G.B.F. | Review

Easy Peasy: Stein Returns to High School Hallways for Sweet Hearted Message Movie

Five years before Mean Girls brought the monstrous high heeled bitch posse back to the forefront of PG-13 blockbuster entertainment, director Darren Stein’s 1999 film Jawbreaker explored the morbid universe of a trio of black hearted murderous maidens in the delightful R tradition of Heathers. In his first feature since then, Stein goes back to the hallways of high school with G.B.F., once again revisiting the formula of the popular female triumvirate, only this time aligning himself with the spirit of John Hughes. Many aspects of high school life may seemingly never change, but Stein’s latest rendering, while extolling a message that seems deliriously obvious to the adult world, cheerfully proposes that even this rigid, socially conditioned environment has had opportunity to grapple with progressive notions of equality.

The three most popular girls in high-school, ‘Shley (Andre Bowen), Caprice (Xosha Roquemore), and queen bee Fawcett (Sasha Pieterse), are all seemingly at odds for a never ending struggle to remain the most popular, with the main goal, of course, to snag that enviable spot as Prom Queen, a demarcation of perfection still overly referenced and idolized in today’s adolescent realm. Reading in a teen mag that the hottest accessory every young woman needs today is a G.B.F. (gay best friend), the trio searches in vain for a possible candidate; however none of their gay peers have come out of the closet yet. Meanwhile, the Gay Straight Alliance, run by Soledad (Joanna JoJo Levesque), is informed by Ms. Hoegel (Natasha Lyonne) that they run the risk of disbanding if they can’t find any actual gay members. Inspired by the phone app Guydar, Soledad accidentally outs Tanner (Michael J. Willet). Amidst a flurry of jock induced gay-bullying, the trio descend on the unsuspecting Tanner, each viciously competing for his time, usurping Soledad’s well intentioned yet still exploitational desire to befriend him. Of course, this bolsters his own popularity while they each try to gain him as a sponsor for their prom campaign. Meanwhile, Tanner falls out of favor with his still closeted best friend, Brent Van Camp (Paul Iacono) by spitefully informing Mrs. Van Camp (Megan Mullally) of her son’s orientation. Slowly, Tanner begins to realize that everyone has been exploiting him for their own means, not really caring about what he wants or needs.

The GBF has long been a supportive cinematic prop, always sexless, unfettered, on the sidelines, a sort of first-wave and non-threatening way to grant the LGBT community some necessary visibility, of which there are countless examples (they’re usually likeable, well-intentioned, but ultimately demeaned in their abject support of more important hetero characters, like Mannequin’s Hollywood Montrose as played by Meshach Taylor or the Rupert Everett character in My Best Friend’s Wedding). So of course, Stein’s message here is insistently and blatantly clear, but he manages to get a lot of mileage out of playing with stereotypes in a setting where it needs to be seen most.

Even as its large smattering of one-liners contains as many hits as it does misses, G.B.F. does what many films of its ilk often forget to do, which is portray realistic and believable characters that are as flawed as they may be innately charming. Newcomer Michael J. Willet feels a bit underwhelming at first, especially considering George Northy’s screenplay has him uttering lines of dialogue that would seem his character has already correctly scrutinized these situations and the intentions of others, but the part rightly calls for a passive, underdeveloped person that slowly learns to find his voice. A majority of the younger cast members manage to be entertaining to varying degrees, though a definite standout certainly has to be Xosha Roquemore, with skills and comedic chops that surpass many of her other castmates.

Much as he did with Jawbreaker, Stein amasses a notable supporting cast, here with such notables like Natasha Lyonne, Horatio Sanz, Rebecca Gayheart, and the always hilarious Megan Mullally as that supportive but awkward mom many would be lucky to have. Stein places a lot of importance in his soundtrack compilation, here utilizing tracks from Ke$ha and Tegan and Sara, but back in 1999, obvious queer references in Jawbreaker were at a severe minimum, and it was tracks from Imperial Teen that provided the most significant hint at alternative, out-of-sight elements.

Even if G.B.F. is overly hopeful and maybe not a depiction of the possibility of progressive environments in as many schools as we’d like to believe, its sweetly charming existence speaks volumes to how much has been accomplished in the advancement of equality and visibility.

Reviewed July 21 at the 2013 Outfest Film Festival.