“I had a straight best friend growing up, a close friendship that ended badly,” shares filmmaker Jay Arnold. “I’ve asked myself a thousand times what went wrong, what I could have done differently.”
Chances are, a lot of us can relate. Growing up and coming to terms with our queerness sometimes means our relationships to others take on new dimensions—for better or for worse.
For Arnold, life moved on, but there’s always been a part of him that’s wondered if things had to end that way. What if they had another chance to work it out?
“What if he showed up at the door many years later?,” he ponders. “Could we find the words? Would it even be possible to resolve the past and move forward?”
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Now, all of those lingering questions have inspired Arnold’s sophomore feature as a writer-director, the original romantic dramedy Shoulder Dance.
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These films are some of the first that showed gay men living happily and falling in love.
The film stars Matt Dallas (who many will remember from teen sci-fi drama Kyle XY—now with more belly button) as Ira, who’s in a long-term relationship with his handsome partner Josh (It Chapter Two‘s Taylor Frey).
One day, he hears from his old friend Roger (The Flash‘s Rick Cosnett) out of the blue. It’s been 24 years since they’ve seen each other last, but Roger is back in town and Ira invites him over for a visit.
Josh, for his part, is suspicious: If these two were such good friends, why has he never heard of Roger before? Did something happen? Were there—or are there still—romantic feelings between them?
What follows is a modern queer spin on the classic bedroom farce, also featuring Gotham‘s Maggie Getha and Glee‘s Samuel Larsen. Over one wild weekend, relationships old and new will be tested as “the boundaries of friendship, love, and sex collide.”
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This is an amazing tale.
Dallas shares with Queerty that he felt an immediate connection to the story, knowing it would resonate deeply with so many in our community, so he jumped at the chance to play Ira.
“To get to bring that to life through such a meaningful and fun journey was the icing on the cake,” the actor adds.
After premiering in Los Angeles last month at The Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival—where it won the Best LGBTQ Film award—Arnold plans to bring Shoulder Dance‘s “meaningful and fun journey” to even more festivals and screening events this year.
In anticipation of more dates to be announced, Queerty is delighted to exclusively premiere the first-look trailer for Shoulder Dance, which you can watch below:
Head here to the official Shoulder Dance website for all of the latest updates on festival screenings and more.
bachy
This looks like fun! Also, I’ve never done “molly” and the trailer makes me want to try it!
Another film approaching the same subject matter from a more serious perspective is Almodovar’s brilliant Pain and Glory (2019).
abfab
bachy bea, Watch the short-film called THE WEDNESDAYS. It’s the sweetest most enjoyable flick about taking X.
abfab
The Wednesdays. A short film by Conor Ferguson (Park Films 2007) youtube, 13:43 minutes.
bachy
Haha! That was very sweet and very charming. You do come up with the best offsite recommendations for videos and articles, abbie!
Up Schitt’s Creek or Up the Swanee River? Indeed!
abfab
I knew you’d enjoy it, bachy. The couple…are they not darling? Brilliant film making.
bachy
I found the elderly husband surprisingly sexy.
ryepie2222
Wow this looks bad. Dumb dumb dumb
Bengali
You’re amazing to possess the ability to think a movie is dumb by seeing a 1.5 minute preview. You should go work alongside Tyler Henry.
SDR94103
are any of these people truly gay?
ptowner
Yes all 4 male lead actors are openly gay.
Ken A.
All except maybe the girl.
Bengali
If you’d google’d you’d now all 4 male leads are. Instead you decided to sow doubt. Sometimes LGBTQ community members are their won worst enemies.
mz.sam
Yep, ‘worst enemies’. Ben, you got that shit right!
abfab
@ bengolly and shazam…do you see how your lame comments about us being ”enemies” just made things worse for yourself?
Lighten up and get a grip. This place is a gossip club filled with celebrity fluff, pop culture and our ”enemies” all fall into thier own POLITICS sections.
Huron132
I hope to see this! Love all the actors and it seems like a really funny story. Hope it comes out soon!
phillycap
Why not make it available for streaming now in addition to the film circuit route?
mz.sam
Love Matt! His YouTube Channel with husband Blue and son is great fun.
Sharpei
Looking forward to this one. I truly adore the 3 main leads and have followed their careers for many years, nice to see them all in a single project together