Make the Yuletide Gay

THE FLICK
The gay movie genre has covered a wide range of topics, from the ubiquitous coming out story to AIDS and marriage, crushes and politics.  It hasn't, though, made a dent in the Christmas sub-genre.  Sure, 1995's Jodie Foster-directed Home for the Holidays may be the most well-known of the gay holiday movies, but even there the homosexual storyline is a subplot, not the driving force.  Writer/director Rob Williams looks to correct this mistake in Make the Yuletide Gay, a combination of this year's New in Town and Will & Grace, with a little Desperate Housewives cattiness thrown in for good measure.  At college, Olaf aka Gunn (Keith Jordan) is proudly gay, wearing Human Rights Campaign t-shirts, fending off advances by professors and in love with flamboyant boyfriend Nathan (Adamo Ruggiero).  At home in Wisconsin with his parents Anya and Sven (Kelly Keaton, Derek Long), he goes back into the closet.  With his mother's persistent attempts to set him up with the daughter of a neighbor as a backdrop, Nathan drops in for a surprise visit at Christmas.

From top to bottom (no pun intended), Make the Yuletide Gay is a gay production.  That in and of itself should give a major clue as to how the movie is going to play out, especially the ending.  And, in the context of a film that doesn't try to be sneaky or reinvent the world, that's perfectly acceptable.  After all, the finale to National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is a foregone conclusion three minutes into the film; the same goes with holiday favorite A Christmas Story or any one of the dozens of animated Christmas flicks produced every year.  Because it's made from a place of love and simple entertainment, there are no political speeches or monologues on the current state of gay rights.  In the commentary, it's mentioned the intention is for gay youth to watch Make the Yuletide Gay with their parents, to open up lines of communication and make the coming out experience easier.  Oh, and if every other line of dialogue has a second or third meaning, so much the better.

That may be the best thing the script manages to do: it doesn't beat a message over the audience's head time and again.  Gunn and Nathan are simply gays guys going through something most homosexuals do.  Aside from the outsized personalities and wink-wink humor, Make the Yuletide Gay could very well be a true story.  It doesn't jump through hoops to generate the comedy like the Griswold film.  If it had, the story would lose it's honesty, it's nobility, in a way.  That authenticity is seen in nearly every scene, from the way the characters act and speak to the mostly organic way the plot unfolds.  It's easy to picture any mother walking in on their child and significant other in the heat of passion.  The fact Anya is seemingly oblivious is of no consequence.  When she kneels down to examine Nathan's monkey underwear, she doesn't do it out of spite or sexuality.  She does it because it's in her nature to be bubbly and inquisitive.  Sven's pot habit or walking around the house with his robe wide open are meant to elicit chuckles, surely.  It's also designed to show just how silly Gunn's apprehensions are.

What may not be totally authentic are the layered meanings most of the dialogue has.  For example, Anya mentions getting her beaver ready for Christmas.  To a certain segment of the audience, that literally means an animal.  But to the intended audience and to Nathan (who's in the room with her), it means something completely different.  She doesn't notice.  A conversation about who is going to take which bunk (top or bottom) turns into a textured, running joke about those sexual positions.  Does a mother really want to know that kind of thing about her child?  I'm guessing not, though it makes for laugh out loud moments.  (And really, a bunk bed?  Gunn is 22-years-old.  Bunks are alright in college dorms, but at home?)  There's also a matter of Gunn and Nathan's relationship, specifically the things they haven't shared with one another.  While the movie doesn't give a time frame for their coupling, the back cover copy suggests this will be their first Christmas apart, meaning theirs is a new relationship.  Considering Nathan has shared a good deal of information about his parents with Gunn, wouldn't it stand to reason Gunn would have reciprocated?  A key revelation comes when Nathan realizes Gunn isn't out to his parents.  Wouldn't that be an early relationship conversation?  Or wouldn't Nathan have gotten the clue from the way Gunn talks to his mother on the phone?

Maybe I'm being too nitpicky.  After all, most of Make the Yuletide Gay is played as a joke with the serious elements sprinkled in to give the story a certain weight.  Paramount among those jokes are Keaton and, to a lesser extent, Long.  Keaton's Anya is a bubbly, outgoing, squeaky-laughing woman quick with the barbs.  Hers is a kind soul, the type of mother any kid would want.  Why Gunn thinks she'll shun him is never completely fleshed out.  His reservations about Sven, though, are more grounded in reality, especially when the deleted scenes are taken into account.  Long's performance is humorous if the audience is in on the joke about marijuana.  If they are, comments about having the munchies and Gunn asking why so early in the morning work like gangbusters.  (Doubly so when combined with the hazy, half-asleep performance.)  If not, then the character is likely to fall flat.  A slutty female neighbor (Alison Arngrim) is a take it or leave it character; daughter Abby (Hallee Hirsh) is used as the boy's fag hag of sorts and confidante.  Interestingly, the role's of gay men and straight women have morphed over the years.  At one point, either Nathan or Gunn would have been her confidante.  Here, it's the opposite.

(The New in Town reference comes in with Anya. She speaks in a stereotypically Minnesotan accent with phrases like "dont cha'know" or swearing on the Packers never winning another Super Bowl if she's lying.)

Something much be said for Gates McFadden (Martha) and Ian Buchanan (Peter) as Nathan's parents.  Though they are only in two scenes, they turn out to be relatively fully formed characters by the end of the film.  Their roles basically entail being stern, upper class white people (or WASP's) with Nathan, reminding him to do his chores or to be a good house guest.  We don't see any love between the three-or between Peter and Martha, really.  Not until a short epilogue after the credits have begun to roll.  A smile comes across Martha's face and she utters a few lines no one would have seen coming at the outset.  The character comes full circle at that moment, spring boarding off of something Anya says when Gunn announces he's gay.  A mother will always love her children, no matter what.  Sven mentions something else at the same time, about Gunn showing what kind of man he is by being honest with his parents.  Maybe that's exactly what Martha was waiting for to show her approval to Nathan.  After all, Peter walked in on him and a guy in bed, thereby negating the "I'm gay" conversation.

As the leads, both Ruggiero and Jordan are agreeable as Nathan and Gunn.  Ruggiero successfully combines both Italian and gay characteristics to create a short hand for the character, allowing the audience to know him without him being on the screen early on.  While there's no doubt Nathan is gay, Jordan goes between homosexual and heterosexual easily, even if there's not much difference between the two halves.  In fact, aside from clothing, the two sides of Gunn are basically the same with very minor differences.  Playing straight, Jordan sneaks in a stereotypically gay eye roll here or there, along with a "fabulous" or other trait which would identify him as homosexual. As silly as it might sound, Jordan makes his fears about coming out sound authentic and real as the actor completely buys into them at every turn. He doesn't see the forest for the trees or give his parents any credit; that's the norm for this kind of situation and well played by the actor.

THE LOOK
Oh my.  There's no shortage of issues with the anamorphic picture on Make the Yuletide Gay.  The most obvious-and the one most likely not a result of the transfer-is a general darkness in every single scene of the movie.  Outdoor sequences are overcast, as if a filter was put on the camera to achieve some sort of visual effect.  If Williams did this on purpose, he doesn't mention it in the bonus material.  Then there's a general softness permeating each scene, making the picture look as though it was shot through a haze.  Ironically, outdoor scenes look better than almost anything shot inside.  Pause the film on any given scene and you'll find a layer of static grain.  This in and of itself isn't a major problem if the look of the film was designed to look this way.  Because of it, though, the vibrant Christmas colors are somewhat muted, further adding to the issue.  Last up is a significant amount of black crush.

What's black crush?  When the color black appears on screen, it is possible to see blocking, with one "block" being black and another being a dark gray.  Sit far enough away from the screen and it shouldn't be a major problem.  It should be understood this is a rather low budget film and shouldn't be held to high definition standards.  It's also very current and shouldn't come off looking like this at all.  

THE SOUND
So the English 2.0 audio track isn't as disappointing as the video portion.  The mix conveys the dialogue easy enough, without the soundtrack or effects drowning it out.  Because this is a dialogue-driven production, there isn't a lot for the mix to actually do.  In turn, it ends up sounding more than a bit flat, without real dynamics.  ADR, or looping, is a noticeable problem in a few scenes; the balance between dialogue recorded on set and the re-recorded material is noticeable instantly.  I also noticed some background noise, almost as if an air conditioner was running near the set and the sound couldn't be separated out.  Its not terribly distracting, just noticeable.  Neither the dialogue nor the soundtrack become distorted at any octave.  No subtitles are included.

THE STUFF
Make the Yuletide Gay comes packed in a standard black keepcase without an insert.  A selection of trailers plays before the main feature and are also available from the Special Features menu: a generic TLA Releasing trailer, 3-Day Weekend, Back Soon, Chef's Special and The Houseboy.  The film is broken down into 12 chapters.

The marquee extra on the disc is a commentary track with Williams, Jordan and Ruggiero.  It's more of three friends getting together to watch the movie instead of a nuts and bolts behind-the-scenes piece.  There are numerous references to screenings and how certain lines are drowned out because of audience laughter, not to mention shout outs to the entire cast.  They mention multiple takes of certain scenes-or deleted footage-all of which found its way onto the disc.  Williams, to his credit, does fess up to being a total geek, providing a reason why he sought out McFadden and Buchanan for small roles.  None of the three gets on either a political or social soapbox, referencing Prop 8 in California only in passing.  Instead, they allow the film to do the talking for them.

Two deleted scenes (1:41), both of which involve the unseen character of Gun's uncle, are mentioned in the commentary.  Add to that three extended scenes (13:07, with a Play All option or accessible individually).  The "Christmas Dinner" scene incorporates information on the uncle and is the most noteworthy of the three.  "College Class Room," just as in the finished film, turns out to be "icky."  

A selection of outtakes (4:21) shows the cast and crew flubbing lines, missing marks and generally goofing off on set.  Three separate behind-the-scenes (28:15) pieces are also accessible through a Play All option.  Quite simply, they're raw footage from the set, showing various camera setups or rehearsals.  There's no spoken narrative to them, nor are they polished like the film.  Audio drops in and out while ambient sounds overpower the dialogue at times.  Jordan, Ruggiero, McFadden, Keaton and Buchanan are interviewed in the cast interviews (9:22).  As if to back up the director's assertion she can't keep from laughing until she cries in the commentary track, Keaton is holding a tissue throughout her interview segments. 

The Photo Gallery (1:15, 15 photos) froze up the VLC Media Player on my computer, but played on the PlayStation 3 flawlessly.  This film's trailer (1:22) is also included.  An Easter Egg can easily be found on the Special Features menu.