The Broken Hearts Club: Insi the makg of the 2000 gay rom- |

Contents:

• THE BROKEN HEARTS CLUB: INSI THE MAKG OF THE 2000 GAY ROM
• THE GAY WE WERE: ‘THE BROKEN HEARTS CLUB’

THE BROKEN HEARTS CLUB: INSI THE MAKG OF THE 2000 GAY ROM

Cast & crewUser reviewsTrivia2000R1h 34mAn sight to the turbulent liv and lov of a gay clique based Los sight to the turbulent liv and lov of a gay clique based Los sight to the turbulent liv and lov of a gay clique based Los productn, box office & pany Vios1More like thisReview Worth JogGreg Berlanti's film is worthy of a lot of praise a society where gay men tend to only fulfill certa stereotyp. A character, Howie mentns how he would like to see gay men beg reprented as somethg other than the woman's bt iend, the htler, the aids victim or the sex addict and this film do tend to try hard to avoid the stereotyp.

However certa characters do tend to brg the pace down a ltle and do sometim seem to have the sentiment that gay men have got so bad pared to everyone else the world. Greg Berlanti’s The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy told the story of six gay bt iends — Dennis (Timothy Olyphant), Cole (Dean Ca), Benji (Zach Braff), Patrick (Ben Weber), Taylor (Billy Porter), and Howie (Matt McGrath) — navigatg the Los Angel datg scene. THE BROKEN HEARTS CLUB: A ROMANTIC COMEDY, Timothy Olyphant, 2000, (c)Sony Pictur Classics/urt Cred: Everett Collectn The Prep BRAFF: Some of were gay and some weren’t.

THE GAY WE WERE: ‘THE BROKEN HEARTS CLUB’

The highs and lows of that first fay and those nnectns we form at that tim of our liv — do really pture what felt like to be part of that group and be around gay men at that moment and that particular group of iends. " To cheer himself up, he should rent "The Boys the Band" (1970), and fd out how much better gay men are at beg gay than they ed to new movie acts like a progrs report; stead of angst, Frdian analysis, spair and self-hate, the new generatn sounds like the st of a s, tradg lgh l and fuzzy tisms.

' " The lighthearted tone is set right at the begng, as a group of iends plays a game to see who n act the straightt the longt before one reveals an OGT (Obvly Gay Tra).

'A Romantic Comedy'Directed by Greg BerlantiR; 94 mutThe circle of gay bt iends portrayed Greg Berlanti's ''Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy'' is bound together by many thgs, one of which is the pleasure the young men of Wt Hollywood take playg nversatnal Berlanti troduc them the middle of a spired round of ''Who Can Act Straight the Longt?, '' which the players exchange aggrsively butch observatns about sports, beer and the bt bars for pickg up women, until one of them los by revealg an Obvly Gay Tra -- or O.

No longer ntent wh the pursu of sual sex and physil bety, he yearns for mment and stabily a romantic relatnship, modi not easily available the bar scene of Los 's iends clu the pulsively sctive, ntentedly superficial actor Cole (Dean Ca, the Superman of televisn's ''Lois and Clark''); Benji (Zach Braff), a spiky-haired punk wh a weakns for mclemen; the furrow-browed Patrick (Ben Weber), who worri that he isn't good-lookg enough; Howie (Matt McGrath), a graduate stunt who fatally overanalyz his relatnships; and the self-dramatizg Taylor (Billy Porter), a profsnal ok still kg a recent as a father figure to the group is the wise, patient Jack (John Mahoney), the gay proprietor of a rtrant where many of the characters work, and the manager of the softball team -- the Broken Hearts -- that giv the film s Berlanti's prev experience clus a stt wrg for the televisn seri ''Dawson's Creek, '' and his film -- his but as a wrer-director -- reflects a benign televisn sensibily.

It seems strange to kick off this seri about ’90s gay movi wh a technil outlier, sce premiered 2000, but s spir uld not be more firmly lodged ’90s gay rom-s. Over-tellectualizg, massively-nrotic Howie is the kd of guy who will bch about the damage that gym bunni are dog to the gay muny and kick Jt Theroux out of bed for smokg pot, and still I fd him so enarg as played by Matt McGrath.

Var aspects of gay life get touched on, but while Patrick’s subplot, for example, volv surrogacy wh his lbian sister, the film generally elis the more buzzy gay topics of the day. As a romantic edy, I’m willg to cut the film a lot of slack this area, bee that’s what romantic edi are, and bee even 2000 ’s not like even whe gays had a whole lot of plac to turn, culturally speakg.

Olyphant is ridiculoly charmg as Dennis, and he matas a self-awarens that’s sential to a guy who’s awfully preachy about the way gay guys ought to live their liv for a man who’s tryg to bone a twentysomethg h out of the closet. Gay rom-s hardly ever immerse themselv the pop culture of their own era, choosg stead the pastiche of days gone by;  The Broken Hearts Club, that translat to a Carpenters motif and repeated referenc to Steel Magnolias. This movie about a bunch of gay men wh average problems helped a queer teenage girl image a place for herself the world, and that mak a ltle b extraordary.

In my home dimensn, the one where The Broken Hearts Club is rightfully and universally revered as a gay classic, every gay bar town hosted a gatherg of cryg queers Hawaiian shirts this week. To me he was first and fally Jack, the Hawaiian-shirt-wearg, Shakpeare-quotg father figure to a group of young gay men fumblg their way toward matury my favore movie the entire world.

In the early oughts, The Broken Hearts Club was a staple of my high school Gay-Straight Alliance’s movie-night sleepovers, and ’s been a stabilizg force my life ever sce.