A young New Yorker is trying to find his way through a love life in college while trying to figure out how to be a young homosexual with his ideals and dreams in life.
Written and directed by Christopher Schaap, who also stars as the lead, Prom King is a story that shows how it is to try and love in this day and age, in a city filled with people and yet being unable to figure things out easily. It is a gay story, but it does not matter as it is a story that could happen to anyone in terms of being lost in your own city, in your own mind, wants, and desires. Here the fact that the lead is gay adds to his difficulties in life as he wants what he sees in films, the kind of romances a lot of people idolize while deep down knowing it’s not how life works. Schaap takes this and make it real, he takes these feelings most have had and applies them to his lead who is just a normal guy deep down trying to love and be loved in return. He does have the added difficulty of being gay, but that’s not the main part of the film and that allows the film to be more than just a gay story, it allows it to explore its subject as something anyone can go through. Schaap shows great as a young, just starting filmmaker, showing that he has a good grasp of how to write a human story with ups and downs and with people the viewer can identify with, whether or not they are of the same orientation. This shows real talent at building a film around a lead and making human and multi-faceted.
Schaap leads the cast as Charlie, the aforementioned young man in search of love and what it means to love. His performance is strong and captivating, with a touch of overeating here and there which just adds to his character. He clearly knows the material he has written and is directing as well as acting which does seem to give him an advantage in terms of connection with his character and audience. The cast with whom he surrounds himself gives good performances, playing allies and foes and sometimes people who turn out to be both. Shining in this cast are Frans Dam as Ford, Rosanne Rubino as Charlie’s mom, and Matthew Brown as Ben.
Film’s cinematography gives it a look that feels familiar, adding to Charlie being just an everyday guy with his struggles and hopes. This is done by Aitor Mendilibar and Aharon (Ari) Rothschild who work together in way that gives the film cohesion and where the viewer cannot tell what was shot by whom. Their work gives the film a lightness at times and a darkness at others which creates moods throughout the film. Helping these moods is the music by Dylan Payne which fits great with the film and adds to it while not over taking it.
Prom King, 2010 is a sweet coming of age (kinda) and romantic comedy that just happens to star a gay lead. The film creates characters who feel human and real who are trying to live their lives and find love or at least figure out what they want from life and love. The performances are good, the direction and writing feeling personal and ringing true. It’s a film with ups and downs that will end up making the viewer feel good through having a complicated yet hopeful lead character.