The New Wave of Post-Gay Filmmaking?

Johnny is
neck-deep in water in the swimming pool at his house and Ben
is sitting on the ledge in his bathing suit. The two
have been drinking champagne, and though this is
basically the first conversation they have ever had,
Ben has already challenged Johnny on his sexuality and
declared his interest in him. When Johnny demurs and
moves into the pool, Ben tells him in a pathetic voice
that he has never even been kissed before. Johnny
tells him to come closer, which Ben does, and then Johnny
grabs him with both hands and kisses him hard and fast
on the cheek. This only satisfies Ben for a moment,
then he moves in to kiss Johnny some more, which
Johnny allows, but only for a time, then he swims away and
goes to sit on the opposite ledge of the pool.
Undeterred, Ben swims over to Johnny and starts
kissing his chest; he eventually pulls down his pants
and goes down on him. Johnny lets him, though he is not
gay.

This is the
climactic scene of the film Dare, a new black comedy
about life as a teenager as seen through the eyes
of three characters. Dare premiered at the 2009
Sundance Film Festival and is one of the most honest
films about being a teenager ever made. It is also
part of a trend at this year’s festival, and perhaps
among films in general -- gay films that aren’t
actually gay films. Some may call them
“post-gay,” but call them what you will, the
death knell of the coming-out film has been ringing
for some time, and each year there are articles
written and panels organized exploring the question
"What next? What is the future of gay cinema?"

A year ago I
moderated a panel at the Queer Media conference in Los
Angeles that asked this same question, and the answer then
was that LGBT storytellers would continue to mine
different aspects of queer life: the intersections of
sexuality and religion, sexuality and race, etc. And
many films -- Save Me, For the Bible Tells Me So,Noah’s Arc: Jumping the Broom
-- have done just that. But if this
year’s Sundance Film Festival is any
indication, the next wave of films will be about the
fact that the evolution of homosexuality in American culture
has gone so far as to call heterosexuality into question.

In Dare,
Johnny (played by Friday Night Lights's Zach Gilford)
is a popular football player who is disconnected from
his family. He is seeing a therapist and taking
medication to sleep. His stepmother is cold, his
mother is gone, and he has no one in his life who really
cares about him. When he meets Alexa, played by Emmy
Rossum, he begins a sexual relationship with her, but
it is not until he meets her best friend Ben, who has
only recently realized he is gay, that Johnny finds someone
he feels really sees him and -- he thinks
-- cares about him.

Ben (Ashley
Springer) is exploring his homosexuality, so Johnny
allows him to explore it with him because he wants Ben to
love him and stay with him. Along with Alexa, they
form an unlikely trio. Ben and Alexa both conspire to
seduce Johnny at a party. And when Alexa tries to get
Johnny alone, he's always quick to include Ben; the three
end up rolling around on the bed together, with Johnny
allowing Ben to make out with him for a while before
gingerly stopping his advances to pay attention
to Alexa. When Johnny is kissing Alexa, he at first resists
Ben’s attempts to guide his hand toward Ben’s
crotch but then gives over to Ben's pleasure.
Nothing groundbreaking here, except that Johnny is not
gay, nor is he really exploring his sexuality…not in
the way we typically think of when we see films with
gay characters.