PICK Breakfast With Scot: Our Kind of Gay Hero

Regent Releasing

Bernett is some kind of hero.

Details

Runs at Varsity, Fri., Nov. 28–Thurs., Dec. 4. Rated PG-13. 109 minutes.

Related Content

• Seven-Year-Olds Love Cheeseburger Pranks and Yogi Bear in 3-D; So Suck It Up, Grownups
  December 30, 2010
• Week 1 Picks & Pans
  May 21, 2008
• Gray Matters
  March 7, 2007

More About

• Tom Cavanagh
• Ben Shenkman
• Noah Bernett

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

Eric (Tom Cavanagh) is a deeply closeted sportscaster and ex–Maple Leaf; Sam (Ben Shenkman) is his patient partner. When Sam's brother's girlfriend dies, and the brother can't be located, where is her son Scot going to go? Where, I ask you? Given the schematic premise of this SIFF favorite, the film's charm is that it relaxes as it goes—it loses its high-concept rigidity just as Eric himself stops being so uptight and paranoid about Who Knows, leading to a big, squishy, genuinely moving Christmas-party finale. The agent of both transformations is Scot, who turns out to be a doe-eyed, scarf-wearing, drag-dabbling preteen—the kind of mini-'mo who, trying on a jacket, gleefully squeals "Oooh, look how it hangs!" Eric's attempt to tone him down and butch him up via peewee hockey fails, sure, but with unexpected results. It's all done with a smart, light touch, with no clichéd villains (you know the sort of thing: "This court hereby decrees that fags are unfit parents"—gavel) and no preaching ("Do you want Scot to grow up living a lie? LIKE YOU?!?"). Noah Bernett plays the high-camp role of Scot without a trace of archness in his acting, making the kid's fey flamboyance the most natural, unself-conscious thing in the world. He's kind of magnificent.