San Diego Asian Film Festival: Straight Up (2019)
Todd (writer-director James Sweeney) is in the middle of a severe sexual identity crisis. Everyone assumes he’s gay, but is he? Other than one oral encounter, twenty-something Todd’s a virgin. (Gay sex reminds him of poop.) In spite of his shrink’s suggestion that he’s “willingly barking up the wrong tree,” Todd finds it wise to try his hand at heterosexuality. He and wannabe actress Rory (speed-talking Katie Findlay) meet cute at the library, and after a fashion, both agree to a sex-free relationship. As a filmmaker, Sweeney tells us everything and shows us repetition. For the first two-thirds of the picture, the characters don’t shut their mouths. If the script calls for Rory to adlib a rape joke at an improv class, do we really need a jiggling camera to generate the sensation of being ill at ease? The overly manicured, Wes Anderson-inspired framing traps the characters in the compositions. The call-and-response intercutting between dialogue scenes becomes achingly predictable. And if Todd is positioned in the lower right corner of the frame in a given shot, rest assured that the next one will find Rory mirrored in the lower left corner. Oddly, it’s the festival’s centerpiece film. — Scott Marks