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Trailers...

  • I Am Revathi
  • Jimmy Somerville - Rebelle queer de la pop anglaise
  • Pitch (The)
  • Mother Mary
  • Male Gaze: Heavenly Creatures (The)
  • Out of Love
  • Dashed Lines (The)
  • Boy George & Culture Club
  • Bouchra
  • Apolo
  • No Mercy
  • Night in West Texas
  • Limonov: The Ballad
  • Anything That Moves
  • Maalikaya
  • Discreetest 2000
  • Veins
  • Versailles
  • Zucchini
  • Elena's Shift
  • Invisibles
  • David Delfín. Muestra tu herida
  • Pickled Henry
  • Spiritus: No Business like Dough Business
  • Analogies
  • Juste Xavier
  • Treat Me Like Your Mother
  • Time Was
  • Trans Los Angeles
  • Fallaway
  • Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers
  • Echo Valley
  • Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo (The)
  • Chronology of Water (The)
  • Nova & Alice
  • Lookout (The)
  • True Story (A)
  • We Will Find Happiness
  • 10 Dance
  • Red Envelope (The)

Speech & Debate

Country: USA, Language: English, 105 mins

  • Director: Dan Harris
  • Writer: Stephen Karam
  • Producer: Tom Rice

CGiii Comment

Journalism relies on morals, ethics and honesty...so says a teacher who refuses to endorse a Gay/Straight Alliance on the grounds that it is more of a social event than a legitimate school-club!

This a might little film that seems to have slipped [shamefully] under the gay media's radar! Undeservedly [and, negligently] so!

A light-hearted approach to some seriously BIG issues...censorship, puritanism...and, the transference of errant [adult] opinion onto and into younger [dangerously impressionable] minds!

A trio of misfits...the gay, the geek and the precocious...demand their young voices and opinions to be heard...their approach may be a little unconventional...but, it will certainly put a smile upon your old wizzened faces!

It's been 13 years since Dan Harris sat in the director's chair...and, alas, the rustiness is all too evident. There is a little staggering and a few mis-steps along the way...

Hallelujah for Sarah Steele, a powder-keg of talent and charisma...she captures that fine line between being likable and unlikable perfectly - her two sidekicks sidekick admirably. But, it really is her film...and in being so, her character needed much more depth.

Aaaah but there are the obvious constraints...time and money! With a little bit more time, Harris could have mulled over whether this film should have been a fully-committed musical [that it screamingly wanted to be] or, the film it became...with a few partly-performed songs thrown in to keep things going at a jaunty pace! Ooops!

That said...it's a refreshing, entertaining [even, uplifting] little film that deserves to be seen by an audience, young and old, opinionated and impressionable...and, by the censorious and puritanical!

Smile:)


Trailer...

The(ir) Blurb...

Frustrated by the hypocrisy they see in their parents, teachers, and the entire school board, an unlikely trio set out to find a common truth and make their voices heard as they revive a defunct school club and take on the world.

Cast & Characters

Liam James as Solomon;
Sarah Steele as Diwata;
Austin P. McKenzie as Howie;
Roger Bart as Principal Bellingham;
Janeane Garofalo as Marie;
Wendi McLendon-Covey as Joan;
Kal Penn as James;
Kimberly Williams-Paisley as Susan;
Skylar Astin as Walter Healy;
Lin-Manuel Miranda as The Genie;
Sarah Baker as Miss Riggi;
Lucy DeVito as Lucy;
Ryan Lee as Mark;
Jeremy Rowley as Gary Crenshaw;
Logan Shroyer as Hot Debater