THE POPCORN REEL FILM REVIEW/"Tru Loved"
Masquerading As Something You're Not To
Maintain An Above-Average Joe College Rep
By
Omar P.L. Moore/November
14, 2008
Najarra Townsend as Tru and Matthew Thompson
as Lodell in Stewart Wade's film "Tru Loved", which is now playing in several
U.S. cities and opening in additional cities this month. (Screenshot by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com via Regent Releasing)
Stewart Wade's film "Tru Loved", which is making its way around the United
States in select cities now and over the next few weeks, is a fresh, funny
surprise that challenges and entertains its audience from start to finish.
The film, about a straight teenager with two mothers and two fathers who moves
from San Francisco to Agoura Heights in suburban Southern California with her
lesbian parents, constantly raises questions and provokes thought. "Tru
Loved" also plays as a fanciful fantasy of a gay world normalized and
de-stigmatized into everyday American culture while at the same time urging its
audience to build a bridge between straight and gay. This is a Herculean
task to undertake in any film, yet Mr. Wade manages to succeed at juggling these
knives in the air, even if he doesn't intend to.
Najarra Townsend, a bright, attractive and beautiful presence on the big screen,
plays the title character Tru (short for Gertrude, she says early on), an
idealistic, straight white teenage girl who represents compassion, understanding
and forward-thinking at the tender age of 16. After arriving as a new
student at Walt Whitman High School, Tru befriends Lodell (Matthew Thompson), a
young black man who is the school's number one football quarterback, who asks
her out on a date. It is clear that despite Tru's beauty, sexiness and
allure there's someone that Lodell isn't quite comfortable with: himself.
At the same time, Tru's love and admiration for Lo doesn't go over too well with
her two mothers -- one black (Cynda Williams of "Mo' Better Blues"), the other
white (Alexandra Paul) -- and when one of them suspects that Lo may not be
straight, Tru attempts to act to bridge the gap of understanding by starting a
student gay-straight alliance club with a gay student named Walter (Tye Olson)
despite the opposition of a few fiercely homophobic students, most notably Lo's
best friend Manny (Joseph Julian Soria) and the rampant objections of a fearful
Coach Wesley (Vernon Wells) the school's bellicose and bigoted football coach.
"Tru Loved", which also has a satirical and subversive flavor in a
black-and-white sketch that floats in early on in amusing fashion, has a number
of performances that work to perfection. Nichelle Nichols, she of Uhuru
fame in the original "Star Trek" television series, is very good here as Lo's
grandmother and Jasmine Guy is a warm, wise presence as Lo's mother, who all
live together in the upscale Los Angeles suburbs. As for other cast
members, Miss Williams and Miss Paul are an entertaining twosome as are the two
actors who play Tru's fathers (Thomas Saunders and Peter Bedard).
Writer-comedian Bruce Vilanch basically plays himself, in fine and funny form
here as a gay Jewish writer named Daniel Goldstein, who refers to himself as a
member of the gay literati when his straight son Trevor (Jake Abel) who has also
fallen for Tru, introduces her to him.
Though the film is too cute for its own good at times, "Tru Loved" is good at
exposing and challenging stereotypes and assumptions about gays and straights,
blacks and whites on all sides, including those assumptions made by Tru herself,
while at the same time also playing to stereotypes and assumptions about those
groups. "Tru Loved" is light and fluffy while being serious and sensible.
Mr. Wade's sophisticated film (which he also scripted) never gets too deep or
too serious though, and thanks to the nuanced work of Mr. Thompson as the film's
anguished, nervy and conflicted hero, and the work of Miss Townsend -- an
amazingly attractive and self-assured actress whose easy way, charisma and
smarts light up the screen -- the film is a major triumph.
Miss Townsend, who has acted in numerous independent films including "You, Me
And Everyone We Know", it bears noting, has staggering magnetism, rather strong
sex appeal and a resonant screen presence, displaying intelligence and maturity
beyond her 18 years of age (she'll be all of 19 early next month). Miss
Townsend, who also sings, writes, dances and models, and has done a variant of
all or some of those things since the age of four, really has something going
for herself as an actress. She can and will go as high and far as her
talent takes her. Having extraordinary confidence and fearlessness will
augment that success and Miss Townsend shows a lot of these qualities in her
role as Tru. The film alone is good but without Najarra Townsend's special
performance "Tru Loved" wouldn't be the unexpected treasure that it is.
With Alec Mapa, Marcia Wallace, Shani Pride, Ellie Gerber, Tony Brown, Jane
Lynch, Elaine Hendrix and David Kopay.
"Tru Loved" is opened in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco last month,
and expands to additional U.S. cities later this month at select cinemas.
The film is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for language.
The film's duration is one hour and 40 minutes.
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