Dean Lent's coming-of-age story "Feeling Randy" (Breaking Glass Pictures) is short and sweet. It passes quickly at a mere 81 minutes and tells a story that will feel all too familiar to gay male viewers. The film will be available at major video-on-demand platforms on November 5.
Young Reid Miller offers a wonderful performance as Randy, a teenager in the 1970s East Bay who struggles with his sexuality while his straight friends talk incessantly about "pussy."
The guys borrow a car and travel to a brothel in Nevada where each guy brags about how "hot" his sex was-flashbacks to each encounter tell a different story. For Randy the trip is a revelation as he realizes that he's unable to get an erection unless he fantasizes about a guy. The sex worker asks him if he's sure he likes girls.
Back home Randy is caught by his father experimenting with make-up and lipstick. Dad (Jonathan Silverman) is horrified.
"You're the last of the Parkers," Dad shouts. "You're supposed to give us a grandchild."
Randy runs out of the house to Luke, a local stoner (Blaine Kern III). The two get high and have sex in a hot tub where Randy comes to fully realize who he is.
Miller, who previously played a gay character in the independent film "Joe Bell," is a delight as Randy, a closeted young man who finds that he has no choice but to accept himself.
He's surrounded by an able cast. Silverman is superb as the strict, conservative father who wrestles with a few demons of his own. Late one night a naked dad is brought home by a police officer who tells the horrified mom (Marguerite Moreau) that dad was caught swimming in a neighbor's pool, naked with an erection.
"Your father is going to speak to... a very nice man," Randy's mother says.
Randy's friends (Tyler Lawrence Gray, Oliver Wyman and Shane Almagor) are an amusing lot. They drop a lot of F-bombs and talk about one thing only, sex. They might serve as a reminder for gay viewers as to what it was like to be a gay teen 50 years ago, when we were surrounded by guys like these and struggled to hide our true nature from them.
Lent, who is best known for his work as a cinematographer, does a beautiful job recreating the East Bay of the late 1970s. A Farrah Fawcett poster adorns the wall of Randy's room, and he watches "Space: 1999," a popular science fiction show of the day, with his mom. Bellbottom pants and long hair are all the rage, and a happy face fad is sweeping the country. It's Lent's own story, and he tells it in a film that's evocative and quite lovely.
"It's a shame that "Feeling Randy" is going to be seen mainly on streaming platforms. This is a film that deserves of a theatrical release. Hopefully it'll find its audience online.
Look for "Feeling Randy" on November 5 on Video on Demand platforms.
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