POSTER BOY DECONSTRUCTS THE RIGHT-WING AGENDA
As initial credits roll for Poster Boy, the muffled voice of a journalist (played by Steve Sheffler) is making an appointment to interview Henry Kray (played by Matt Newton). The interview takes place six months after an extraordinary event that is revealed in the film’s climax. Most of the movie consists of flashbacks from the interview to the reelection campaign of North Carolina Senator Jack Kray (played by Michael Lerner). The Senator is a conservative Republican whose cynical campaign theme is to “take back America” from the liberal agenda that he defines to include gay marriage and a host of other issues. Henry is a student at mythical Barken College in New York. The Senator has been invited by Barken’s Young Republican Club to give a speech, and he demands that Henry serve as his poster boy by introducing him so that he can court the votes of his younger constituents. The Senator is an asshole, never listening to the emotions or thoughts of his supportive spouse, Eunice (played by Karen Allen), completely out of touch with his gay son, and only interested in reelection. Henry, who had his first gay experience in ninth grade, has developed his identity by staying apart from the life of the busy Senator, who does not realize that his son’s sexual orientation might torpedo his candidacy. Henry is not eager to make a canned introductory speech, so he escapes to Palm Springs, but to fetch him his mother sends an aide (played by Ian Reed Kesler), who threatens to “out” him to his father. Henry fully understands that his father’s campaign themes are hypocritically designed wedge issues, that is, efforts to brand his opponents as engaged in a cultural war against traditional America. Meanwhile, a few opponents of the Senator’s perceived racism, sexism, homophobia, and other aspects of his antiliberal agenda plot to “out” Henry in order to discredit the Senator. One of the group, Anthony (played by Jack Noseworthy), meets Henry at a party one evening, they end up in bed, the two begin to fall in love with each other, and only later Anthony realizes that his new conquest is the Senator’s son. In one scene, the Senator’s limousine accidentally strikes Anthony’s girlfriend, Izzie (played by Valeria Geffner), whereupon the Senator’s wife seeks to bribe her by giving her a dress and fur coat so that the incident will stay out of the press. The speech marks the climax of the film, and the interview with the journalist is to provide material for a front-page feature story that will contextualize what happened. Unfortunately, various references are anachronistic, as the film pretends to take place in the 1980s, when HIV progressed quickly to AIDS and death, as well as in the 1990s, when gay marriage became an issue. With considerably more funding to improve the script, editing, and cinematography, the film might have become a blockbuster feature film, but alas the movie will be perceived as a “gay film.” The director, Zak Tucker, was the third person to take charge after the first director died and the second choice walked away. MH