With it's colorful cast of oddball characters, raunchy burlesque sight gags, irreverent social humor and tongue-in-cheek puppy love, Adam & Steve is a queer take on recent straight films such as There's Something About Mary, Meet the Parents and My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Chester cleverly deconstructs what is crowd-pleasing about sappy hetero romantic comedies and remakes it to be inclusive for gays.

Both farcical and sincere, the somewhat fractured fairy tale begins with a sarcastically silly flashback to the hedonistic dance club culture days of the 1980s. As lampooned in this film, it is a time when bad hair, bad drugs and bad dancing ruled.

Our two young leads - Goth guy Adam (Craig Chester) and glam rock dancer Steve (Malcolm Gets of Caroline of the City) first meet at NYC's infamous 80s nightclub Limelight. Although instantly attracted to each other, the high and horny duo's first sex hookup quickly descends into comic disaster and abruptly terminates.

Fast-forward to 2005. As Love's circle game of fate would have it, Adam and Steve (now in their 40's) encounter each other again, innocently unaware that they had previously met. The two men begin courting each other with the support of Adam's trusty fruit fly friend Rhonda, played by Parker Posey (A Mighty Wind, Further Tales of the City, Scream), and Steve's neurotic straight roommate Michael, played by Chris Kattan (SNL, Corky Romano). Along the way Rhonda and Michael, two most unlikely candidates for love, fall for each other.

A string of light-hearted “court and spark” comedic situations ensue for both couples. Eventually, clues begin to surface that perhaps Adam and Steve might have met before. It is revelation that for various contrived plot reasons would threaten to scuttle their otherwise marriage-bound love boat.

In making Adam & Steve, Craig Chester successfully creates a film that can encourage gay men to feel optimistic about the simple joy of romance. This may not sound like much, but given the often guilt rid, hand-wrung history of queer cinema in general, it's actually a none-too-shabby, welcome achievement.

Together onscreen, Chester and Gets provide an appealing, unashamedly wholesome spin on the "boy meets boy" film genre. They are disarmingly believable as love-struck sweethearts. Adam and Steve seem so at home in each other's arms one might think them lovers in real life.

Furthermore, as two openly gay actors playing gay romantic lead characters in a relationship, Chester and Gets send a positive message to nervous Hollywood filmmakers. It is viable and credible for queers to play queers on film.

Craig Chester names Woody Allen and John Waters as being inspirational to his acting, directing and writing style. Their influence is obvious. As stated in its promotional website, the goal of Adam and Steve is to “co-opt American cinematic 'formulas', namely the romantic comedy and movie musical, and turn them inside out while paying homage to them at the same time”. Think Hairspray meets Husbands and Wives.

Viewers may also notice a certain “Ed Wood” quality hovering over this very quirky production. It's hard to tell just how audiences will respond to the film's intended sense of itself. They may laugh at it, as well as with it.

There more than enough of absurdity, hokey-ness, and low budget camp to go ‘round in this film.

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