford) can't get a girl to stick with him. His roomie, Kyle (Jim Verraros), lusts after Marc (Ryan Carnes). At a party, Caleb meets Marc's best pal, Gwen (Emily Stiles), but fears more rejection, especially since she only seems to fall for men who turn out to be gay. Marc doesn't know Kyle's alive. Caleb and Kyle come up with the perfect solution - Caleb will pretend to be gay and hit on Marc, allowing him to get close to Gwen and bring Marc home to Kyle. Before too long they'll reveal where their true interests lie and by then everyone will like one another well enough to change partners with great good humour.

We're in screwball comedy territory here, in more senses than one, as everybody is after the perfect screw. Of course, things don't go as planned, and that's where the fun lies in writer/director Q Allan Brocka's modern comedy of errors. Watching, you'll likely be able to guess the general road the film will go down, but it's a great journey, with the highlight being an extended telephone sex sequence. It sounds tacky, but that's more the result than the execution, with Brocka's script being a lovely confection, full of excellent one-liners (some of the best go to Jillian Nusbaum, as Caleb's annoying little sister).

It's nicely played, with all the leads putting in great turns. You might recognise Carnes from his guest shots as Justin in the first series of Desperate Housewives and US viewers will know Verraros as American Idol's first out gay contestant. Given his looks and talent, if the music doesn't work for him he should do just fine as an actor. Stiles (whom I assumed to be related to Julia, but it seems not; she looks a tad similar) is a knockout in a role that has a whiff of Tori Spelling via Drew Barrymore. Lunsford is edible as Caleb, the nearest to a naive character this feature has. It'd be great to see more of him. Mind, you see a lot of him here. An awful lot. Ditto Carnes. Given the full frontals and the extremely suggestive scenes and more than cheeky chat, I'm amazed this seems to have a UK rating of 15. Kids today, eh?

So, if you want a movie about confused male sexuality, and find Brokeback Mountain too earnest and wearing, try this. It's a little less ambitious - shot in Tucson in 10 days on a teeny wee budget - but a lot more fun.