Straight-Jacket
Directed by Richard Day
USA, 2004
35mm, 96 minutes

Past Screening

SHOWTIMES: OPENING NIGHT
FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, 2005
8:00PM
Main Art Theatre, Royal Oak.

AFTER PARTY!: Join your fellow movie mavens and a special guest from the film at the Straight-Jacket afterparty immediately following the 8:00PM viewing.

AT: Jim Fresard Automotive Dealerships
400 North Main St. Royal Oak, Michigan

Catering and support by:

Straight-Jacket

Perfectly skewering the fake world that is Hollywood, Straight-Jacket shrewdly balances campy humor and satire to create a deliriously frisky farce. It’s the 1950s and actor Guy Stone, played to witty perfection by Matt Lescher (“Good Morning Miami”), is the town’s biggest leading man—even if his ego is greater than his talents. Being a hunky Hollywood romantic lead gives him free reign to have anyone he wants—but not quite in the manner his adoring female fans might suspect (Can anyone say Rock Hudson?).

However, this is McCarthy-era 1950s, and Hollywood is under the seige of red-baiters looking for commies, or failing that, at least a few good queers. Guy must keep his sexual exploits a secret. Trouble is, he isn’t always the most discreet gentleman. Much to the dismay of his ever-anxious agent Jerry and the worry-wart studio executive Sal, Guy fearlessly cruises gay bars and gleefully exploits his celebrity to pick up good-looking studs, stage-hands, and just about any man wearing pants for casual sex back at his extravagant estate.

When the press gets ahold of some incriminating photos, Guy’s leading man image, not to mention his lead role in Ben Hur, is in jeopardy. What’s a studio to do? Why, arrange a marriage of convenience with the studio chief’s secretary named Sally, of course. Sweet but clueless Sally is blinded by Guy’s leading man image and content with her dream marriage even despite his aloofness and insistence on separate beds.

While ignorance may be bliss, Guy engages in a hysterical struggle to keep up the ruse of his “ideal marriage.” Then he meets Rick, a boyishly handsome screenwriter whose social consciousness clashes a bit with Guy’s “boys just wanna have fun” attitude. With a McCarthy-era witch-hunt underway at the studio, can their blossoming love survive? And what about Sally? Can she find happiness in a Hollywood ending? Writer/director Richard Day’s follow-up to his hilarious hit “Girls Will Be Girls” unleashes an abundance of zippy one liners and a bounty of Hollywood beefcake. An affecting, fresh, sharp-edged humorous look at prejudice within Hollywood, Straight-Jacket will make you laugh and maybe even touch your heart.