Outfest 2011: “The Wise Kids” impresses audience as it treats its religious characters with respect and love

I’ve been going to Outfest for more than a decade and blogging about it for five. I still forget how hard it is to write about all that you saw and did before you have to get back to the festival for another round of movies and events. It is exhausting in a wonderful kind of way.

On Saturday, I actually missed the Boys Shorts for the first time ever because I was out late Friday at screenings of Longhorns and a shorts program called Shots in the Dark. But I did make the early afternoon screening of The Wise Kids which I think will win a few awards here and at other festivals.

I’m pictured above with writer-director-star Stephen Cone (to my right) and star Tyler Ross (left) before the screening of this superb coming of age Southern drama set in a Baptist church community in Charleston, South Carolina. Three friends are contemplating the stage in their lives between high school and college.

The movie never claims to have all the answers as we follow the struggles of the devout Laura, openly gay Tim and preacher’s daughter Brea who is having a deep crisis of faith. Other compelling characters are the closeted choir director Austin and his frustrated wife, Tim’s supportive dad, and the non-believing woman who grudgingly accompanies her grandmother to church each week.

Although the movie has flawed characters, they are treated with love and respect. Laura is horrified to learn Tim is gay and prays herself to sleep asking the Lord to help him change. Austin is a closeted gay man married to a lovely woman and they are trying to survive as a couple despite this. Austin’s struggle and anguish is in deep contrast to Tim who refuses to choose between loving God and being gay.

There’s a reason that no one comes off as a villain or a stereotype, Cone told us after the screening: “I was raised the son of a Southern Baptist minister and that’s the way I felt about these people. I was inspired by the kids I grew up with and the lonely souls you can spot in the church. I have great love for these people and an awareness of that private pain that is pushed to the back.”

Ross said of the film: “I’m actually from the South and was raised Baptist Christian so I had a lot of connection to this film.”

Molly Kunz, who played the preacher’s daughter summed up the film’s tone nicely: “Coming from a conservative background, you can understand and try to make them real people. It’s just so much of who they are and less about putting people into categories.”

I highly recommend you see The Wise Kids and will keep you posted on its distribution plans.