"Trick" is probably the best gay American movie since "The Living End." It just might be the most romantic and wonderful gay American movie ever! Sure, they try to sell the film by saying it's some sort of lurid independent feature about two gay guys trying to find a place to have a one night stand, but that's just the scratches on the surface. First time Director Jim Fall, working from an awesome script by first timer Jason Schafer, has shined this up to be the funniest, the smartest, the most romantic, the most hopeful, the most fantastic, the most sweet gay movie of our lives. Of course, dear, It's all fantasy. But God, buying into the fantasy is where all the fun is.

Schafer is wise to take two perfect but seemingly typical gay male characters and bring them together. One is the cute, shy, gay guy just looking to meet a nice guy. The other one is the studmuffin that makes us drool. Schafer then turns convention on it's ear by making the naive one not so naive and the hunky one not so much of a user. We like them. Hell, we love them. They're dang cute to begin with, but they're also rich, emotional characters of such depth and complexity, that we can't help but like them. Christian Campbell is perfect as Gabriel, a struggling musician and songwriter who looks like Opie but hasn't just fallen off the turnip truck. He's been hurt but he's not bitter. He's just struggling to find his path. More to the norm in gay flicks is Mark, played by the wonderful John Paul Pitoc, making his film debut. Mark is a dancer, a "go-go boy," as Gabriel likes to call him. But Schafer and Pitoc makes Gabriel the "hooker" with the heart of gold. Now, that sounds typical and tired, but not in gay movies. When was the last time in a gay movie, the hero picked up an attractive, sexy one night stand who turned out to be a real person and not a user and a monster? I can't remember ever seeing one before. It's fucking groundbreaking.

This is the gay movie I have been waiting for. There is so much humor and joy and sorrow and pathos and happiness and truth that it just bursts from the screen. When was the last time a fag hag and a drag queen made you laugh with them - not at them. And never made you feel sorry for them? Tori Spelling as Gabriel's best friend is downright hilarious. She sets the tone for the entire film within the first five minutes. God, she's funny. Sure, some of it is pure easy schtick, but Spelling makes it all her own. She's worthy of every bit of critical praise she garners for this role. She re-invents herself. It's groundbreaking. Also of note is Steve Hayes Gabe's flitty, but not too flitty, older friend. Pitoc and he share a moment that make us fall in love with both of them. It's a moment where Pitoc's Mark really has a chance to shine and come to life for us and these two actors pull it off like nothing we've ever seen before. You know what I mean? We've seen it before but these guys make it brand fucking new. It's groundbreaking. (Yes, I will keep saying that till you get the point!) Meanwhile, Claude Leupp, as his alter ego Miss Coco Peru, confronts Gabriel in the bathroom of a gay bar has a 5 minute segment that is one of the most hilarious moments I have ever seen on film. I was laughing like a crazy person.

The whole damn movie is funny. But never sad funny or insightful funny or sophomoric funny or sophisticated funny. Just bare bones honest fucking funny. It hits the right fucking chord every damn time.

Much of this is the actor's doing too. Campbell never hams it up or gives us those "Aw shucks" moments. Pitoc re-invents the quiet hunk as a romantic gay male love interest; His character comes out of nowhere to win our hearts. We like him because he's fine. And we understand him, because we know what fine guys are all about. But Pitoc goes one step further and uses Schafer's script as a springboard to bring us a truly new type of male lead. His beauty is not skin deep. Everyone here conspires to make the film perfect and they all succeed easily. Fall's film may have rare moments where it takes an easy turn or it pushes a little too hard, but the actors finesse these minor rough spots with the kind of spark and polish that makes good movies great - and great movies masterpieces.

Fall, and his cast, working from Schafer's awesome script, have crafted a indie gay flick that breaks all the rules and then somehow comes across as being sweet and funny and true. It's not all witty urbane dialogue or typical tried and true gay angst. It's just good old fashioned American movie-making at it's finest. Fall's heartfelt direction never makes fun of the characters, never takes cheap shots, never forces anything on us. His characters, whether gay, straight, bi, in drag, fag hag, or whatever, are all a delight. And he treats them with the kind of kindness that we just don't get in indie films anymore. But he also has Schafer to thank for giving them incredibly funny and incredibly honest things to say. It's marvelous. 

Fall and Schafer have crafted a movie that is a wake-up call to gay filmmakers. "Give us something new. Something fresh. But something that isn't contrived or forced or angst- ridden or a coming-out story, or bitter or populated with nothing but pretty boys." Fall has set the standard for gay movies of the millennium. Are gay filmmakers up to the challenge?

Here is my favorite moment from "Trick." It comes near the end, when Campbell and Pitoc are finally going to get to kiss. (They are in, of all gay places, a men's room, but Fall even solves this problem well). When you see this scene, look in Campbell's eyes. You can see all the joy and the sorrow of being a gay man right there. Not pained, just real. Not "acted," just there. Without words. Without script. With nothing but his eyes. It's a beautiful, cloudless, moment; One that doesn't come from the head. It comes from the heart, like the film.

Official Site: http://www.trickmovie.com/

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