Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss

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Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss

Screen shot from one of Billy's fantasy sequences, Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss
Directed by Tommy O'Haver
Produced by David Moseley
Meredith Scott Lynn (co-producer)
Irene Turner (co-producer)
Written by Tommy O'Haver
Starring Sean Hayes
Brad Rowe
Richard Ganoung
Meredith Scott Lynn
Music by Alan Ari Lazar
Cinematography Mark Mervis
Editing by Jeff Betancourt
Distributed by Trimark Pictures
Release date(s) 1998
Running time 92 minutes
Country USA
Language English
IMDb profile

Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss is a 1998 independent, gay-themed, romantic comedy film written and directed by Tommy O'Haver and starring Sean Hayes, Brad Rowe, Richard Ganoung and Meredith Scott Lynn. The film was a breakthrough performance for Hayes, who would go from this film to his role as Jack McFarland on the hit television show Will & Grace.

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Billy Collier (Hayes) is an aspiring photographer in Los Angeles who has had little artistic success and much romantic frustration. He comes up with the idea of recreating iconic screen kisses from Hollywood movies (such as Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr's in From Here to Eternity) using drag queens in the female roles. While out for coffee with his roommate Georgiana (Lynn), he meets Gabriel (Rowe), the server. That night at a party, Billy's friend Perry (Ganoung) agrees to finance Billy's Screen Kiss project and Billy serendipitously runs into Gabriel. Billy recruits him to model and the two develop a friendship (although Gabriel says that he has a girlfriend in San Francisco).

Billy quickly becomes infatuated with Gabriel but cannot figure out if Gabriel is really straight; Gabriel does little to help, continually sending ambiguous signals. At Perry's invitation, the two attend an exhibit by photographer Rex Webster, who tries to poach Gabriel as a model (and potential trick). Webster offers to take Gabriel to Catalina Island for an underwear ad shoot, sparking Billy's jealousy. Back at Gabriel's place, Billy and Gabriel seem to be getting closer but their rapport is interrupted by a phone call from Gabriel's girlfriend Natalie.

Billy shoots his first setup with Gabriel, the Lancaster-Kerr kiss. Following the shoot, Gabriel tells Billy that his relationship with Natalie is over. Billy mentions the Kinsey scale, on which Billy describes himself as a "perfect six," but Gabriel admits he does not know where on the scale he falls. Back at Billy's apartment, they continue to talk and drink and Gabriel asks if he can spend the night on the couch. Billy suggests that Gabriel sleep in his bed (ostensibly because of Gabriel's height), to which Gabriel eventually agrees. When the two are in bed, Billy makes tentative overtures, to which Gabriel seems to respond initially; however, Gabriel suddenly pulls away, after which Billy apologizes and gets up to sleep on the couch.

Gabriel gets the underwear modeling job and goes to Catalina. Billy follows after him to Catalina with Georgiana (who, on the rebound from her boyfriend Andrew, hooks up with drug-addled island resident "Gundy"). Billy crashes Rex Webster's underwear shoot looking for Gabriel but does not find him.

Billy eventually tracks Gabriel down at Rex's party later that night and the two talk on the beach. Billy relates to Gabriel how confused he was when he came out, saying, "I swore to myself that if I could ever be there for somebody, I would, so that that person wouldn't have to go through all the shit I went through. What I'm trying to say is, if you're having problems figuring out where you stand, even if you're not sure of what you're supposed to want—"; however, before Billy can finish, one of Gabriel's fellow models comes up. Billy realizes that the two of them are together and Gabriel tells him straightforwardly, "Billy, I'm pretty sure what I'm supposed to want." Gabriel tries to soften the blow, but Billy rebuffs him. Later, Perry tries to console Billy, telling him that a few years earlier Perry had similarly fallen for someone who did not return his affections; Perry confesses that that man was Billy. The next morning Georgiana has ditched Gundy and Billy and Georgiana head back home.

The movie ends with the opening of Billy's "Hollywood Screen Kiss" series exhibition, which includes his photos of Gabriel. Perry shows Billy a magazine with an underwear ad featuring Gabriel and suggests that Billy give him a call. Billy demurs, saying he needs some time away. Toward the end of the night, Billy meets Joshua, suggesting that along with his newfound artistic success Billy may at last find romantic fulfilment as well.

Spoilers end here.

The film is punctuated with Billy's fantasy sequences of himself and Gabriel in pastiches of romantic film scenes, including the aforementioned From Here to Eternity and the films of Fred Astaire. Billy carries a Polaroid camera with him everywhere, and his reminiscences are illustrated with Polaroid photographs. The film in fact opens with such a monologue, with Billy relying on a series of Polaroids while relating how he grew up gay "in a small town in Indiana, where there's plenty of corn, fast cars, and straights. Lots and lots of straights. I mean, a lot." Billy's opening narrative demonstrates his awareness that he is in a film and breaking the fourth wall.

Several scenes in the movie are backed up by classic songs of bygone times sung by famous and lesser known divas; these are lip-synced by more or less the same troupe of drag queens, a running gag throughout the film.

Brad Rowe and Sean Hayes in Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss
Brad Rowe and Sean Hayes in Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss

[edit] Notes

  • The film features cameos by Paul Bartel as Rex Webster and Warhol "superstar" Holly Woodlawn.
  • This film is a remake of writer/director O'Haver's earlier short film Catalina.
  • The film was shot at an unusually wide aspect, at even greater than 2:1.

[edit] DVD release

Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss was released on Region 1 DVD on December 22, 1998.

[edit] Awards and nominations

[edit] CD soundtrack listing

*original score written by Alan Ari Lazar

[edit] External links

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