On Wednesday, June 1, the 18th annual New York LGBT NewFest film festival (June 1-11) got off to a laugh-filled start with ThinkFilm's new outrageous comedy film Strangers with Candy. Based on the critically acclaimed television series of the same name, the full length, 90 minute big-screen movie served itself up as the deliciously naughty centerpiece of the fest's opening night gala.

Strangers with Candy stars Amy Sedaris as Jerri Blank, a 47-year-old loser junky whore high school freshman with lesbian tendencies. Got that? As one might guess, the movie plays off the temptation, as well as the prohibition, implied in its name. It is a brand of comedy that invites one's sense of humor to venture where it has not dared go before.

Strangers with Candy offers two things of special note to its gay fans. First off is the onscreen relationship between co-screenwriters/co-stars Paul Dinello (The Colbert Report, and the SWC TV series) and Stephen Colbert (The Colbert Report, The Daily Show). The two play schoolteachers Geoff and Chuck, who are also squabbling gay lovers.

As boyfriends, Geoff and Chuck offer a cynically comic spoof of gay relationships. Theirs is gay love seen through straight eyes. They bicker in front of their students, revealing embarrassing details of their quirky love for all to see. The joke is how they are continually offering the audience a bit too much information about their personal lives.

As science teacher Chuck, Colbert is the self-centered, mean-spirited, cold and calculating half. Dinello as art teacher Geoff is the giving, loving, innocent, gentle spirit.  From their respective characters one can easily divine which is the more sadistic and which the more masochistic. (It's a typical take on how heterosexuals often stereotype gay relationships, with Chuck and Geoff's seeming to be of the S&M variety.)

In a minor subplot to the film, Chuck heartlessly dumps poor Geoff, causing them to become enemies. As is often the case with exes, their conflicts are especially bitter. Chuck has been cruel to Jerri all along, and unhelpful to her in her attempts to come up with an award-winning science project (even though he is her science teacher). To get back at Chuck, Geoff befriends Jerri and becomes her science project advisor to help her win. 

Gay viewers will also likely identify with the ostracized, lonely loser Jerri as she struggles endlessly to find acceptance in a high-school hell full of conformist jocks and cheerleaders. Her pathetically lame attempts to be cool, to fit in, to act as if she doesn't care what others think—all resound with a bittersweet familiarity for gays who have shared similar “outcast” experiences in high school.

Many gay men and lesbians will instantly relate with Jerri's classic reactions to all the hostilities directed at her. We share with her those naïve, teenage strategies for surviving bigotry and intolerance: the ever-sunny outlook, the ability to bounce back, the almost desperate wish to make nice with everyone.

Page 1 / 2 / 3 - Next