Franz Patrick's Movie Review of Outing Riley

Rating of
1/4

Outing Riley

One-Note Joke Gone Bad
Franz Patrick - wrote on 09/06/08

This is one of the weakest gay/lesbian films I've ever seen because it pretends to say something new about homosexual lifestyles and coming out of the closet. In reality, it's a one-note joke gone bad because it ended up being condescending and downright insulting. Sophomoric jokes are effective in some films like "Superbad" because the characters who deliver those jokes are young. Here, we see thirty- or forty-something year olds delivering those jokes as if they were funny. Not to mention some of the jokes are completely mean-spirited. Twenty minutes into the film, I wanted the characters to grow up and act their age but they ultimately did not. They are annoying, close-minded people who need to take a real good look at the world. At times, I felt like that the writers and the directors are all straight men who have no idea how it's like to keep homosexuality a secret and the overwhelming feeling of coming out of the closet. Those issues were dealt with in such a blase way, that it made me wonder why they made the movie in the first place. Regarding those scenes that are supposedly sad and sensitive, I just didn't feel it because I wasn't emotionally invested in the characters. This picture would've been a lot better if the adults acted more mature, made wiser choices both in action and words, and the script fresher and more sensitive to the issues that it tried to tackle. Skip this one because you're not missing anything.

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