Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat

While I can’t claim prior familiarity with the Eating Out series of gay-themed comedies, given that, on the evidence of its third entry, the cycle seems comprised in equal measure of foul-mouthed humor and good-natured coupling, I may yet be a convert. Charting the romantic misadventures of a pasty-faced twig who moves to L.A. and instantly falls hard for the muscle-bound stud he meets at the (ha!) Larry Craig LGBT Center, Glenn Gaylord’s film abounds in hammy acting, farcical setups, and outrageous lines like, “Children are just abortions that eat,” delivered with such over-the-top zeal that they’re far funnier than they have any right to be. Disgusted with what he views as the sex-obsessed gay community, Casey (Daniel Skelton) trades on old-fashioned notions of romance (i.e., he doesn’t fuck on the first date). Who can blame him? Until the inevitable coupling that constitutes its ending, the film really does portray the queer scene as one giant meat market, a metaphor made literal in the climactic “male sale” benefit auction. Still, for all the ripped flesh on display, Gaylord heartily endorses the moral that “it takes a lot more than a gym and some cucumbers to make someone gorgeous.”