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| DORIAN BLUES 2004 - USA - 88 min. - Feature, Color Director - Tennyson Bardwell |
| Genre/Type - Comedy Drama, Teen Movie, Gay & Lesbian Films, Coming-of-Age Artistic/ Production Styles -Digital Video Keywords - brother, father, sexual-awakening, suburbs, sexual-attraction, sexual-orientation, social-outcast Themes - Questioning Sexuality, Journey of Self-Discovery, Fathers and Sons, High School Life Tones - Compassionate, Witty, Warm, Quirky, Humorous, Poignant Produced by - Daydreamer Films Release - Sep 23, 2005 (USA - Limited) Released by - TLA Releasing DVD Street Date - Feb 21, 2006 Languages - English Screen Formats - COLOR Sound - DDDTS Aspect Ratio - .85:1 (DVD) Studio - Tla Region -1 (USA & territories, Canada) DVD Sides - 1 Features - Deleted scens / Original theatrical trailer / TLA Releasing trailers Cast Michael McMillian - Dorian Lagatos Lea Coco Steven Charles Fletcher Mo Quigley Ryan Kelly Berkowitz Chris Dallman Sian Heder Cody Nickell |
| Plot Synopsis A young man comes to terms with growing up gay in this independent comedy drama. Dorian (Michael McMillian) is a 17-year-old guy living with his family in Upstate New York. Dorian is obviously the second-rate sibling in his household; his older brother Nicky (Lea Coco) is a hotshot athlete who gets the lion's share of attention from their father Tom (Steven Charles Fletcher), while their mother Maria (Mo Quigley) seems too zoned out to pay much mind to anyone. The fact that Dorian is an awkward social misfit is bad enough, but what troubles him even more is the fact he's slowly coming to the realization that he's gay. When Dorian breaks the news to Nicky, his big brother is surprised but accepting, but Tom doesn't handle the news nearly as well, and Dorian is on the outs with his dad as he begins his first semester at New York University. At NYU, Dorian has his first satisfying relationship with fellow student Ben (Cody Nickell), but his first heartbreak soon follows, leaving him in a vulnerable spot when he gets some bad news from home. Dorian Blues was the first feature film from writer and director Tennyson Bardwell. - Mark Deming Reviews Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone themoviechicks.com |
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| Dorian (Michael McMillian) knows he's gay and is tired of hiding in the closet. When he comes out to his younger brother, the star quarterback and all-around popular guy, Nicky (Lea Coco) encourages him to act straight, even if he has to pretend. He sets Dorian up with a stripper, but all Dorian wants to do with her is learn how to dance. He even tries therapy. Nicky eventually accepts Dorian for who he is, but things really come unraveled when Dorian tells his homophobic father (Steven C. Fletcher) the truth. Dorian is at that awkward age - he wants to be cool, but his anxiety and inner klutz seem to be just below the surface waiting to emerge at every opportunity. Horsing around with Nicky sends him to the emergency room and he can't even handle his first kiss without freaking out, so you know his first experience with a bar pick-up is not going to go well. Dorian leaves home to start college in New York City, where he meets and falls head-over-heals with Ben (Cody Nickell), the law student. Dorian is pathetic when he's depressed and moody when he's not, so it's hard work for anyone to be around him. Before Dorian can be happy with someone else, he first has to be accepting of himself. This is another in a long line of coming out films with the clich� "you're better off straight" message, counseling, and that very awkward first sexual encounter (which in this case is only mentioned through narration). The movie is occasionally funny and it has charm, mostly thanks to Michael McMillian. Lea Coco ups the beefcake factor (and takes off his shirt to solidify his role as stud), but he looks too old to be Dorian's younger brother Marjorie Baumgarten austin chronicle |
| In his voiceover narration, closeted gay teen Dorian Lagatos (McMillian) reveals that his therapist tells him that he "overanalyzes" everything. It's true, and although it's partly due to his immediate quandary about coming out, it's also his birthright from his hypercritical and always disapproving dad (Fletcher). (I'd also suggest it's part of the package that comes with first-time filmmaker Tennyson Bardwell, whose very name, unfairly or not, suggests a predetermined inclination toward overwriting.) Dorian Blues is several cuts above the average coming-out movie, a genre that generally privileges the validation of the gay experience over the art of filmmaking. Dorian Blues has wit, humor, good performances, and clever technique that catapults the film into the front ranks of coming-out movies. As played by McMillian, Dorian is a smart, funny, and stereotypically gay teenager who is struggling with the mechanics of comng out to his unaccepting dad. Dorian also has a perfect jock brother Nicky (Coco), who is everybody's favorite, something that makes life more difficult for the self-recriminating Dorian. With his therapist's help, Dorian successfully comes out and moves to New York to attend NYU as a freshman. Here the movie's third act goes astray as the storyline shifts to Dorian's dating problems, which seem an overextended tangent to his coming-out story. Still, the film has a lot of playful dialogue and pixelated montages (most entertaining is the "Last Train to Clarksville" sequence that provides the backdrop to Dorian's first seduction) that keep the film moving forward. Dorian Blues first screened in Austin during last month's aGLIFF festival. Frank Scheck hollywoodreporter.com Oct. 28, 2005 |
NEW YORK -- Tennyson Bardwell's inconsequential but intermittently charming debut feature concerns the coming out of its titular character, a suburban teen. Coping with a distracted mother (Mo Quigley), an ultraconservative, homophobic father (Charles Fletcher) and a loving younger brother who attempts to literally set him straight, the depressed Dorian (Michael McMillian, of TV's "What I Like About You") sets out on a path of self-discovery. While the subject matter is now familiar after a spate of similarly gay themed films, the journey as depicted here has both its funny and moving aspects. Beginning as a comedy before shifting slightly into a more dramatic mode, much of the story line has to do with jock brother Nicky's (Lea Coco) attempts to cure his brother's gayness, a process that involves, among other things, therapy, religious counseling and the hiring of a friendly stripper. Needless to say, the concept fails, and when Dorian goes to study at NYU, he soon finds a boyfriend and learns to fully accept his identity. By the film's poignant end, the family tensions have been resolved, though not in the expected way. While Bardwell's screenplay wobbles somewhat in tone, it displays enough wit and charm to compensate for its lack of polish. Helping matters appreciably is McMillian, who brings a refreshing edge to his performance that helps reduce the proceedings of their more cloying and cliched aspects. |
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