Review of Gayby (2012) by Maksim B — 06 May 2013

A modern and unconventional take on gay life, Gayby is an appealing gay comedy which offers some moments of entertainment, but ultimately fails to match the initial high expectations for an independent and fresh art house dramedy. It offers a captivating insight on some of the daily realities of gay life, but despite its devoted cast, the movie never builds up on these strong premises and never becomes something more than a wanna-be-hype-art-house movie.

There is no doubt that the story is very interesting and that is promises laughs, smiles and probably some tears from the very beginning. The idea of a woman in her later 30's who wants to get pregnant from her best friend (who is gay) and the implications of this results in very strong first half of the movie. Though a bit chaotic, the audience finds itself mildly engaged in the almost-funny let's-make-a-baby interaction between the two widely unknown leads Jenn Harris and Matthew Wilkas. Their fresh, emotionally vulnerable and confused performances are probably Jonathan Lisecki's bigges asset in this movie.

Unfortunately, what starts as an unconventional and promising movie, turns into a messy depiction of urban gay societies, which seem to spend half of their time talking about "being gay". Even if one is not tired of those scenes and dialogues, the lack of any development and the lost sharpness of the story, results in a much weaker, and frankly speaking, boring second part. Director Jonathan Lisecki (also screenwriter of the movie) has probably gone out of idea how could he eventually develop the story in a way going beyond what is said and done in the first thirty minutes.

In the end, Gayby, finishes in the most predictable possible way and it rewards the audience with nothing to remember. With its unconventional start, but very conventional ending, this delivery joins the bunch of countless wanna-be-hype independent movies which fail to reach the cult status they aspire to.