Wes Smoot 7/30/22 Wes Smoot 7/30/22

FILM REVIEW: Will THEY/THEM make you a convert?

By Arnold Wayne Jones

THEY/THEM -- Pictured: (l-r) Cooper Koch as Stu, Anna Lore as Kim, Monique Kim as Veronica, Quei Tann as Alexandra, Austin Crute as Toby, Darwin del Fabro as Gabriel, Theo Germaine as Jordan -- (Photo by: Josh Stringer/Blumhouse)

The genius of Jordan Peele’s Get Out was his brilliant conceit to disguise a social satire about race behind the genre of a horror film. Peele set up his audience to expect racism, then masked it with a facade of woke tolerance, where gaslighting rises to the level of psychological torture. Of course, the pitfall of that idea is, it is lightning in a bottle: Once you figure it out as an artist, the audience figures it out, too, and it’s hard to revisit that trough again. (Once The Sixth Sense gave us its twist, could anyone ever do “he was dead all along” and not come off as derivative?)

They/Them has to confront a similar anxiety of influence: It’s basically the queer version of Get Out, and once I tell you that, can you really be surprised?

THEY/THEM -- Pictured: (l-r) Theo Germaine as Jordan, Austin Crute as Toby -- (Photo by: Josh Stringer/Blumhouse)

On the surface, at least, it does a pretty good job of creating that off-balance atmosphere: A busload of queer teens of all identities reluctantly arrive at Camp Whistler, what purposes to be a “gay conversion” camp – a phrase so full of repugnance it’s difficult to imagine anyone except the most extreme of homophobes being comfortable saying those words. The camp’s owner is Owen, played by the appropriately reptilian Kevin Bacon, an actor who effortlessly can seem creepy, menacing and friendly almost entirely by the context you put him in. Owen’s welcome speech makes it sound like this is not a conversion camp at all, but a journey of self-discovery: He’s tolerant of the trans-identifying Jordan (Theo Germaine), he avoids bible-thumping and constant indoctrination, he seems kinda hip. It throws off the campers, some of whom want to be there for their own sakes, not their parents.

THEY/THEM -- Pictured: (l-r) Carrie Preston as Cora Whistler, Anna Chlumsky as Molly, Boone Platt as Zane, Kevin Bacon as Owen Whistler -- (Photo by: Josh Stringer/Blumhouse)

But the reality is very different, and underneath we see the hypocrisy and the tension. We know something is afoot; you can’t have seen a horror movie, especially one set at a summer camp, and not be attuned to the tropes of the suspicious handyman, the strange shapes and sounds in the dark, the vulnerability of the shower cabin…. Not to mention the seemingly unrelated but bloody murder in the opening scene. Writer-director John Logan hits these touchstones like a batter hitting each bag as he’s rounding the bases, which is what you want in a genre film, but maybe not so much in a revolutionary issue drama where tropes become cliches. Logan is one of the most respected screenwriters in Hollywood (Gladiator, Hugo, The Aviator) but this is his debut as a director, and his inexperience shows. The performances are perfunctory and the visual adequate and underlit. The film gets stuck in the Sunken Place and struggles to get out to assert an identity of its own.

THEY/THEM -- They/Them Premiere Event on July 27, 2022, at Studio 525 in New York City -- Pictured: Theo Germaine -- (Photo by: Astrid Stawiarz/Peacock)

But is it fair to compare – or at least, as long as you can enjoy a film on its own, does it matter that it doesn’t rise to the level of a genre-defining modern classic? Well, sorta. The similarities are so obvious (a lead character named Jordan? Peele’s last film was Us and now we have They/Them?) it seems to invite comparisons. Do I respect applying the thoughtfulness of Get Out to a gay theme? Sure, despite how humorless and preachy it gets by the end. But as a slasher film, They/Them is clunky and uninspired. I wouldn’t check into this camp.

THEY/THEM -- They/Them Premiere Event on July 27, 2022, at Studio 525 in New York City -- Pictured: (l-r) Matt Strauss, Chairman Direct-to-Consumer & International; Jason Blum, CEO Blumhouse; Quei Tann, John Logan, Writer/Director/EP; Darwin Del Fabro, Anna Lore, Kevin Bacon, Cooper Koch, Theo Germaine, Hayley Griffith, Monique Kim, Austin Crute -- (Photo by: Astrid Stawiarz/Peacock)

They/Them premieres Aug 5 on Peacock.

Wes Smoot 6/29/22 Wes Smoot 6/29/22

Ashlee Keating's Fierce New Song "Saucy" is a Must for Your Summer Party Playlist

Ashlee Keating is ready to take the pop music scene by storm with her new single “SAUCY” and forthcoming EP. The hot new single has quickly become an anthem for both female-empowerment and the LGBTQ+ community. The track was created by the top-tier team of producers Tommy Brown (who works closely with Ariana Grande), YNG Josh and Nick Cooper. While the vibrant “Saucy” music video racked up over 100K views in the first week since its release, directed by Combina Key and choreographed by Shirlene Quigley.

Ashlee Keating “SAUCY” Official Music Video

As a Billboard-charting music sensation, Ashlee is a true multifaceted talent. Her music is a perfect mix of upbeat and inspirational, with lyrical themes of loving yourself and living your best life. Between her colorful style and dance-worthy music catalog, Ashlee has also become highly regarded within the LGBTQ+ community as an ally and activist. She strives to spread messages of love, positivity, and confidence through all of her work. Making major strides in the music industry, Ashlee’s recent single “YASSS” garnered over 1-Million streams on Spotify while her singles “Hurt Me So Good” and “Bad Mistake” spent weeks on the Top 20 Billboard Dance/Club Chart.

Born and raised in Southern New Jersey, Ashlee discovered her love for music at a young age. She made her Broadway debut at only 6-years-old, playing ‘Gretl’ in the national tour of “The Sound of Music” (alongside Richard Chamberlain). Shortly after, she was cast as the lead role of “Annie” at the famous Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia. Ashlee has since been seen as a contestant on CBS’ “Star Search”, a member of Radio Disney’s “Up and Coming Artist” Incubator Program (performing for artists such as Demi Lovato, Keke Palmer, & Raven Symone), in acting roles in movies such as “The Bandit Hound”, and with her holiday single “Ice Kingdom” featured in Coca-Cola’s ‘52 Songs of Happiness’ campaign.

Ashlee loves to use her platform for good, giving back to philanthropic organizations supporting women empowerment and the LGBTQ+ community. Over the years, she has worked closely with GLAAD, Girl Up, St. Jude Children’s Hospital, and the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Outside of her music career, Ashlee likes to stay active with her passions for fashion, dancing, pilates, make-up, traveling, and fitness. She also loves spending time with her pomeranian puppy Koko.

Stay tuned for upcoming Unleashed LGBTQ exclusive interview with Ashlee Keating.

MUSIC & SOCIAL MEDIA:

Instagram | TikTok I Twitter | Facebook |

Music: Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube

Website: ashleekeating.com

Wes Smoot 6/1/22 Wes Smoot 6/1/22

Fire Island | FILM REVIEW

By Arnold Wayne Jones

What a difference a generation – and medical advances – can make. More than 30 years ago, the seminal gay movie Longtime Companion opened with a sense of orgiastic abandon: A group of gay friends embrace their unabashed sexuality by ferrying to queer summer Mecca Fire Island, frolicking at unbridled, sweaty, molly-fueled tea dances, cruising other bikini-wearing studs and hooking up in the dunes with flagrant horniness. The next 90 minutes of that film, though, then portray the ravages of the then-rampaging AIDS epidemic. It’s a beautifully humane tragedy full of both empathy and rage, a movie every gay man knows (or should know) but which doesn’t enjoy the legacy it deserves because of its downbeat, political tone.

(From L-R): Margaret Cho, Tomas Matos, Bowen Yang, Joel Kim Booster, and Matt Rogers in the film FIRE ISLAND. Photo by Jeong Park. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2022 20th Century Studios All Rights Reserved

So when the new hom(0)-rom-com Fire Island (which debuts June 3 on Hulu) opens with virtually the exact same establishing montages (helicopter shots of gayboys about to dock, overhead shots of throngs of half-naked partiers, flirtatious tracking shots of men strutting along wooded walkways), it’s impossible to ignore the probability that director Andrew Ahn and writer-star Joel Kim Booster know exactly what they are doing: They are reclaiming the images of an iconic gay drama for a world were PrEP, the “cocktail” and same-sex marriage rights have transformed the gay community … mostly (but not exclusively) for the better. The world of Fire Island is one of sexy bodies, romantic cliches … and NO disease (not even COVID!). It exists, happily, in the artificial twilight of skin-deep emotions, cheesy plot complications and tidily upbeat conclusions for all the characters we like (and humiliating sadness for those we don’t).

Which is to say, it’s awesome.

OK, so it’s not exactly “awesome,” but it does exude a sexy, post-lockdown energy that feels like a welcome relief after two years of quarantine. It is decidedly not Longtime Companion… or Moonlight, or Brokeback Mountain. Instead, Fire Island romps perkily through the garden of earthly delights previously relegated to heteronormative romances, joining that club while also subversively undermining it.

(From L-R): Matt Rogers, Bowen Yang and Tomas Matos Photo by Jeong Park. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2022 20th Century Studios All Rights Reserved

The gay rom-com is nothing new, of course, but the sly uniqueness of Fire Island is the decision to simultaneously wallow in the eye-candy of ripped, youth-centric Millennial self-indulgence while also arguing for diversity and body positivity. The three main characters – hunky, shallow Noah (Joel Kim Booster), his Eyeore-like buddy Howie (Bowen Yang) and his fussy rival Will (Conrad Ricamora) – are all Asian, as is the de facto comic den mother, played by Margaret Cho; but while ethnicity factors into the plot briefly, it’s not the point: These people are friends… they are gay friends… but this is not a variation of the yellowploitation genre. Booster and Ahn aren’t making a cultural document that aims to be both woke and celebratory, as you could say a Crazy Rich Asians is… unless that culture is angsty 30-something, gig-economy gays. Its agenda, if any, is couched in its casualness. Don’t misunderstand: it definitely traffics in the predictable – characters include a rail-thin chulo drag queen; a sexless, bearish Black comic relief; and a bitchy, Botoxed, roided-up golddigger. But the friendships are from a varied group of types where white boys aren’t the enemy and some Asian guys are dicks.

(From L-R): Torian Miller, Bowen Yang, Margaret Cho, Tomas Matos and Joel Kim Booster in the film FIRE ISLAND. Photo by Jeong Park. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2022 20th Century Studios All Rights Reserved

The plot hinges on people not saying things any normal person would in a similar situation because that would derail all the complications – but it also undercuts them with its quirky lightheartedness. I have to say, this is not something I was expecting from Ahn, whose first feature, Spa Night – a brooding drama about a closeted Korean teen working at a bathhouse – makes Longtime Companion look like a Bugs Bunny cartoon. He demonstrates effortlessness with the cotton candy plot, which involves (no surprise) a quintet of friends reuniting for what may be their last week together at their gay getaway. Promiscuous Noah has decided to keep his penis in his pants and instead dedicate his efforts at getting schlubby depressive Howie laid. There appears to be a prospect in Charlie (James Scully), a recently single doctor, but Charlie’s obnoxious rich buddies think Howie and company are beneath them (sadly, they are sorta right: they behave like assholes at a fancy party) which sparks some social dueling a la Revenge of the Nerds: Can Noah outfox the roadblocks erected by Will and Cooper (Nick Adams), while lightly pursuing daddy-in-training Dex (Zan Phillips)? But might Will not be the villain he seems?

That’s where the script goes off track. Will is less a hard-to-get romantic interest in the way of, say As Good As It Gets, than he is an outright humorless prig, whose sympathies come late and feel forced. Ricamora strives gamely to make him relatable, but the screenplay always goes for the easy gag in place of a character-driven motivation. You never really feel that Will and Noah would be right for each other, just as you don’t really dislike Dex as much as you’re supposed to when he turns out to be the “bad guy” everyone says he is.

No matter. There are too many snarky one-liners, too much joyously queer enthusiasm, too many sexy rippling abs to hold any animosity against the film. Yang reminds us why he’s such a charismatic presence on SNL, and Booster makes for a credible leading man, but the success owes as well to its decision to recast the imagery of Fire Island for froth, not death, with an inclusive cast where inclusivity is neither the gimmick nor the point. It’s the perfect kick-off to Pride Month and a shiny summer of cinema.

Wes Smoot 5/12/22 Wes Smoot 5/12/22

They Slash Them! Peacock and Blumhouse Welcome You to Whistler's Camp August 5

THEY/THEM -- Pictured: (l-r) Darwin del Fabro as Gabriel, Austin Crute as Toby, Cooper Koch as Stu -- (Photo by: Josh Stringer/Blumhouse)

Peacock announced today its new original film THEY/THEM, pronounced “They-slash-Them,” from Blumhouse will premiere Friday, August 5. The LGBTQIA+ horror film, formerly known as ‘Whistler Camp,’ is a queer empowerment story set at a gay conversion camp.

“THEY/THEM has been germinating within me my whole life. I've loved horror movies as long as I can remember, I think because monsters represent 'the other' and as gay kid I felt a powerful sense of kinship with those characters who were different, outlawed, or forbidden,” said writer and director, John Logan. “I wanted to make a movie that celebrates queerness, with characters that I never saw when I was growing up. When people walk away from the movie, I hope they're going to remember the incredible love that these kids have for each other and how that love needs to be protected and celebrated.”

“Original films will be an integral component of Peacock’s content offering, and we are thrilled to partner with Blumhouse on THEY/THEM streaming exclusively this summer,” said Val Boreland, Executive Vice President, Content Acquisition, NBCUniversal Entertainment, Television and Streaming. “The film is not only entertaining and thrilling, but also empowers its audience with its message of acceptance in a way that only a creator like John Logan could imagine and then bring to life.”

THEY/THEM is produced by Blumhouse. The film is created, written, and directed by three-time Oscar nominated screenwriter John Logan (Skyfall, Gladiator, The Aviator), marking his directorial debut and serving as an executive producer on the film. Kevin Bacon (You Should Have Left, City On a Hill), Scott Turner Schofield (Euphoria; The Craft: Legacy), Howie Young (Mission: Impossible III, Hit and Run), and Jon Romano (Firestarter (2022), Vengeance) also serve as executive producers. Jason Blum (Get Out, The Invisible Man) and Michael Aguilar (Penny Dreadful, Kidding) are producers.

THEY/THEM -- Pictured: (l-r) Monique Kim as Veronica, Anna Lore as Kim -- (Photo by: Josh Stringer/Blumhouse)

Wes Smoot 5/11/22 Wes Smoot 5/11/22

Neil Patrick Harris to Star in Uncoupled | Streaming July 29 on Netflix

*Neil Patrick Harris | Santiago Felipe / Getty Images*

Creators & Executive Producers: Darren Star (Sex and the City, Emily In Paris) and Jeffrey Richman (Modern Family, Frasier) globally premiere Uncoupled, starring Neil Patrick Harris July 29, 2022 on Netflix with eight-30 min. episodes

Michael (Neil Patrick Harris) thought his life was perfect until his husband blindsides him by walking out the door after 17 years. Overnight, Michael has to confront two nightmares - losing what he thought was his soulmate and suddenly finding himself a single gay man in his mid-forties in New York City.

Executive Producers: Tony Hernandez (Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, Younger) and Lilly Burns (Emily in Paris, Younger) of Jax Media, Neil Patrick Harris.

Studio: MTV Entertainment Studios

Review to follow release.