NYSocBoy's Beefcake and Bonding: "Christmas on the Square": Be grateful that you haven't seen this movie. With Josh Serrano, Treat Williams, and random n*de dudes

Dec 11, 2024

"Christmas on the Square": Be grateful that you haven't seen this movie. With Josh Serrano, Treat Williams, and random n*de dudes

Usually I stay away from Christmas romcoms that preach how wonderfully fulfilling small towns are, as opposed to those soulless, heartless monstrosities, big cities, because I grew up in a small town. My parents rhapsodized, almost daily, about my destiny: find The Girl of My Dreams, get married, go to work in the factory, buy a house, have kids, die. There were no other options. There was no escape.

Link to NSFW review

They, my other relatives, my teachers, my preacher, and my friends, everyone, without exception, eagerly awaited the moment when I would "discover girls," understand that the sole purpose of life was to gaze into Her eyes forever. The interrogation began in junior high, and became louder and more demanding in high school: "What girl do you like? What girl do you like? What girl? What girl? What girl?"

There was no such thing as same-sex desire or romance. You spent time with boys in order to talk about girls or strategize on how to get girls. When you found Her, you would abandon male loves, instantly and without hesistation. They were trivial, steps on the road to the Girl of Your Dreams destiny.

I kept looking for a place where I could be escape, where I could go through an entire day without the "What girl? What girl? What girl?" interrogation. Where people cared about beauty, wisdom, and love, not just reproduction. Maybe even recognized the existence of men loving men.

After college, I lived West Hollywood, New York, Fort Lauderdale, and Minneapolis. Bookstores, art museums, cathedrals, Ethiopian restaurants, Thai restaurants, stores with rainbow flags in the windows, guys holding hands as they walked down the street: heaven.

Oh, sorry, you wanted me to review the movie.

Christmas on the Square was written by gay icon Dolly Parton, and stars gay icon Christine Baranski, plus Josh Segarra, who has played gay characters several time (he even played RuPaul's boyfriend). Furthermore, Dolly promotes the movie in an interview in Pink News, the gay magazine. Surely this is a gay-positive Christmas romcom. So here goes:

Scene 1: A sound-stage town square in the town of Prairie View, with folks making merry. Some very hot guys rush past, doing a high-step dance number -- but they ruin it by double-taking, en masse, at the hot girl who walks by. At the end of their dance, they pair off, each boy with a girl. Yuck! This is the same brainwashing I grew up with: "Every boy will fall in love with a girl! There's no way out, no escape! You are doomed!"

A car drives past, with the evil, sunglasses-wearing Christine Baranski. She sings: "Forget the past, be free at last, gotta get out of this town." I like her -- she's the voice of thousands of LGBT people growing up in homophobic small towns, longing for a place where they can be free. Of course, she's the villain.

Amid the dancing, frolicking characters, the white-haired guy who runs the general store, no doubt Christine's Love Interest (played by Treat Williams, left) sings that "lovers walk in pairs." We only see male-female lovers.

Focus character Felicity drives up and greets the stereotyped 1950s mailman. She's the assistant of evil Christine Baranski, who continues to sing: "I know in time I'll lose my mind, if I don't get out of this town." I had the same thought many times, back in Rock Island amid the "what girl do you like? what girl? what girl? what girl?" interrogation!

I'm getting angry. They should have a trigger warning for all LGBT people who get trapped into viewing this thing.

More after the break, if you dare

Christine passes out eviction notices. She's going to tear down the whole town. Good!

In his Christmas shop, Josh Serrano and his wife talk about new fertility procedures, then sing about how much they want a baby. Good lord, it never ends..

I'll just go through it on fast fast-forward, to check for any same-sex bonds.

Nope. I couldn't keep track of all the boy-girl couples finding love, but the only reason guys interacted was to console each other over not having the Girl of Their Dreams, or to congratulate each other for finding Her. Where's the darn trigger warning? . I'm done.