Do You DARE? We Did.

I don't know if you all know this, but there is a sexy, indie gay-themed film coming out in theaters in NYC and LA this Friday on Nov. 13th called Dare. It might have fallen off your radar or maybe you haven't heard of it yet, but this hot little gem is a flick you need to check out. Since Brokeback Mountain exploded on the scene a few years ago, quality gay indie movies seem to have jumped the shark like Fonzy did in the Happy Days' Hawaiian episode. Now it seems that almost every movie being released has some sort of "homo" character as part of the supporting cast who's listed waaaay down at the bottom of imdb.com film page. After wading through the muck for a few years, along comes this seductive and provocative coming-of-age narrative that will restore your love for independent films again.

Dare (starring Emmy Rossum, Zach Gilford, Ashley Springer, Sandra Bernhard, Alan Cumming and Ana Gasteyer) orginally splashed down during the 2009 Sundance Film Festival where it received a whole lot of buzz, and shortly afterwards director Adam Salky and writer David Brind landed a distribution deal for their baby. So we sent film critic Robby O on the case to interview the thought-provoking director and here's what he had to say... READ MORE

RO: Give us a quick synopsis of the film:

AS: Dare is about 2 best friends—a guy and a girl—who in the last semester of high school, both romantically pursue the same guy in a last ditch effort to shake things up before they graduate. It’s really a love triangle between two guys and a girl in high school.

RO: Dare is based on a short film you made in 2003?

AS: Sure. David Brind and I met at Columbia University's graduate film program. As a part of the end of the first year film project, everyone has to direct a film that someone else wrote and Dare was the film that I directed. We had such a great collaboration, and the short kind of left you with this feeling of like "what happens next" so David immediately started writing the script. We then developed it together over the course of 3 1/2-4 years and we turned it into a feature.

RO:When you made the short, did you intend to adapt it into a feature at some point in the future?

AS: No, absolutely not. It happened very organically. We really just thought we were going to make the short. I mean, we didn't know how we were going to work together. We didn't know how it was going to turn out, but, in fact our collaboration has really become the defining moment in both of our young filmmaking careers that we were able to make the feature together. And we premiered at Sundance in 2009, which was an incredibly fortunate experience. Now the movie has been picked up by a company called Image Entertainment and its coming out in theaters on Nov. 13th. It's been a pretty incredible journey that neither of us has expected.

RO: How do you feel the feature film differs from the short film?

AS: The short film was really about an outcast in high school who really wants to connect with this guy who is really one of the coolest guys in school—someone who he's had a crush on, and that happens one night involving a swimming pool and champagne. In fact the [short] film was a big success in the gay film festival world and we played almost 50 gay film festivals, and the movie is on Strand Releasing's Boys Life 5 DVD. Anyway, the feature is much different in that. I don't know that you could classify the feature solely as a gay film where as the short definitely is. Although I think that the story of the short—and by the way that scene is in the feature—is very similar in the feature. You know the feature is really about a much broader high school experience where you have one character that’s straight and one character that’s gay and one character whose sexuality is fluid, and each of those characters get an equal portion of the story.

RO: Alan Cumming's character tells Emmy Rossum’s character in the film "Do something you’re afraid of and fail" which is a suggestion that propels the story. Do you feel this is good or bad advice in the context of the film?

AS: Within the context of the film, you'll discover that ultimately she gave the advice to the wrong person. And with that being said this concept of doing something that you are afraid of is very important not only to the film, but also to me. You know Dare is really about these characters taking risks in order to figure out who you are/who you're not, and I don't think you can really figure out who really you are/who you're not in this world without taking some chances. Taking risks is inherently scary. And in fact, the movie really kind of began as a dare with me doing something that I was afraid of. Basically what happened was David had written this short and we had actually been working together on it before this period of time at Columbia where everyone exchanges scripts. It's called the "swap" because everyone is going to direct a film that someone else wrote. It came time for the swap and even after months of working with David on the script I didn't propose on it. And the reason why I didn't propose on it is because I'm straight and the subject matter kind of freaked me out.

RO: "Gotcha."

AS continued: At the time, I basically hadn't thought about it too much in my own life and I knew that if I made that short I was going to have to address my own feelings and attitude towards sexuality in a way that I hadn't done before. And in all honesty; it scared me and I backed out. Tthe next day I started to have a personal and artistic crisis where I felt that I got scared of the material, and you know, I just started to think, you know what kind of filmmaker am I going to be; what kind of artist am I going to be if I can't deal with and explore a subject matter that is challenging. And so I wrote David this long letter and basically told him everything that I was feeling about how I was afraid and asked him if he'd have me back and thankfully he did.

RO: So your experience on the set parallels the film in a lot of ways.

AS continued: It does yeah. As a result of overcoming that fear which really is so—God it's so silly—but I think it also says something about how the high school world has changed now, but growing up there was no gay-straight alliance at my high school. No one was out and I just didn't have many gay friends because it just wasn't talked about unless you were living that particular experience. So it wasn't that I had a negative attitude about it; it's just that I didn't know anything about it. And I have to say that I've never been more confident in my sexuality since I've made this film.

RO: Well that's a good thing. That's great!

AS continued: I think it is and in some ways worked out well, but it all began with me overcoming that fear about it. And it's led to all of these sorts of incredibly fortunate things.

RO: You have a great cast in this movie and some of the adult performers too. You've got some gay icons like Alan Cummings, Sandra Bernhard, Ana Gasteyer and Cady Huffman. How did their involvement come about?

AS: Actually each actor has a sort of unique path to the film, but first of all we did have an incredible casting director. His name is Kerry Barden and he introduced us to Ana Gasteyer. The other three—Alan, Cady and Sandra—all in someway came through David Brind. He actually is friends with Sandra Bernhard and has made a short film with her called Twenty Dollar Drinks. He wrote the role of Dr. Mohr for Sandra Bernard and she agreed to do it. Alan Cumming—in that role—he's a pivotal character. He is really the catalyst for the story because he tells Alexa to do something she's afraid of. "Get out there and fail." She does it and it sparks this whole turmoil in her life and the lives of Ben and Johnny. Basically, that role was written for a woman. His character's name is Grant Matson in the film, but originally it was Grace Matson. And David had written it for someone like Parker Posey in mind. We actually tried to get Parker, and she couldn't do it because she was shooting another film at the same time. While we were looking for a "Grace Matson", David Brind was directing a staged reading of a play that was in progress of being written, and Alan Cumming was in the reading. So he was sort of in our minds at the time and our producer or casting director—I can't remember which one—said what if we offered the role to Alan. We did and he accepted. It actually ended up being fortuitous because all of the adult characters in the movie were women and it kind of gave a nice balance to the story to have Alan play the role. Plus there is a history of men in the theater teaching women how to be a woman like Bob Fosse (Cabaret) or Tennessee Williams (A Street Car Named Desire). So it actually all fell into place with Alan.

RO: What was the process of casting for Johnny and Ben? Was there any apprehension on the actors? How many people did you read for it?

AS: As far as Zach Gilford (Johnny) goes, he sent in an audition tape from LA after we had made an offer to another actor, and that other actor accepted the role. Actually it was something that we knew Zach wanted to do and we loved his tape, but there was nothing we could do about it. There wasn't any apprehension on his behalf [regarding the role]. All of these actors are very brave and courageous. They want to just be involved in good projects with good stories and that could affect an audience and communicate something. I never sensed any hesitation on their behalf. But just to jump back, a week before we were supposed to start shooting that actor dropped out, and David and I rushed back to New York because Zach happened to be there doing press for "Friday Night Lights". And he came in again [to audition] and we cast him on the spot.

Ashley Springer (Ben) was brought into a reading of our film by the casting director so he didn't really audition. He just read the script and the whole time we were watching the reading we were focused on him. We were like "wow" he's so honest and idiosyncratic.

RO: What do you hope GLBT audiences will take away from the film?

AS: Well, I think that they are going to take away and feel that someone took their experience of their first sexual experience in high school seriously. And I think that goes throughout the film that in so many ways Dare is about these first sexual experiences and how fumbling and how awkward and how terrifying they are. You know we, David and myself and the actors, threw everything into creating those moments that people could watch them and feel like "wow" other people go through this as well. And in fact one of my favorite scenes in the features is the scene in which Ben comes out to Alexa. It's one of the most honest moments and I think that the gay audience is not only going to enjoy some of the sex and sexuality in the movie. But they will also feel that they were well represented, and honestly portrayed as supposed to a Hollywood high school film where the gay character might just be the flamboyant friend.

RO: Or completely ambiguous.

AS: Right or completely ambiguous. The Ben character—which again gets an equal portion of the story with all of the other characters—is given the same weight, and his journey is given the same importance. I think people will feel; hopefully, fulfilled by that.

So my fellow homos (and friends of homos) our advice to you is to go see Dare in NYC at City Cinemas Village East or in Los Angeles at the Laemmle' Sunset 5. Then after that come home and pre-order the DVD because we all need to support gay films like these so more get made again... instead of fluffy crap.

www.darethemovie.com