Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 23, No. 30, Ed. 1 Friday, December 8, 2006 Page: 40 of 84
eighty four pages : ill.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
H I R 0 S H
END
S U G
OFT
M 0 T 0
M E
■style screen
Pleasant aftertaste
Wry romantic comedy brews rich blend of friendship, sexual confusion
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
3200 Darnell Street
Fort Worth, Texas 76107
817.738.9215
www.themodern.org
AmericanAiiiines' Star-Tfelegram
Hiroshi Sugimoto, Caribbean Sea, 1980 (detail).
Gelatin silver print. 47 x 58 3/a inches. Private collection.
Straight guy (Bray, middle) arrives at a coffeehouse to discover that his perfect girl is a hunky dude (Cruz, left).
By Steve Warren Contributing Film Critic
THROUGH JANUARY 21, 2007
"A NIMBLY ACTED, BLESSEDLY RAUNCH-FREE
AND SENSITIVELY AMUSING PORTRAYAL OF
MODERN MALE BONDING, CONSIDERABLY
AIDED BY CRUZ'S SMILE."
B
Wilson
CRUZ
- ROBERT ABELE. LOS ANGELES TIMES
Sally
KIRKLAND
Jonathan
BRAY
Jason
STUART
Elaine
HENDRIX
WITH
Deborah
GIBSON
AS MELISSA
AND
Jonathan
SILVERMAN
AS BARRY
FILM AND MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT, INC. & COFFEE PRODUCTIONS, LLC presents o STEWART WADE film COFFEE DATE
music by EBAN SCHLETTER costume design NIKLAS J. PALM production design JAMES J. AGAZZI
associate producers SALLY KIRKLAND, ELAINE MENDRIX, MEREDITH HA8IF director of photography HOWARD WEXLER edited by DAVID AVALLONE
executive producer ANTONIO BROWN executive producers S. EUGENE and MARJORIE MARGOLIS, DENA HARMAN, ERIC MILLER, ERIC BORSUM
produced by CINDY PETERS and STEWART WADE written and directed by STEWART WADE
WWW.COFFEEDATETHEMOVIE.COM
© 2006 by Coffee Date Productions.LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Now Playing! ™n~
Call for Showtimes West Village *3699 McKinriey* (214) 764-9106
Like sugar in your coffee?
"Coffee Date" is a sweet comedy about two
men who find they can be soulmates without
being bedmates. In different ways, it's a revelation
for both Todd (Jonathan Bray), who's heterosexu-
al, and Kelly (Wilson Cruz), who is
gay-
They meet when Todd's brother
Barry (Jonathan Silverman) arranges
an online date for him. Todd's trying
to get back in the dating game after
an ugly divorce. But Barry plays a
joke on him by hooking him up on a
gay Web site.
Todd immediately realizes that Romancing the
Bean is a gay cafe. And Kelly, with whom he's
forced to share a table while both await blind
dates, is not as out of place there as he is. But it
takes them awhile to realize they're there to meet
each other, and by then they've struck up a friend-
ship. After all, they're both movie buffs and both
coming out of relationships that ended badly.
They wind up going to a movie together. Then,
to get even with his brother, Todd brings Kelly
home, and they make sex noises behind the bed-
room door.
The joke yields positive and negative results.
Barry finally moves out of Todd's house, but
he also tells their mother (Sally Kirkland) about
Todd. Mom immediately flies to California ("She
never flies!") for an indefinite visit. While she
joins PFLAG and tries to adjust to having a gay
son, Todd and Kelly continue seeing each other as
friends, expanding Todd's gayrizons.
Word that Todd is gay spreads through his
workplace — thanks to Clayton (Jason Stuart), a
fellow computer programmer who had been the
token gay at the office; No one will believe Todd
when he says he's straight — except Kelly. And
he's still hoping for a change.
His new status makes Todd more interesting to
Melissa (Deborah Gibson, whose old fans will be
treated to a song at the end and a T-shirt homage),
a co-worker he's been crushing on who had dis-
missed him as "just anther boring straight guy."
Another potential romantic interest for Todd is
Bonnie (Elaine Hendrix), Kelly's housemate, "a
gay man trapped in a straight woman's body."
If there's a problem with "Coffee Date" it's
that Bray is too believable as "just anther boring
COFFEE DATE
Director: Stewart Wade
Cast: Wilson Cruz, Debbie
Gibson and Sally Kirkland
Opens: Dec. 8 at Landmark's Magnolia.
1 lir., 34 min. Not rated.
straight guy." He doesn't have the ability of, say,
Jack Lemmon or Jim Carrey to make "ordinary"
interesting.
Cruz is the same sweetheart he was on "My
So-called Life" and looks to have aged about a
minute-and-a-half since that
show's run ended in 1995.
Writer-director Stewart Wade
has done a goodjob of fleshing out
"Coffee Date" from his 17-minute
2001 short. It could move a bit
faster but doesn't seem padded.
And if most of the plot develop-
ments are reasonably credible at this pace, the
screenplay must be solid. Wade goes for chuckles
rather than gutbusters, so you won't laugh loudly,
but you'll laugh frequently.
The idea of inter-orientation friendships may
be old news. But aside from the token gay neigh-
bor, it's still a novelty in the movies.
If "Coffee Date" is cutting-edge with a dull
blade, it has a pleasant aftertaste. You may find
yourself appreciating it more a few days after you
see it, instead of straining to remember it — like
most disposable gay comedies.
WILL DEBBIE DO DALLAS?
On Friday, OUT
TAKES Dallas hosts
a special screening
of "Coffee Date" at
The Magnolia.
Before the film,
there's a happy
hour in the upstairs
lounge: Enjoy dis-
counted martinis
and premium beers.I
Movie starts at 7 p.m.
Save your ticket stub. After the screening,
there's a after-party at Station 4: stub gains free
admission — if you're 21 or older.
At press time, the film's publicist said the
Deborah Gibson, pictured, and Jonathan
Silverman "might" be attending the screening
and after-party. But don't hold your breath.
Dec, 8: Happy hour from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at
Magnolia Lounge, Screening at 7 p.m. at
Landmark's Magnolia, 3699 E, McKinney Ave,
Suite 100. Station 4 is located at 3911 Cedar
Springs Road.
40 I dallasvoice.com I 10.20.06
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Nash, Tammye. Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 23, No. 30, Ed. 1 Friday, December 8, 2006, newspaper, December 8, 2006; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth238938/m1/40/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.