freshman orientation 2004 excerpt

Freshman Orientation (2004)
Three years after it premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival under a different title, writer/director Ryan Shiraki's pallid gay-themed college comedy Freshman Orientation finally arrives in theaters. A strained mixture of crude sexual humor, romance, and coming-out story, it's an overly derivative entry from Regent Releasing, made watchable, albeit marginally, by funny supporting turns from Rachel Dratch and John Goodman.

Originally titled Home of Phobia, Shiraki's feature filmmaking debut (and it shows, both in the on-the-nose writing and routine direction) is a low-budget exercise in high-concept comedy: randy incoming freshman Clay Adams (Sam Huntington) plays "gay" to win the trust of pretty sorority girl Amanda (Kaitlin Doubleday). What he doesn't know is that Amanda initially expresses interest him only to fulfill a pledge requirement, dictated by Serena (Jud Tylor), the nasty, repressed lipstick lesbian sorority president. Unless Amanda seduces and publicly dumps a gay student, she'll lose her full, sorority-sponsored scholarship. Meanwhile, Clay's bookish roommate Matt (Mike Erwin), is fighting a losing battle to keep his growing attraction to Clay a secret. Sitcom-level complications ensue before all is resolved happily, if none too wittily, by Clay's final clinch with Amanda (what, you were expecting Matt?).

An amiable, slightly raunchy diversion at the most, Freshman Orientation traffics in overly familiar gay and lesbian stereotypes, i.e., the angry lesbian, the sensitive closet case, the militant activists, without fleshing them out into multi-layered characters. You get the feeling that Shiraki couldn't decide whether he was making an all-out raucous sex comedy a la American Pie and its many clones, or a more thoughtful, character-driven piece, like Judd Apatow's television series Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared. As a result, there's a glaringly inconsistent tone to Freshman Orientation, which benefits greatly from the all-too brief appearances by Dratch, as a drunken older student perpetually on the make, and Goodman, as a gay bartender and Randy's confidante. Otherwise, Freshman Orientation barely rates a passing grade.

— TIM KNIGHT

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• freshman
• orientation
• 2004
• excerpt

[garycadwising]

It's cool that this is on here. It's my favorite scene in this entire movie.