G.B.F.
The bitter fight for supremacy between the three most popular girls at North Gateway High takes an unexpected turn when their classmate, Tanner, is outed and becomes the school’s first openly gay student. The trio races to bag the big trend in fashion accessories, the Gay Best Friend, while Tanner must decide whether his skyrocketing popularity is more important than the friendships he is leaving behind.
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- Cast:
- Michael J. Willett , Paul Iacono , Sasha Pieterse , Andrea Bowen , Xosha Roquemore , Molly Tarlov , Evanna Lynch
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Reviews
Slow pace in the most part of the movie.
Crappy film
It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.
The acting in this movie is really good.
The story pretty much, school's three popular girls seek out the latest must have accessory, a GBF, gay best friend. Tanner is outted as gay, and the three girls go head to head for his attention.This is actually a really really good film. It's light, funny and kind hearted. I think it shows how much things have changed in recent years, and how some things will never change.A few of the usual clichés, like the token lesbian, and some of the characterisations. The mean girl influences are apparent.All in all a really good fun film, the trailers did not make it look worth watching, ignore them. 8/10
The movie develops the story quite well actually. Yet the main theme itself is very much a crazy one. Unfortunately it's too segmented and doesn't really be an all inclusive movie like what it's meant to be. The whole thing with the Mormons is a sad depiction of some people's hypocrisy. The depiction of the gay kisses is just a turn out for some. And I must say that this movie quite tested my patience and tolerance. The jokes are mostly looking forced out to be funny. The comedic moments succeeded only on the depiction of those awkward moments. The acting overall is just a so-so. The movie can be an entertaining piece of work if only there's less homosexual activity depicted in it.
The draw of this movie is pretty much seeing so many familiar faces in one movie. You have Evanna Lynch, from Harry Potter; Sasha Pieterse, from Pretty Little Liars; Xosha Roquemore, who had a part in Precious; JoJo, who sort of faded out after the mid-00s; and then two of MTV's stars. The first being Molly Tarlov, who plays Sadie on Awkward, and Michael J. Willett who is Shane on Faking It.Characters & StoryTanner (Michael J. Willett) and best friend Brent (Paul Iacono) are both closeted teens. Brent, however, plans to come out, if just to because he wants to be the gay best friend to the school's social queens. Be it Fawcett (Sasha Pieterse) who seemingly is the overall queen of the school; Caprice (Xosha Roquemore) who is queen of the Drama students, and people of color; or 'Shley (Andrea Bowen) who is queen of the conservative and religious kids. All of which have a power balance in the school which allows them to co-exist.However, what breaks this sort of truce is the potential of a gay best friend. Which, you'd think, would end up being Brent, but thanks the Gay/ Straight Alliance president, Soledad (JoJo) who seemingly is in the club solely to find a gay best friend, Tanner accidentally gets outed. For, you see, Brent installs a Grindr like app on Tanner's phone so they can find other gay guys in the area. But when those of the GSA use the app to find themselves a gay boy, partly for Soledad's wishes for a gay best friend, as well as to have an actual gay member in the GSA, they end up finding, and outing, Tanner.Unfortunately for Soledad though, the three queens quickly go to snatch Tanner up and try to deal with the fact he isn't their ideal gay guy. He isn't bitchy, fashion savvy, or their ideal Bravo sponsored gay guy. He is a guy who likes comic books, despite never mentioning which, who simply sees himself as a person who likes men. They, however, mostly treat him as an accessory or a sidekick who validates how fabulous they are. Making for a movie which sort of analyzes the issues of coming out, in ideal situations, and dealing with the perceptions a newly out man has to deal with.PraiseI'm going to tread lightly when it comes to praising this film, if only because with every praise comes a criticism. Such as the idea of a movie taking a slightly comedic approach to coming out. Now, this deserves praise for the sake of diversity, for while movies like Pariah and Gun Hill Road certainly have their place when it comes to LGBTQ issues, this doesn't mean that there can't be a place to laugh at the craziness which comes from coming out. And, sadly, I think the premise is where the praise ends.CriticismIf just because the idea of the film, on paper, is pretty much the best part of the movie. Which isn't to say the actors are bad in their roles, but just as much as the movie makes a Glee joke, you can kind of see this film as a musical-less Glee. Most of the main characters are slightly amped up stereotypes, and these stereotypes are often played for laughs, and though there is a theme dealing with the accessorizing and issues of being gay, it isn't played well enough to make you laugh, think, or even in the more serious moments, be touching. It just feels like an indie movie done so that each actor could have another acting credit and keep their name out there.Overall: Skip ItI would say this is a "TV Viewing" type movie, but when you compare it to other LGBTQ media which isn't focused on the drama of being homosexual, you can see why comedies aren't often done. The attempt at trying to have a lighter version of what is a major issue for a lot of people just seems shallow, and while I'm sure it wasn't meant to be that way, it is hard to argue that this is, in anyway, funny. In fact, it is probably a bit offensive and not just when it comes to the topic of being gay, but its attack on Mormons, and then with it incorporating the stereotypical sassy Black girl who gets hardly any character development. Making for a movie which seems to take one step forward and two steps back, while having no saving grace of anything though provoking. Hence why I say this film is better off skipped. Things To NoteMost of these familiar faced actors, outside of Evanna Lynch, pretty much play their characters like the ones you likely known them for. As for Evanna, there is no eccentric Luna Lovegood here, she plays a religious zealot.
I first thought the movie would turn out to be an à la "Another Gay Movie/Sequel junk movie. To my surprise it did have a hint of ridiculousness but an overall feel good touch and lots of stereotypical drama, while keeping it real at the same time. The movie keeps surprising throughout the whole story, at some points you think "hey it's all gonna work out just fine" to then find out the opposite, and then it goes back to normal and so on and so forth. I would suggest this to anyone gay or straight, male or female and anyone in between. I also wanna add to this review that this movie does have an amazing cast who all did a good job at performing very realistically and not over the top.