mr. wrong
by
Douglas Messerli
Aaron
Danick (screenplay), Andrew Nackman (director) Fourth Man Out / 2016
In
his film Fourth Man Out director
Andrew Nackman clearly couldn’t determine what kind of movie he was attempting
to make. Was it to be a wacky “bro” movie, where four blue-collar friends get
together on weekends for ballgames, beer, boobs and fag jokes? Or was he
attempting to show the difficulties of an individual in such a culture in
expressing his own sexual difference? Perhaps he was simply satirizing small
town America. Of course, a brilliant director might have possibly accomplished
all of these in one fell swoop, but Nackman, alas, is not a brilliant director.
Local mechanic Adam (Evan Todd) has,
somewhat inexplicably, finally determined, after ten years, to come out to his
three macho friends; but given their own homophobic and misogynistic behavior,
he simply cannot get up the nerve. Only as they lay half asleep, sprawled out
on couches and chairs does he get up the nerve to whisper the news to the best
of his friends, Chris (Parker Young). And when his other friends, Nick (Chord
Overstreet) and the overweight Ortu (Jon Gabrus) get wind of his admission, their
fear and trembling is apparent. The equally unattractive and self-doting Nick
is even convinced, soon after, that Adam is seeking a sexual relationship with
him!
Chris eventually calms them down, and
with the help of Chris’ date, Tracy (Jennifer Damiano), comes to realize just
how difficult it has been for Adam to tell them the truth. Soon they are all
going on-line to gay dating sites such as Grindr and reading gay sex manuals in
order to help their friend to find Mr. Right. In the end, they seem to know
more about gay life that Adam himself.
Adam even gets up the nerve to tell his
parents, and before long the whole town knows of his sexuality, including his fanatically
religious Catholic neighbor Martha (Brooke Dillman) who for years has been offering
him up baked-goods along with her niece.
Given these developments, this film might
have been comedically charming—and at moments it is—if it weren’t for Nackman’s
own seeming bigotry about gay “types.” In just a few moments, as Adam tries
dating several men at the local Irish pub, the film offers us up a sleazy
married man—with the on-like moniker of Bradstar—who has turned his basement
into a dungeon for his gay dates, a nelly queen, a nervous not quite out of the
closet boy, a tough jocko loudmouth obsessed with Scarface, and a effeminate black gay who’s offended by Adam’s
flatulents (who might not be?)—a gag-result of a meal of nachos. Even if one
might imagine that all these young gay stereotypes might exist in this small
town, the caricatures drain any credibility from Nackman’s film, and merely
reiterate the silliest and most obnoxious visions of gay life. Surely, Nackman
seems to argue, these are the not the right partners for the straight-looking working-class
Adam. A later date with an outlandish queer artist truly crosses the line—even
for Chris, who suddenly claims to be Adam’s lover to get rid of the snobbish
prick.
When Adam finally “services” the car of a
very handsome man of his age who drives around town with two kayaks attached to
the roof, he feels he’s finally found the right man, especially when they share
a moment of intense eye contact. But at the very moment when the attractive car
owner is set to pick up his car, mechanic Adam is sent away on an errand, and
misses what may seem to be his last opportunity.
Of course, that gives Adam’s friends time
to take him out, for what is apparently for the first time—again an
inexplicable narrative twist—to the small city’s gay bar, where not only do
they all have a good time, but where Chris is able, once more, to connect up
with Tracy, who’s there, apparently, with her gay brother.
Meanwhile, Chris is having trouble with
his current lover, Jessica (Jordan Lane Price); he apparently can longer get an
erection, and soon after, encountering the kayak-topped car in a parking lot,
he determines to bash it in with a hockey stick. We can no longer quite guess
his intent. But having recently attempted to kiss Adam, he, we suspect, may be
coming to terms with something he has never before admitted to himself, that he
actually is in love with Adam.
This might have resulted in a very
fascinating conundrum, which could have completely redeemed the emptiness of
the rest of Nackman’s work if he had explored its consequences, but clearly the
director was not willing to go where the script might naturally have led him. Adam
adamantly rejects Chris’ advances, and the film ends with the easy resolution
of Adam reintroducing him, yet again, to “Tracy,” whose real name, it turns
out, is something else.
Of course, Mr. Right, having again to
repair his car, returns to the garage where, this time around, Adam has the
chance to truly introduce himself. Presumably they will soon be driving off into
the sunset to kayak together down some lonely stream. But, I have to tell you,
Parker Young is far cuter, and if I were Adam I surely would have returned his
kiss.
Los Angeles, July
9, 2016
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