FAQS
(TLA Releasing, $19.95)

The gay indie film FAQS is not so much a movie as a manifesto. And it’s a really dumb manifesto at that.
With no subtlety whatsoever, it argues that all straight people suck and that they’re irreversibly programmed to bash queers or, at the very least, call them bad names. Over the course of 90 minutes there’s not a single queer-friendly straight character – and this is West Hollywood, not the Bible Belt.
FAQS is the malformed brainchild of Everett Lewis, a writer and director whose previous films include The Natural History of Parking Lots and Luster. Despite a lot of bad dialogue and crude character development, his does convey the powerful message that queers can band together to fight homophobia.
Lewis’s message is terribly muddled, however, bouncing back and forth between a pro-violence stance on queer activism and a “make love, not war” attitude that comes too late in the movie to balance out the militant content.
The cute but overly earnest actor Joe Lia plays India, a young man who flees his fag hating parents only to be exploited by a sleazy straight pornographer. One night he’s chased into a parking garage by gay bashers, and a black drag queen named Destiny emerges out of nowhere to rescue him with some daunting gunplay.
Destiny is a queer den mother of sorts. She invites queer kids to live with her under the somewhat disturbing condition that they parade around naked for two hours a day. Gay male viewers will be happy to know that this little house rule results in an extended full-frontal romp for Lia.
The plot clumsily evolves into a string of romances and conflicts that force Destiny, India, India’s boyfriend and other characters to evaluate how far they’re willing to go to protect themselves in the straight world.
Most of the actors are handsome and they’re clearly game for some boudoir action, but the sex scenes fall flat due to bad lighting and obscure camera angles.
It must be said that Allan Louis is fabulous as Destiny. His performance is stylish, smart and tough – in other words, everything the film is not.
The DVD features commentary by Lewis and Lia. The pair also participates in a Q&A session recorded at the 2005 Philadelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival.