(2014, 70 min)
Country: U.S.
Director: Matt Riddlehoover
Studio: Bring Chase Productions
Language: English
SYNOPSIS: More Scenes from a Gay Marriage picks up two years after the original left off. Leigh (Devin Walls) has made a gay-themed film (starring Charlie David) about how Darren (Matt Riddlehoover) and Joe (Jared Allman) met and fell in love. As a result of the film's success, Darren and Joe begin to question whether their domestic partnership is as exciting or romantic as what led up to it.
REVIEW:
Matt Riddlehoover is back with an unexpected, but entirely welcome sequel to his gay hit romance Scenes from a Gay Marriage!
Darren and Joe (Riddlehoover and Jared Allman) seem so perfect together that their friend Leigh (Devin Walls) actually made a movie about how they met and fell in love. At that level of romance, there is nowhere to go but down. At the beginning of the movie, before the credits even finish, they announce that they're splitting up. Things have become stagnant, their opposing schedules don't allow them to spend much time together and Darren feels anxiety over the fact that Joe, late to come out of the closet, lacks experience with other men. Darren is going to return home to his family in Sacramento while Joe stays behind and expands his horizons.
Devastated by this news and worried that she'll never see him again, Darren's best friend Luce (Thashana McQuiston) decides to accompany her pal on his trip to Sacramento. Before they get there, though, they plan to stop in Los Angeles and visit with Leigh. Darren, considering him "the one that got away," wants to talk to him face-to-face and see if there are any feelings worth re-kindling. Meanwhile, Luce is having relationship troubles of her own with her boyfriend Bruce (James Foglesong). Back home, Joe hires a studly "masseuse" (Rodiney Santiago), but their encounter only makes him more lovesick for Darren.
More Scenes from a Gay Marriage greatly expands the universe of the first film. This one is really a road movie! As Luce and Darren take off through California, their discussions leads to flashbacks that shed light on past events, adding color to the characters predicaments and catching us up to things that transpired between the original film and this sequel. It's a clever structure that pays off handsomely.
This film, like the original, is also filled with hilarious one-liners and pop culture references (Zachary Quinto shall be known as "Gay Spock" from here on) and the cast is delightful. Thashana McQuiston steals the show, but Charlie David gets a lot of mileage out of his short scene playing Matt Riddlehoover's cinematic surrogate.
-- Review by Robert O'Neill, TLA Video (http://www.tlavideo.com)
