Suradit There are times when a talented and/or charming cast of actors can save a badly written/scripted movie, but in Tennessee Queer, the amateurish acting only makes it all worse.Gay-bashing & bigotry towards both the LGBT community and Blacks remain a deplorable reality even as we start the 21st century and any effort to expose its ugly existence is laudable. Exploiting the problem as an excuse to produce a childish, badly acted movie, however, is counter-productive and neither informs nor entertains. "We" can do better than this.There have been many movies produced that sensitively & successfully combine drama and humor in dealing with bullying, prejudice & ignorance and the harmful consequences they have on so many. Tennessee Queer almost appears to lampoon the issue with unintended humor and soap-opera farcical drama.I applaud the intentions of this production but not the results. If you want to see an excellent, realistic portrayal of community healing, a gay pride parade and excellent acting, watch the British movie "Pride," for example.

bkoganbing Recently I've gone back into research into the life and death of a young gay man who was killed in 1983 in New York City. What made Winthrop Bean's case so unique to me was the very good small town upbringing he had in South Strafford, Vermont. He was a loved figure in the town and now is something of a legend in his region of the White River Valley, especially for young LGBT people. Sad to say that Tennessee Queer is a more typical tale of gay youth especially those who live in red state America. Christian Walker grew up as a bullied teen there and left the first chance he could. Now he lives in New York with a partner who might be a married partner now there. He gets a call from his mother who cons him into coming back so she could talk him into moving back at least to the region if not their small town of Smythe, Tennessee.Without going into the particulars Smythe gets itself a Gay Pride Parade, first in the area. A particular bully from Walker's high school years Billie Worley who is now a city councilman with big plans to ride homophobia into higher office. His ally is Jim Eikner the local fundamentalist preacher who has conceived of this brilliant plan target the gay youth of Smythe whom if they march he can steer them into conversion therapy.What starts out as a jest for Walker has mushroomed and turned him into a champion for the rights of LGBT people in the area. Does the parade go on? It does with some unintended consequences for the marchers and the opponents.What Tennessee Queer does and its greatest value is illustrate that things are different in that we no longer consent to be closeted and afraid. Even in a southern small town where the word from fundamentalist pulpits was law this just isn't happening any more. Gays stand up for themselves and the fundamentalist response is now to claim they're the victims. I fear we'll see more and more of that.Worley tells Walker that smearing the queers never gets old. But in fact it is quite old and getting quite out of style.Tennessee Queer is a wonderful film about red state life for gays in America. But it's also quite the blueprint for how to fight back. Gay and mainstream audiences should see this film.

Cyrus We sort of just stumbled into this film at a local "art house" type theatre, and what a treat it was! It's the kind of refreshing indie film that can renew going to the movies when you've overdosed on big Hollywood formula "blockbusters." The cast was outstanding, in particular, the two leads Christian Walker and Billie Worley were just phenomenal. The story tackles a lot of heavy topics that are so current and relevant to "red state" gay people...but it does so with a light-heartedness that just works really well. Without giving away anything, there were several times where I was sure I knew where it was going, and was taken off-guard, and then was happy to see that everything ended as it should have. I really can't recommend this one enough.

Michael Raymond This is not a blockbuster with a multimillion dollar budget, in fact the director and writer Mark Jones paid out of pocket for it himself, that being said my rating reflects a comparison to other movies of its style. If you're looking for deep plot filled with intricate subplots and detailed character development this is probably not the movie for you. However if you enjoy a light hearted inspirational film, that also has its romantic moments then this is the movie for you. Furthermore, it is my opinion that this is a great movie to take a date to.The plot is easy to follow allowing one to talk to their date and be romantic without fear of missing something to important. The ending was not as I expected, I just kept waiting for the Calvary to ride in, e.g. a whole horde of queers from Memphis to ride in with drag queens and bears and leather men, but that never did happen. In fact I feel that the ending is much more satisfying the way it is. It demonstrates that a very small dedicated minority can be just as effective as a larger group. A liberal sprinkling of comedy relief keeps the film from becoming what other wise could have been a depressing film at times. Overall a great little movie to see on Friday night with date.