MGLFF REVIEW: Tru Loved

It isn't often that a straight person is a sexual minority, but high schooler Tru is a special case. Not only does she have two lesbian moms, an openly gay friend, and a teacher played by Alec Mapa, but her musical theater-loving boyfriend Lo is exhibiting some serious DL tendencies. In fact, just about everyone drawn into Tru's orbit is queer, so when she finally meets a cute boy who might be into her (at a gay-straight alliance, no less), she assumes he's off-limits. That he turns out to be heterosexual is almost as much of a surprise as finding out his slender student's father is played by out funnyman Bruce Vilanch.

Welcome to the world of Tru Loved, the second feature from writer/director Stewart Wade (Coffee Date). It's a cute but overlong comedy that's best when navigating the tricky truce between Tru and her closeted boyfriend, Lo. Though Lo eventually admits to Tru that he's gay, he's not willing to come out publicly -- as the quarterback of the football team, he's got a macho reputation to uphold. Instead, Tru and Lo reach an uneasy detente that feels real: she'll go on dating him, even if neither one has their hearts in it anymore. Tru Loved is filled with TV veterans (including Star Trek's Nichelle Nichols as Lo's scene-stealing granny, who gets off the film's best -- and last -- line), but the film's young newcomers fare best. Najarra Townsend plays Tru as the perfect contradiction: she's so over just about everything, yet she's passionate about changing people's minds. In other words, she's a teenager -- and though teenagers always think they're right, this one might just be.