Desolate and bored after a split with his boyfriend, sad-eyed Jerome (Eric Benets) leaves gray Paree to pursue fantasies of Hollywood fame. When he gets to L.A., the city is nothing like the glamorous spot he'd envisioned; the beach is cold, the apartments are dingy and the job prospects are drab and discouraging. Actor-turned-director Jason Bushman knows his milieu — Silver Lake trannies, green-screen commercial shoots — and he gets excellent performances from Chad Allen as a pot dealer in love with Jerome and Michael Airington as his be-wigged drag-diva landlady. Benets is sexy in an ugly-pretty Adrien Brody sort of way (the resemblance is one of the film's running jokes), but he's a bit of a cipher. Still, his flat affect serves the film well; he's a stranger in a strange land, the prism through which we see a side of Hollywood the world doesn't usually see. Sat. Oct. 10, 9 p.m., Tampa Theatre —David Warner
More reviews at the Tampa International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival page.
This article appears in Oct 8-14, 2009.