Fat Girls.

"In its own hermetic way, the growing-up-gay film has become as rote, unimaginative, and self-regarding as the mainstream teen dreck that crowds multiplexes," writes Michael Koresky in indieWIRE. "Case in point: Ash Christian's preening Fat Girls, a film as crude as its title that treads such familiar ground that it's nearly impossible to distinguish from its DV brethren."

"A plaintive portrait of a gay high school student looking for love in a small Texas town?" asks Stephen Holden in the New York Times. "Or a warmed-over John Waters-style farce that ridicules easy targets like evangelical Christians and petty high school bureaucrats? Fat Girls doesn't know which it wants to be and ends up stranded between two concepts, either of which might have yielded a more satisfying film."

"Trading in stereotypes but genuine about its affection for outsiders, Fat Girls plays like a gayer, more kindhearted, and more aesthetically challenged version of Napoleon Dynamite," writes Nick Schager at Slant.

"And if you take away the good-hearted eccentricity from Napoleon, you're left with a bitter and unlikable group of people - not the most enjoyable company for 83 minutes," adds the Los Angeles Times.

"Fat Girls is fully in the 'quirky indie' mold, populated by frumpy characters who sport slack expressions and enthuse about silly life plans," writes Noel Murray at the AV Club. "Unfortunately, only about 10 percent of Fat Girls' jokes are clever or funny, and even those that get laughs slowly drain the movie of its realism."

"Given Fat Girls' honesty, and its delicately drawn examples of social hopelessness, the sudden, sugary, puzzling finale feels out of character," writes Abigail Deutsch in the Voice.

IndieWIRE interviews Christian.

Posted by dwhudson at November 2, 2007 8:12 AM