Do you remember being a teenager and meeting someone who turns your head so much that you’re not sure if you want to be like them or be with them?
That’s the feeling that is captured in the gay coming-of-age movieBig Boys that premiered earlier this year at Outfest.
The film follows teen Jamie (Isaac Krasner) on a family camping trip that changes the trajectory of his life. Jamie and his older brother Will (Pen15‘s Taj Cross) have been looking forward to going camping with their cool older cousin Allie (Friday Night Lights‘ Dora Madison), but plans change when Allie invites her new boyfriend Dan (David Johnson III) to come with them.
In the trailer for the film, we see that at first Jamie is worried Dan’s presence will ruin their trip, but he soon becomes enamored with Allie’s boyfriend and begins to emulate his style and make excuses to spend time with him.
Unlike most queer Hollywood movies, this coming-of-age story doesn’t focus on thin, muscular gay men, but instead on our titular “big boys” Jamie and Dan. Writer-directed Corey Sherman felt that showing these characters on screen was important.
“As a big guy myself, it was important to me that the actors who played these characters would be that body type,” Sherman shared in an interview with HuffPost. “There are a lot of people who are attracted to bigger people, but in movies and TV shows, the love interest is always someone who is thin and muscly. If a bigger character is presented as worthy of romance, it’s in spite of their size, or it’s because they have a good sense of humor. But Jamie is attracted to Dan in part because of his size. I wanted my movie to take that seriously.”
Big Boys made its West Coast premiere at Outfest, where it was selected as the audience award-winner for Best Narrative Feature. Krasner, the actor playing Jamie, also took home the Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding Performance.
The film is set to be screen at more festivals, including OUTSOUTH Queer Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina and the Out On Screen Queer Film Festival in Vancouver, Canada on August 12 before moving on to the Filmout LGBTQ Film Festival in San Diego, California on September 10.
There is no word yet on when Big Boys will become widely available, but you can keep track of it at the official website for the film.
