The Art of Being Straight

Jesse Rosen’s THE ART OF BEING STRAIGHT is a smart comedy exploring the too often strict boundaries of being gay or straight from the perspective of today's younger generation. Twenty-three-year-old Jon (Jesse Rosen) has just moved to Los Angeles from New York, ostensibly "taking a break" from his longtime girlfriend. He moves in with college bro Andy (Jared Grey), and becomes immersed in the comforting regression to the college student lifestyle of partying, womanizing and talking trash. However, Andy’s pals incessantly do that kind of "That’s so gay" banter that is only essentially harmless if you're not the guy who has a gay area to figure out. Jon is hardly comfortable discussing his shifting Kinsien scale placement with them, and his new job as bottom-rung gofer at a major ad agency is fraught with sexual tension as a studly boss (Johnny Ray Rodriguez) barrages him with thinly veiled come-ons. Infamous among his buddies as a womanizer, Jon is more surprised than anyone when he ultimately falls for his boss’ seductive charms, which sends him spiraling into a world of sexual confusion. Meanwhile, he becomes re-acquainted with Madeleine (Rachel Castillo), an old fling from college, who has recently become a lesbian. But she may be falling for her intriguing guy neighbor (Peter Scherer) just as her girlfriend is ready to get serious. Ultimately, each of the friends discovers that acceptance in modern American society is not as difficult as they thought, that social mores no longer dictate who we are and that each decision you make has a direct affect on your identity.

THE ART OF BEING STRAIGHT features cameos from mumble-core filmmaker Joe Swanberg (Alexander the Last), actors Greta Gerwig (Baghead) and Kent Osborne (Hannah Takes the Stairs) and original music from The Musical Theatre.

Winner of Audience Award at the 2008 Dublin GLBT Film Festival

“A low-key comedy high on charm and credible twentysomething observation...Appealingly played, nicely executed...Narrative developments feel true to an increasingly frequent real-world dynamic too seldom seen in drama” - Dennis Harvey, Variety

Filmmaker Comments on the autobiographical elements of The Art of Being Straight:

“I write about really personal things and I began to realize I wasn't alone in a lot of my thoughts/ideas/experiences with sexuality. When "Straight" (I mean really straight) friends of mine would talk, I was blown away to learn that I wasn't the only one who had either similar thought/experiences with the same-sex. People you'd never suspect. But it was so frustrating that I kept running into the same story, and that it was always a secret/or at least something that wasn't/isn't talked about openly. I remember one kid coming to audition (which was me and my video camera). I was a little scared, cause he was a big Texas dude and he had no idea he was about to read a scene where he is being seduced by an older man. In the middle of the audition, he had to stop. He then told me he had a secret boyfriend for years and the material was too close to home. Him and a ton of others are the reason I wanted to make this film... I'm still learning it's okay to not live in a nice little box and we'd be a lot better off if that was better accepted. I think some of the entertainment I grew up watching, TV, radio, also is to blame for that type of conditioning. It's okay to be gay as long as you're one or the other. Black or white. To me, that's what the film is about, grappling with extremes.”

“You cover your bases with bisexual, and more often than not I'll make that checkmark in the box, but there are days, like today, when I feel I'm entirely straight. An old great girl friend and I used to confess to each other when we'd have our "gay days" in which we felt completely gay and closeted and how that feeling sucks. As a possible joke, I used to fantasize about keeping track of gay days and if they numerically outweighed the straight ones, you had an answer. Right now, that is just really hilarious to think about. For me, and this is just me, I think my sexual feelings are based up on moods, confidence, my sense of control of the world, my surroundings. Sexuality unfortunately can tend to be about control. Sometimes you want to be in control, other times not... Ultimately, as soon as I try to classify myself in any of these categories, I feel like a liar.”