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Reel World: Poster Boy
By Willie Crook
wcrook@mscd.edu

Poster Boy Rated R 98 minutes Opens Sept. 8

Do not let this film fool you. It is cleverer than you think.

Poster Boy is the story, told in flashback, of right-wing Senator Jack Kray and his gay teenage son, Henry. Though the film could easily deal with the struggle of homosexual youth to be accepted, it does not. While socially relevant, that theme is a little cliché.

Henry struggles to reconcile his sexuality and politics with his father’s pressure to conform to the ideal model of a senator’s son. His only respite comes from his compassionate mother. The writers could have focused on family conflict within the context of a generation gap. But again, the film is far too clever for this.

The film also tells the story of Anthony and Izze, two impoverished New York City roommates. Anthony is a lovelorn gay man disillusioned by one too many one-night stands, while Izze is an embittered HIV-positive woman who has recently lost her HIV-positive boyfriend.

Poster Boy isn’t all that charming, nor does it particularly stimulate the intellect. It doesn’t challenge societal norms or ask important questions about cultural morality. It does not leave you with a warm heart or a sense of well-being, nor does it present a new perspective on a stagnant social issue. This film will not be a sleeper hit, nor achieve any sort of cult following. It is just not that kind of film.

But that may have been the filmmakers’ intent. The film is not about anything, in the same sense that Seinfeld was not about anything.

What the film lacks, however, is almost redeemed by less-perceptible qualities. While the characters are often lazily created around stock models, they sometimes manage to deliver a degree of poignancy.

Poster Boy is a comedy of errors, which is nothing original or groundbreaking. At the very least it is entertaining. The film develops like a long episode of Seinfeld, with all of the subplots culminating in a catastrophic climax. Most of the plot lines, though, are a little too convenient to make suspension of disbelief easy. Even so, it is invigorating to watch the story unfold.

While the film may not be charming, heart-warming, especially intelligent or even terribly original, it is clever, and that very well may be enough.