A gay fine-arts photographer who falls in love with straight coffee-shop waiter. <BR>&nbsp;

A gay fine-arts photographer who falls in love with straight coffee-shop waiter.

Billy - Sean P. Hayes - has moved from Indiana - where everyone`s straight, to Los Angeles where the hetero/gay ratio is more to his liking. He`s an aspiring but out-of-work photographer - a polaroid`s his preferred tool of trade, he shares an apartment with hetero gal pal George - Meredith Scott Lynn - and he`s looking for Mr. Right. He thinks he`s found him in local waiter Gabriel - Brad Rowe - but is Gabriel gay? This is an amiable and cute but pretty uninspiring film that has one terrific bedroom scene that`s grounded in so much reality it hits a nerve. And that is actually one of the film`s strengths - it`s ability to combine fantasy sequences of three drag queens as a Greek chorus, with the quite painful reality of tales from Billy`s past illustrated by his polaroids. It`s a first film from writer/director Tommy O`Haver which rests heavily on the issue of gayness - not only Billy`s but the question about Gabriel`s sexuality. Sean P Hayes is sweetly prosaic as Billy, Brad Rowe is suitably hunky but not madly convincing as Gabriel. Ultimately Billy`s Hollywood Screen Kiss is not quite funny enough or slick enough to be a total winner but it does have a certain sweetness about it.David`s Comment:The film describes itself as a `trifle`, and that`s an apt description. It`s efficiently made, appealingly acted, but a very slim story about a boy from Indiana trying to make it in the LA gay scene. Good to see a widescreen independent film, and to enjoy the campy but likably performances, though Paul Bartel overdoes his character of a famous photographer.