Backup Buddy Love - Tackling The 10 Year Plan
By Dylan Wilson (031Cinephile)
The 10 Year Plan officially opened the 2014 annual Durban Gay & Lesbian Film Festival (DGLFF).
Hailing from the studios of Cinema175 in West Hollywood, writer/director J.C. Calciano, creator of previous
Festival favourites such as ‘Is It Just Me?’, ’eCupid’ and the sneaky hit YouTube web series, ‘Steam Room
Stories’, brings us his latest cinematic shenanigans.
Who doesn’t enjoy an entertaining Rom Com every now and then? Something you can slip on, sit back and
settle in for some light entertainment of pure fun escapism. Even better if it happens to be some higher
quality decently acted, queer comedy. Too often are we subjected to underdeveloped badly made,
produced and weakly acted so-called gay films which fail to enthral or impress.
This terrible independent film maker trend is finally coming to an end and these days many excellent new
gay films, both locally and internationally produced, can be found gracing our home shore screens. These
post modern reimagining’s subvert the stale old stereotypes, which are still mainly portraying the Gay
community as shallow drug fuelled sexual deviants.
Thankfully The 10 Year Plan is part of the new order. Sure there is always going to be some sex and
hopefully at least a little deviancy, but stories of regular Joes who just happen to be guys who love other
guys is refreshing. As a community we are so ready for this next wave of intelligent queer film making.
The 10 Year Plan is a new gay romantic comedy about love and friendship featuring two best friends who
could not be any more polar opposites of each other, especially considering their taste in men.
Myles (Jack Turner) is a successful lawyer but also a hopeless romantic, who is looking for the perfect Mr
Right so he can settle down into romantic marital bliss and Brody (Michael Adam Hamilton) is his
handsome best friend, a Los Angeles police officer, who beds every man he crosses paths with in an
attempt to hide his own soft insecurities and feelings of being unloved. Fearing their spinster futures the
guys make a pact to be together, totally involved, if they are both still single in ten years’ time with neither
having found true love.
Comedic high jinks ensue as the agreed upon date looms and both scramble to make sure they are
involved in relationships or romantically unavailable before their impending nuptials can take place
otherwise they must each disappoint the other by refusing to honour their pact. An eclectic cast of
colourful supporting characters populate the landscape adding flavour to the film.
Realisations and reckonings ensure nobody’s life goes according to plan but just maybe they are destined
to find something even better…
Some interesting facts:
•
The film premiered as part of the Boston LGBT Film Festival at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, on April 4, 2014 and is currently screening at film festivals around the world.
•
Despite running an INDIEGOGO campaign which only managed to raise $7,600, a mere 30% of their
$25,000 goal, the entire film was subsequently shot in twelve days on a budget of about $80,000.
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Edition 006 - May 2015