Freshman Orientation
Reel Affirmations 2005
Review by Sean Bugg
Rating: 
(3 out of 5)
Friday, 10/21/2005, 9:15 PM
Feature presentation, $9 at Lincoln Theatre
”MEN WILL SAY anything to get off!” says a teenage girl as she fends off some drunkenly amorous advances in at the start of Freshman Orientation. And it’s a good thing they do, otherwise there would be no such thing as the teen sex comedy.
Yes, it’s a long and honored genre stretching all the way back to the halcyon days of Animal House, through such 80’s classics at Hot Dog…The Movie and Hardbodies, and up to such current gems as Eurotrip. Along the way, the milieu has also touched upon the hot-button topics of social justice, most notably with the long-running Revenge of the Nerds series.
Now the teen sex comedy sets its social progressive gaze on gays with Freshman Orientation, in which the young Midwestern college freshman Sam decides the easiest way to straight sex with the girl of his dreams is to play gay. Unbeknownst to him, the beautiful Amanda (whose last name, unfortunately, is not ”Huggenkiss”) is under orders from her sorority. Her fellow freshmen sisters must each lure a freak — a ”cripple,” a ”Muslim,” a ”nerd” — to fall in love with them, only to publicly dump said freak at a big sorority party.
So gay-for-a-lay Sam and Amanda are both targeting each other for duplicitous reasons, but eventually the power of gay shines through and…well, I don’t want to give the whole thing away. But the teen sex comedy is kabuki-like in its forms, and Freshman Orientation doesn’t stray far, aside from some welcome, if predictable, jabs at the campus p.c. mentality.
Standouts include John Goodman as big gay bartender, Rodney, who schools Clay in the ways of gay, and Mike Erwin, who plays Clay’s roommate who discovers his own sexuality, and who is every bit as cute as his multiple appearances in WB network shows would indicate. But Heather Matarazzo, all grown up from Welcome to the Dollhouse, grates as Amanda’s overly-stereotypical Jewish sorority sister (although the sight of her in a hajib trying to pick up Muslims at a mosque is more mirthful than you’d expect).
Will Freshman Orientation have impact beyond its obviously intended audience? Only time will tell. It does, however, prove that using homosexuality as a plot device to get a straight guy laid can lead to harmless, if forgettable, momentary fun.
Support Metro Weekly’s Journalism
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
