Tell me, what do you get when you squeeze as many cheesy clichés into a movie as possible? Answer - Prom Queen: The Marc Hall Story. I am gay and I was very embarrassed by this film, how it deals with a very topical issue regarding religion and homosexuality and, more to the point, Marc Hall's struggle through this ordeal. The humour (or attempt at such) dominated the film, so by the time we reached an emotionally exhausted Marc at the courthouse we have not had much of a chance to empathise with him because of the annoying crap inserted everywhere. This means what could have been a moving drama with light comedic elements, now becomes a farce. On many occasions gay people are shown as the token butch lesbian, the highly effeminate hand-model, the bear, the P-Flag Mother, the twink - all superficial stuff and totally misses the point the film is trying to make that no matter who you are, we all have the ability to love and be loved for who we are (my favourite bit at the end when the schoolkids leave the school to support Marc, they all seem to find a huge crate of rainbow flags at the Catholic school and run out of the school carrying them - PLEASE!). The perception that could be taken is that gay people are so far stretched from the average joe that they are freaks and are completely different to you and me. So many other films have covered the innate meaning of being gay so much better and this film is so very naive in terms of this. I felt for the actor portraying Marc because as his character was getting so fed up with all the pressure from the public, I could see he was the only one who got the message at all and getting frustrated too. All I can say is, try again and let's not continue to push the tired stereotypes of what it is to be gay.
Review of Prom Queen: The Marc Hall Story
