Friday, June 15, 2007

Outing Riley

Bobby Riley, an Irish Catholic man in Chicago, is pushed by his sister and his lesbian "beard" into coming out to his family after the death of his father. His oldest brother is a priest, and thus the butt of many "altar boy" jokes; his two other brothers are married with children. All four brothers are competitive, beer-drinking, poker-playing baseball fans, and in most every respect the epitome of Irish-American manhood. The brothers do not take it at all well when Bobby finally comes out, but we get to watch them begin to come to terms with the reality. The script was laugh-out-loud funny — in fact, my main complaint was that the audience laughter obscured several lines of dialogue. Michael McDonald, whom I found mostly unimpressive as a regular on Mad TV, delivers the best performance of his career as Bobby's boyfriend. Definitely a must-see, and a must-buy when it comes out on DVD.

The main feature was preceded by a short film, Run to Me, in which a young man expresses his real feelings to his estranged running buddy. Insubstantial, but cute.

Outing Riley, dir. Pete Jones, 2004 USA, 86 min.
Run to Me, dir. Randy Caspersen, 2007 USA, 6 min.

Technorati tags: Outing Riley, Run to Me, Frameline, Frameline31, LGBT Film

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