Earlier this week, the cast of the cult classic Another Gay Movie reunited in Los Angeles for the film’s 15th Anniversary. Released in 2006, the movie follows four gay friends-Andy, Jarod, Nico and Griff–who, upon graduating high school, vow that they will all lose their “anal virginity” before their friend’s Labor Day party. Think of it as American Pie, but way gayer.
Related: I’m a bottom. My boyfriend was vers. It ruined our relationship.
Full disclosure, prior to writing this, I had never seen Another Gay Movie. I know, I’m a terrible gay! But to be fair, I was a deeply closeted teen living in Montana when it was first released. My only relief in life up to that point was waiting until my parents went to bed so I could dial-up our AOL internet and watch some, ahem, adult films. I really didn’t have time for LGBTQIA+ cinema back then.
So, in order to right such tragic wrong, I decided to give Another Gay Movie a much-belated viewing, to see what held up, what didn’t, and what had me wishing it was 2006 again…
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Cute guys and… this?!
First of all, what in God’s double popped collar polo shirt is this? Was this an actual trend? I either have no memory of it, or I forever blocked it from my mind due to the sheer trauma this fashion faux pas inflicted upon my soul.
Verdict: Turns out, double popped polos don’t hold up, but damn you, Another Gay Movie, I can’t quit you yet, we’re just getting started!
But also… Richard Hatch?
Verdict: LOL, I don’t know why Richard Hatch is in this movie, but I totally have fond memories of watching him compete on Survivor with my mom. So for that reason alone, I’m going to say Richard holds up. Yasss, zaddy!
Welcome to the digital (camera) revolution
There’s a scene in the movie where all the guys are meeting up and one of them pulls out a digital camera. It made me giggle with delight. Who else remembers using those super clunky, admittedly ugly things? They were all the rage in the early aughts! Remember when “how many megapixels does yours have?” was an actual conversation we had? No, just me? OK!
But also, remember the absolute labor you’d have to endure in order to send one simple f*cking picture? First, you’d have to snap a bazillion pics in the hopes you got one where you didn’t completely chop your entire face off (welcome to the awful world of no front-facing cameras, bbz!). Then you’d have to find a USB cord, jam it into your computer, and wait several minutes for them to upload. Man, being gay was hard back then!
Verdict: Digital cameras don’t really hold up, but also, did Another Gay Movie invent the selfie (photographic evidence above)?
Dating on the internet, the original Tinder
OK, enough about fashion and technology, time to get to the gay sh*t!
During a pivotal scene in Another Gay Movie, one of the characters, Nico (played by Jonah Blechman) screams in delight when he gets a response from a guy online and proclaims, “the internet is the way to hook up,” which like, HAVE TRUER WORDS EVER BEEN SPOKEN?!? I rest my case.
Verdict: The internet is still being used for hookups, only instead of computers, we’re using apps. It checks out.
Bonus points for this exchange:
Asking to trade pics since 2006, apparently.
P.S. I miss all those weird, gay chatrooms.
All in the (supportive) family
I will admit, this part of the movie surprised me the most. Maybe I’ve been conditioned to believe that all parents of LGBTQIA+ children are supposed to be a**holes on TV (thanks, Brokeback Mountain!), but the parents in Another Gay Movie were anything but. By the end of the movie, I wanted Nico’s mom to be my mom (she just wants everyone to “get some ass,” after all), and Andy’s dad to be my dad (minus all the giant butt plugs).
I also loved how the movie celebrated gayness in all its glory. None of the characters experienced some “tragic” coming out; they were already out and proud, with parents who loved and supported them. It was unexpected and refreshing to see in a movie that was made 15 years ago.
Verdict: This holds up. Turns out, sometimes your chosen family is also your actual family!
A ding for Asian representation
By the time the credits rolled, I was allllll for the campiness in this movie and grew to love it. I get it, Another Gay Movie is a satire and, legally, our community deserves it’s own version of American Pie! But also, the cringe factor was strong when it came to how the character of Tiki, who is Asian, was portrayed.
For what it’s worth, Another Gay Movie‘s writer and director of the movie, Todd Stephens, seems to understand. In a really great oral history of the film with the A.V. Club, Stephens shares his regrets about how the character is portrayed.
“It makes me uncomfortable now, to be honest,” he told the pub. “The intent was to spoof characters like Long Duk Dong from Sixteen Candles, she was meant to be a comment on that trope. But where’s the line between riffing on that shittiness and actually still depicting a stereotype and propagating that shittiness?”
For Angela Oh, who portrayed Tiki, she has a different take:
“I was just thrilled [Stephens] included an Asian character,” she said. “The thing is, I feel like you can look at the character and be like, ‘Oh, she’s so stereotypical with an accent.’ Or you could flip it and think, well, people with accents do exist, and also it’s so great that she gets to be a cheerleader. Todd didn’t write her as a bookworm, or a biology student, you know? For once, I got to play the cheerleader, which I really was in high school.”
Verdict: We love a filmmaker who is self-aware enough to know when he falls short.
Another ding for disability representation
Ah yes, let’s have a character who is blind and make their disability the butt of the joke… multiple times through the movie!
Verdict: Can you sense my sarcasm? This does not hold up.
But to end things on a high note…
Guys kissing guys.
Verdict: It never gets old.
Josh Galassi is very gay and very disabled, if you haven’t noticed. Sometimes, he writes about both those things, and sometimes, he doesn’t. He lives in Seattle with his dog Carmen Sandiego, who, it turns out, was on Craigslist the entire time (where he bought her). You can find him on Facebook and Twitter, or at a nearby coffee shop obsessing over cold brew.
SamB
How could you “re-watch” the movie if, “…prior to writing this, I had never seen…” the movie?
jlicks
Not sure about 2006, but in the late 90’s the double Polo was big in the very pretentious Dallas.
MickeyMoose
Yep…in L.A. too.
DarkZephyr
“I wanted Nico’s mom to be my mom”
Nicco’s Mom rocked. One of my favorite characters in the film. A bit of back story and a little meta humor:
Nicco’s Mom was portrayed by Stephanie McVay who played the main character’s mother in the great but angsty 1998 gay coming of age and coming out film “Edge of Seventeen” (incidentally, Andersen Gabrych who plays Tyler “double popped polo boy”, was also in “Edge of Seventeen” as Rod, the love interest, and is featured on a poster that Nicco hangs up). Stephanie McVay’s character in “Another Gay Movie” is nearly the polar opposite of her character in “Edge of Seventeen” when it comes to parental acceptance of their gay child. There is a scene in “Edge of Seventeen” where she is playing the piano in a very sombre way and that is when she and her son have “the conversation” and she reveals a tragic lack of acceptance of his coming out. This scene was then spoofed in “Another Gay Movie”. Her character as the mother is once again playing the piano in a sombre fashion, but when her son walks in and comes out to her, instead of reacting the way she did in “Edge of Seventeen”, she says “Duh! What took you so long!” and proves to be the most supportive, pro-gay mother on earth. I loved that. Its also meant to be a bit meta when Nicco puts up the “Edge of Seventeen” movie poster in his mother’s video store, seeing as how she was the mother in that film as well.
jayceecook
Both films were made by the same director. It’s why they are in the film. He’s spoofing himself as well.
DarkZephyr
I love both films. “Another Gay Sequel” not quite as much, though its of interest to me for other reasons. Though this is never mentioned in Season 4 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, RuPaul and Willam Belli were both in this film. Granted they shared no screen time with one another, but they certainly had their names in the credits of the same film, 4 years before Season 4 of Drag Race. I find that pretty interesting.
Goosecurls
I will need to revisit “Edge of Seventeen”. I seem to remember the mother being more concerned with Eric, the lead, being out all night, and doing harm to himself, or putting himself in harms way. He didn’t give her much to further the conversation.
The movie has a lot of parallels to my own life, and coming out process. Included is that I had “the conversation” with my mom. It came in the aftermath of a fight with my father, and a family blowup. I didn’t want to add to the things on her mind. Besides, I wasn’t sure at the time if I was entirely gay or not. I told her “No” when she asked if I was gay. A few years later, when I officially came out to my mom, she replied with, “I probably knew before you did.”
jayceecook
@DarkZephyr Yeah the sequel really ramped up the queer cameos. Lady Bunny and Rupaul made a song for the film but it wasn’t included. Rupaul put it on her Champion album.
Danny from The Real World was in it as well. I hate such a crush on him.
The sequel had it’s moments but it just couldn’t capture the spirit of the first one. Though if you know how the first one came to be it makes a little sense.
jayceecook
You can tell that a very young and sheltered person wrote this because they missed most of the references within the film. This is one of those movies that is very much of it’s time. Unless you were old enough or were lucky to have access to a lot of queer media before the film was made you miss so much.
A couple examples, the mother the author mentions was a spoof of Debbie from the original “Queer As Folk” American remake. The double popped collar guy is actually a spoof of a character from a 1998 film, “Edge of Seventeen”, that the same director made previously. One that took place in the 80s and was quite popular.
Also, I didn’t realize that their was a cast reunion. Did all the original actors participate? Because 2 or 3 of them did not want to reprise their roles for the sequel. It was even written into the plot of the film to explain the recasts.
Jimthy
The only one that reprised their role was Nico. And this sequel was a flop.i bought it on eBay in an auction. Yes I won but not much to brag about
jayceecook
@Jimthy Yeah, they were killed off in the opening sequence as a nod to why they didn’t return. I think the lesbian chick returned but she was in like one scene.
AZ71
I dont think its ever a good idea to compare something from 15 years ago to todays standards. Even the writer was in a different place than he is today. Of course things will be dated and there will be some cringeworthy lines and representations. But in 2006…this was a very admirable film and it took huge steps like this film to get us where we are today.
Cam
I seem to remember that most of the original cast wouldn’t do the sequel because they didn’t want to be in too many gay movies or something like that.
TheRedLine
I didn’t really like it that much that much but did watch it a couple times because it was new and different at the time. I thought Jonathan Chase was really hot and I liked the story between the characters that he and Mitch Morris played. I’m a sucker for a happy ending. I also liked that cutie Michael Carbonaro.
radiooutmike
Since, I came out I’ve watched a lot gay movies. But, I have always avoided this series. Maybe I shoul continue or not?!
stanpaske
Sweetheart! I lived the double polo life. Know your history. There were many cringe moments in the film. Triuhfully, you aspire to bottom for Richard Hatch? I would wish for diarhea.
Mr-DJ
I was “today years old” when I first heard the term “Double-Polo”…..
Ronbo
But, but, but… Queerty already declared that Billy Eichner’s “Bros” was the first and only gay movie in history! Hire Billy’s publicist – ze worked magic on the Queerty editors. Dark magic.