POSTER BOY
WETTBEWERB//COMPETITION
    
USA 2004
ca 100 min
englische OmfU

Regie, Zak Tucker

Der ultrakonservative Senator Jack Kray schießt in seiner Wahlkampagne mit Hassparolen gegen Homosexualität, ohne die Wahrheit über seinen Sprössling Henry zu kennen. Daddys "Poster Boy" soll ihm sogar helfen junge Wählerstimmen zu erschließen. Daneben der politisch aktive, rastlose Anthony, der sich nach der großen Liebe sehnt und auf einer ausschweifenden Studentenparty den hübschen Abgeordnetensohn kennen lernt und mit ihm im Bett landet. Als Anthony am nächsten Morgen herausfindet, dass Henry ausgerechnet der Nachkomme des Mannes ist, gegen den auf dem Campus gerade eine groß angelegte Protestaktion startet, ist er geschockt – und im Dilemma. Denn es hat zwischen den jungen Männern ernsthaft gefunkt. Aber auch Henry ist wütend, immer nur der Spielball anderer Leute zu sein, von seinen Eltern gegängelt (beeindruckend: Karen Allen als unterjochte Mom), von Mitstudenten erpresst und von Journalisten verfolgt... POSTER BOY überrascht mit ebenso viel Gefühl wie Engagement sowie erstklassiger Schauspieler, die die ergreifende Story aus der Masse schwuler Beziehungsfilme deutlich herausheben. Ein absoluter Festivaltipp!

“Coming during a period in which the collision of politics and gay rights has created perhaps unprecedented sparks, Poster Boy is an absorbing drama about a right-wing senator campaigning for re-election and the gay son at odds with his father’s narrow views.” Variety

In this new model coming-of-age story, a right-wing U.S. senator enlists his son Henry, against his will, as the poster boy for his tightly contested re-election campaign. But Henry has been away at college, living happily out of his father's shadow-and out of the closet. As the election nears, secrets unfold, altering family bonds and lives.

Being an attractive gay man at a liberal arts college outside of New York City shouldn't be a bad thing -- that is, unless your father is a conservative Republican family values senator from a southern state in the election fight of his life.

Henry (Matt Newton) feels his world closing in around him after his father decides to make him the poster boy for his campaign -- unaware, of course, that Henry is gay and increasingly mortified by his father's strident speechifying. Henry's story is intertwined with those of Anthony and Izzie, two friends from the city whom Henry encounters on a night out. What begins as a one-night stand for Henry and Anthony soon develops into a relationship, while Izzie has to confront issues from her own past with the unwitting aid of Henry's conservative parents.

Ultimately, Henry takes it upon himself to finally speak out in favor of his own political views, to his father's shock and surprise. Shot in a startlingly realistic cinema verité style, and with a stellar cast that includes Michael Lerner and Karen Allen, Poster Boy is a smartly written, grippingly realistic look at the clash between family politics and national politics.

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