Gay Teen Comedy “Prom Dates” Comes Out Friday (Pun Intended) on Hulu
I also lost my mind the first time I met college lesbians.
Joining the ranks of goofy, silly queer comedies comes Hulu original Prom Dates, a movie starring queer actor Julia Lester from High School Musical: The Musical: The Series and Ginny & Georgia’s Antonia Gentry.
In the movie, best friends Hannah (Lester) and Jess (Gentry) plot to have the perfect prom night, despite the fact that they find themselves unexpectedly single as the date approaches. Jess because her boyfriend cheated on her, and Hannah because she realizes she’s gay and has to dump her boyfriend about it. The trailer is a lot of fun! It seems like Prom Dates has similar vibes to its predecessors Booksmart and Blockers; teens trying to make the most of their senior year, and one of said friends is gay. Like in both of those movies, it seems like the gay character is at the beginning of their baby gay journey, and not unlike another queer teen comedy, Bottoms, it seems Hannah will be stumbling through part of this journey, making many an embarrassing blunder. Some of which will be done in an attempt to woo Angie, played by queer, nonbinary actor Terry Hu, who has played queer as recently as The Girls on the Bus.
I, for one, am so here for the queer teen comedy. I was a 90s kid, so I was raised on teen comedies like She’s All That, Clueless, Can’t Hardly Wait, and American Pie. And while there were queer characters in some of the teen comedies of my youth, often a queer teen comedy would be ABOUT queerness, like But I’m a Cheerleader. A classic, but not exactly a universally relatable experience.
What I love about the more recent wave of inclusion in teen comedies — see also The Half of It and one of my favorites, Crush — is that it’s fully integrated into a regular teen story. This isn’t to say any of the characters “just happen to be gay” (that usually feels like a cop-out), because characters in these movies do have to actually reckon with their queerness, and how it differentiates their experience from that of their straight counterpart, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be just as funny and messy and wacky as anyone else. It’s not an easy balance to strike, and I have high hopes that Prom Dates will do exactly that, especially since it’s written by nonbinary comedian D.J. Mausner.
Check out the trailer now!
More News to Pin to Your Lapel
+ Keke Palmer and SZA will be starring in an Issa Rae comedy together
+ Speaking of Keke “booked and busy” Palmer, it seems like Marvel has their eye on her, too
+ The Outlaws returns with its third season soon
+ My beloved NCIS: Hawaii was cancelled, another victim of the Cancel Your Gays trend; Kate and Lucy aren’t even in a ton of episodes together this season, but when they are, WHEW how they shine… I’ll miss them dearly
+ In better news, The Equalizer was renewed for a 5th season
+ In an upcoming gay film, Cora Bora, a traveling musician goes home to try to patch things up with her girlfriend, starring bisexual actress Meg Statler and also Heather Morris of Glee fame
+ Billie Eilish is taking her new album on tour this fall
+ Lily Gladstone is joining Greta Gerwig on the Cannes film festival jury
+ Even though it’s not dropping until the fall, MGM+ has already started teasing From‘s third season, which I personally cannot wait for
+ Last and also least, Ellen is whining about being “kicked out of show business” (read: dealing with the consequences of her own abusive actions) while actively on tour and prepping for a Netflix comedy special
I’m so sad about Hawaii, it was such awesome representation on CBS of all places, they’re creating a new NCIS show that happens in the late 80s, early 90s… I doubt we’re getting queer rep there.
Chloë Grace Moretz is engaged to her girlfriend of 6 years!
I really think we should lay off Ellen, she’s been punished enough.
Where would the queer community be without her honestly, I doubt 66% of Americans would support gay marriage without her representation. She’s everything.
I saw Ellen do this material as a surprise opener for Tig Notaro earlier this year, and as much as I belonged to the crowd of people who supported her downfall, I was surprised to find that it really connected with me. I’m a younger millennial and had previously never really watched her in any capacity, so I didn’t think I’d find her stand-up anything special. I was so wrong. The way she spoke from the heart about the changes that have gone on in her life since her show was cancelled — I found that really evocative and funny, enough for me to want to give her some grace for her past mistakes. Characterizing it as whining without even seeing it in context strikes me as immature and a bit of a sheep mentality. I definitely encourage readers to see it for themselves rather than blindly running with Valerie Anne’s limited view.
I’m sorry you find it immature of me to not want to hear from someone who was accused of fostering an abusive and racist workplace. Her whole schtick on that show was pretending to be a nice, good person despite the fact that she was not acting that way to anyone in her actual life, it’s not surprising to me she’s continuing that act on stage now that the screen is not available to her anymore.
I agree that she was important to queer history, and nothing will ever change that, but that doesn’t mean I want to support her now. JK Rowling was important to a lot of kids, but she turned out to be a monster. You can acknowledge someone’s past importance without supporting them.
You can call me immature all you want, but I assure you I am no sheep.
Did i miss something? I thought some of her employees were accused of racism, not she herself?
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/krystieyandoli/ellen-employees-allege-toxic-workplace-culture
Tt is right. And in the material she is vulnerable about how she never was trained in how to be a boss and she did a lot of things badly. Which is definitely a story I thought Autostraddle staff might connect with haha