THE OPPOSITE OF SEX

A deliciously subversive breakthrough in gay film making! Never before has one character (and a teenage girl at that!) wreaked more havoc on the previously tranquil lives of a group of gay men than this hilarious mean-spirited comedy. Dedee (Christina Ricci) is a 16-year old bad-to-the-bone white-trash gal, eager to sow her wild oats.

She leaves her Louisiana life for an extended visit to her gay half-brother Bill (Martin Donovan), a placid and altogether nice guy, living with his dumb-as-a-doornail , but sexy younger boyfriend Matt (Ivan Sergei), and before she has a chance to unpack her bags, she's seduced Matt and has convinced him to run off with her.

There begins the action in this razor-sharp satire that skewers the filmic conventions of a bad girl who really wants to do good, as well as offering a decidedly different view of homosexuals. Instead of portraying gay men as witty conversationalists, sex-obsessed or sexually confused, we see them as conventional, domesticated, cute but a little on the stupid side (like your beloved dog) and even insensitive and duplicitous (Johnny Galeki as high schooler Jason, who falsely accuses his former teacher of sexually abusing him). Although there are several gay men in the story, they don't propel the action but simply react to the calumnious actions of Dedee.

Anyone numbed by predictable gay love stories or sensitive coming-out tales should thoroughly enjoy this wicked comedy.