The rights of the LGBTQ+ community are something that are always something that comes up in the news. So you would assume that some of the best representation for a gay man would be in a modern film. You would be wrong.

In & Out is a 1997 Paul Rudnick comedy starring Kevin Kline that follows the life of an English Literature teacher in Indiana who is outed days before his wedding when a former student wins an Oscar. Chaos ensues as the town gets thrust into the spotlight due to the claims.

This movie is absolutely a product of it’s time. I found myself laughing hysterically at points of the movie and then immediately feeling bad about laughing. It leans in to gay stereotypes that should send any good LGBTQ+ activist or ally in to a frenzy. But for some reason, it didn’t.

I believe the important factor making this movie funny and not offensive is the tone. The actors in this movie knew what movie they were in. Jokes that could be taken wrong if not handled with the deft hand of these actors landed perfectly.

A standout performance was that of Kevin Kline. Kline, a straight-male, was extremely believable in the role of the closeted, stuffy English teacher. Though the writing suggest he really lean in to the stereotypes of gay men with lines such as “watch your hands” and his character engaging in a fistfight over an insult hurled at Barbra Streisand, he played it with enough restraint that you were curious whether or not he would turn out to really be gay up until you find out for sure.

Not to be out shined are Joan Cusack, Debbie Reynolds, and Tom Selleck. Cusack handles the role of the distraught fiancee with the perfect mix of lovable and shrill. Debbie Reynolds excels in the role of an accepting yet wedding obcessed mother. Selleck handles the smarmy TV reporter so well that you are pulled in by the sexual tension between him and Kline.

The side characters and extras in this movie are also extremely entertaining. Any person that speaks in this movie is insanely entertaining. This includes background actors with just one line. I LOST IT when a reporter exclaimed “Do you know Ellen?” and another followed with “Should gays be allowed to handle fresh fruit?”

The script for this movie seemed extremely well thought out. Not one line in it was a throw away. Even the fake movie within the movie was comedy gold. My favorite bit of that dialogue was “I love you!” “You mean, like a brother. You mean, as a cousin. You mean, as a pen pal.” I died. Also the court marshal scene with the artifacts that pointed to the soldier being gay was funny as hell.

Though the movie is a product of it’s time, it holds up. In recent years there was another comedy that tackled similar topics of outing ruining a life in the movie Hurricane Bianca. Though Hurricane Bianca was written by and starred actual LGBTQ+ people and followed a lot of the plot of In & Out, it came off as more offensive and the jokes didn’t land.

I believe that the reasoning is that the actors in this movie were better equipped to take on the topics.

There were quite a few elements that, working with a number of LGBTQ+ people in both theatre and other aspects of my life, were extremely accurate but also verging on stereotypical.

The music, for instance, is very much what you would think of when you think of a gay man. One of the first songs to play was Ethel Merman’s version of “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.” During the Oscars the underscoring was “With One Look” from Sunset Boulevard. Barbra Streisand is a running joke in the movie. It’s very much a stereotype that was accepted in movies pre-2010.

There is currently a bigger push toward making characters more fully fledged and complex and also to be played by people who are actually a part of the community they are portraying. Because of this I believe that a modern audience may take offense to this movie if they don’t take in to account the time in which the film was made.

This movie is perfect for people who love little references that are hard to catch. As a theatre nerd and die-hard Barbra Streisand fan, I noticed things in the underscoring or happening in the background that some people wouldn’t get. I believe that gay men with a sense of humor will also love this movie.

If you are looking for a 100% stereotype free depiction of an LGBTQ+ story this is not the movie for you. It approaches the subject with a comedic tone. It absolutely isn’t meant to be completely realistic to what would happen. I can guarantee if this happened in my small town, there wouldn’t be a happy ending.

If nothing I have said already makes you want to watch this movie let me leave you with this one last attempt. Kevin Kline does a very convincing dance to a remix of “I Will Survive.” There is a lot of thrusting. That itself would be worth the price of the DVD for me.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars