Nathan Fillion

Outing Riley

Pete Jones | U.S.A. | 2004 | video | 86 min | english

Bobby Riley (writer and director Pete Jones) is a good old Irish Catholic boy from Chicago. A meat’n’potatoes, beer’n’baseball man’s man just like his three brothers. Well, maybe he’s a different type of man’s man - Bobby is gay. Bobby has kept his sexuality from his militantly straight brothers: fun-loving Luke, married porn addict Connor and no-nonsense eldest brother Jack, who is a priest. Only sister Maggie, a lawyer, knows the truth. Although Bobby lives with his boyfriend Andy (MAD TV’s Michael McDonald), he has maintained a fake relationship with lesbian friend Carly for five years that, ‘like most peoples’ real relationships, is based on lies and no sex.’ But now that his parents are both dead, his sister is pressuring him to drop the charade and tell his brothers. After Bobby finally decides to come out of the closet, his brothers all think he is joking. When it becomes clear that he is not kidding around, his siblings each have decidedly different reactions and, it turns out, are hiding some secrets of their own. Director Jones has produced a film that deftly balances humour and real-life drama in a story of honesty, acceptance and the ties that bind. – SF

friday 23 nov_21:15 | PGM44 | Imperial