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Latter Days
Directed by C. Jay Cox
Starring Wesley A. Ramsey, Steve Sandvoss
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Gay audiences often complain about how dumbed-down queer movies are. But lots of Hollywood films don't have an idea in their heads. Some of them-- say, Runaway Jury or The Bourne Identity never intend to; they're the slick, stupid thrillers that they are. Other films intend to say something profound; often they don't. Monster is a good example-- after all the fuss, the apocalyptic seriousness of the subject, it really amounts to very little. Then there's a third set of films-- like the American Pie series-- which you might guess are brainless, but actually have smart things to say-- without wearing any badges about "being about something."

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The quite marvelous Latter Days, written and directed by C. Jay Cox, is something of a cross between types two and three. There's mind and heart here, but unassumingly. What could've been just a small-scale, quirky love story of a mismatched couple ends up being so much more. Latter Days is one of the best films this years, and certainly one of the best queer ones in a long time.

The plot is simple. Christian Markelli (Wesley A. Ramsey) is a vain, self-indulgent Los Angeles gay guy who prides himself on seducing straight men and keeping his body in shape. He's a competent waiter in an upscale restaurant (owned and run by a glamorous Jacqueline Bisset, but whose name here is Lila Montagne, even though we know she's the fabulous Jacqueline Bisset character) but that's about as far as his ambitions run. One day, a group of young Mormon missionaries moves into Christian's apartment complex, and wouldn't you know it-- the really, really cute one is a closeted gay guy. Actually, they're all pretty cute, but Elder Aaron Davis (Steve Sandvoss) is by far the cutest.

This is, of course, the classic gay romantic setup: boy meets boy, cute closeted guy comes out, everybody has sex and a happy ending. But in Latter Days, this isn't what happens, at least not right away. When the ever-shallow Christian makes a bet with his friends that he can bag the Mormon, director Cox begins to changes the rules. Aaron knows he's gay and is primed to come out, but he actually takes his vocation and religion seriously. The tension here is not centered on his ability to "come out," but his own internal struggles over his faith.

This, of course, is beyond Christian, who just likes playing a cat-and-mouse game with an ostensibly straight boy. Christian and Aaron get together and kiss, and Aaron is discovered in a homo-embrace by his brother missionary. He is sent back, in disgrace, to Idaho and his staunchly homophobic and religious family. The focus of the film now shifts. It's no longer about Aaron's struggles of "coming out," but rather about Christian's realization that he is, at heart, a callow and empty-headed little shit. He realizes that he was actually having some real feelings for Aaron and that seducing him for a bet was, well, unethical. Latter Days becomes, at this point, a religious film. Not because it's examining Aaron's juggling of belief and sexuality, but because Christian has to examine what it means for him to live and act like a decent person.

Now here's a new theme for queer film-- how can a gay character act like a better, more moral (in the best sense of the word) person. With a few exceptions (Roland Tec's All the Rage or Lisa Cholodenko's High Art come to mind) queer movies haven't been overly concerned with matters of moral choice. Well, after Aaron gets sent back to Idaho (a.k.a. Gay Hell) Christian freaks out and tracks him down to a snow-bound airport, where they finally get to have a lot a sex. But then Aaron continues to his home, where he's expelled from his church and scorned by his family. Again, Christian attempts to find him. There are plenty of surprises here-- both in terms of plot and the film's avoidance of platitude.

But even better than surprising us, Cox-- as both writer and director-- is really intent on provoking us. Not in big ways-- like the American Pie series, this really is a movie with few pretensions. By the end of the film we really do have a much better sense of Christian and how his view of himself and the world has changed. We also have a better sense of Aaron and his spiritual struggle-- but that is really less important. In fact, the scenes of Aaron dealing with his family-- Mary Kay Place plays his deeply religious and bitterly disappointed mother-- are effective, but feel sort of rote. We've seen this queer-boy-dealing-with-religious-bigotry before, and, as well as it's done here, Christian's journey is the more compelling.

Latter Days is quietly sexy and funny, but also smart. The acting is top-level, and Cox has a fine sense of pacing and movement. The characters really grow out of the story. We care about them because they have inner lives and are not silly, empty queer caricatures on the screen to elicit lust or laughs. If the storybook ending seems pat, it's also earned. We want them to end well, not because gay movies should be positive, but because these are people we've come to know.

Author Profile:  Michael Bronski
	Michael Bronski is the author of Culture Clash: The Making of Gay Sensibility and The Pleasure Principle: Sex, Backlash, and the Struggle for Gay Freedom. He writes frequently on sex, books, movies, and culture, and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
	Email:	mabronski@aol.com