Feb 15, 2008  |  By: GREG MARZULLO  | COMMENTS     

Every outsider knows what it’s like to be a fat girl — at least that’s the thematic premise of Ash Christian’s independent breakout hit “Fat Girls,” an impressive and fairly mature work from a young filmmaker. There are loose ends and a slight drag in pacing, but all of that is easily overlooked given that Christian wrote, directed and starred in the film at only 20 years old.

The young filmmaker plays Rodney, a gay high school student trapped in small-town Texas. Typically, he loves theater, is terribly ungainly and has a best girlfriend, Sabrina (Ashley Fink), who, in her slightly Goth way, looks like a heroine from a Wagnerian opera.

Other misfits pepper the town, including Joey, a blond gay cutie who moved to the godforsaken rural country from England. He’s the object of Rodney’s libidinous affections, and they end up going to the prom together (despite the crushing blow that Rodney is not Joey’s “type”).

Mr. Cox is the ubiquitous queeny drama teacher who’s sensitively played by Jonathan Caouette of “Tarnation” indie fame. The Hawthornian-named teacher does drag at the local gay pub, BJ’s, and on Rodney’s first trip to the hole-in-the-wall, the two confront each other’s supposedly secret lives.

More pressing yet is the bizarre (and the hilariously John Waters-esque) death of Rodney’s father, who gives up the ghost while doing it with another woman — a midget woman to be precise. This sends the boy’s mother deeper into Christian fundamentalist territory culminating in a brief confrontation between mother and son about queers.

All ties up neatly and believably by the film’s close, with Rodney getting some action, although not from his original prom date, but from a perfectly suitable stand-in who can confidently claim fat girl status.

ASH IS AT his best both as a performer and director when embracing an ironic viewpoint.

On the hero’s mother’s lawn is a permanent light-up manger scene, but the black wise man remains unlit. After daddy’s death, Rodney’s mother tells the boy, “There’s meatballs on the stove. I made ‘em fer yer dead daddy.” The only other friend Rodney and Sabrina have is the school’s other outsider, a Cuban-American boy adopted into a black family.

These comic twists represent a delightfully mischievous sense of satire that’s also completely believable. Ash creates perfect set-ups and then allows the story and characters to develop naturally with offbeat charm.

“Fat Girls’” only significant problem is in the side plots that never get resolved. The high school dance’s theme is Bollywood Nights, a perfect opportunity for more comedic gold, but there’s no reference to it in the actual scene, not even in tacky set dressing. When caught at church in a compromising, mouth-full position with a popular, all-American golden boy, Rodney is aghast, as are the Sunday school teachers who discover the pair, but nothing comes of it. This lack of follow-through seems mostly the result of an inexperienced hand.

While not a weakness of the film itself, some audiences might be off-put by watching yet another small town, gay show queen, outsider comedy — something seen with startling regularity at gay film festivals.

However, it’s not the fault of “Fat Girls” that its story has become a played-out subgenre, especially since Ash shows such promise with a skewering eye for social parody. With more practice, I’d be surprised if he doesn’t become a heralded regular among queer cinema aficionados. Look for an upcoming film called “Mangus,” about a disabled teen and his attempts to play Jesus in a local musical production, due out this year.