Ski Trip: The Movie

By Keith Boykin, in movies
Friday, October 15 2004, 11:38AM

What do you get when you mix a great story with complex characters, witty dialogue and realistic acting? You get Ski Trip, a romantic comedy that tells the stories of a group of black and Latino friends who venture out from their city dwellings on a weekend getaway to ski country.

Ski Trip introduces us to a young black gay man named Corey (Maurice Jamal) who wakes up on his 30th birthday and realizes his life is not what he expected it to be. He's lost his job, he's lost his man, and he doesn't have "the look" to fetch a new man in the competitive black gay dating scene.

To solve his problem, Corey's friends suggest they go away on a ski trip, but in many ways the journey is more important than the destination. In a stroke of comic genius, director Jamal, who also plays the lead character, never actually takes his characters skiing. We see them packing, driving, lodging, dressing, drinking, even throwing snow balls. Everything, that is, except skiing. The absence of skiing seems an apt commentary on the popular craze of black LGBT ski weekends that often draw as many non-skiers as skiers.

The actual ski trip is more a symbol than a reality. The real story is about Corey. Although Corey's friends try to raise his spirits, in some ways they appear to be just as lost as he is. Terry (Daren Fleming) is an over-the-top part-time drag queen ("Grenadine Ross") with dreams of success. Nikki (Cassandra Cruz) is a sexy lesbian on the prowl who sometimes seems more like a gay men than her gay friends. Carlos (Emanuel Xavier) is a slutty bartender with aspirations of becoming a house music producer. And Byron (Nathan Hale) is the man-stealing bitch with delusions of grandeur.

At first blush, the characters appear to be stereotypes, but as the film goes on they shatter the very stereotypes they appear to embody. And in so doing, director Jamal exposes the real life fantasy worlds in which many black gay men live. The ones who appear most fabulous on the outside often suffer with the turmoil of insecurity on the inside.

Rather than constructing the characters as the beautiful and fabulous denizens of pop literature, they are portrayed as real life people with real life problems, including the desire to be beautiful and fabulous.

The heart of the story lies in the interaction between Corey and his would-be suitor Omar (John Rankin). It's clear from the beginning that Omar likes Corey, but it's equally clear that Corey is not interested. Nevertheless, Omar keeps coming back for more abuse like the innocent puppy dog who doesn't know why his owner mistreats him.

The uneasy relationship between Omar and Corey provides some of the most difficult and touching scenes of the entire film. It is a relationship all too familiar in the black gay world, in which many of us ignore and neglect the ones who love us in our pursuit of the ones we desire.

The sexy and muscular Tyson (Haaz) is intended to be the prototype of the man we desire. In a hilarious scene in a night club, Tyson walks through the dance floor and time and motion seem to stop. Director Maurice Jamal employs his comedic mastery of artifice and farce to sensationalize this scene into surrealistic hilarity. Who will win Tyson's affection?

And then there's Marcus (William Blagrove), the man who got away from Corey. Corey can't seem to get over him, and he can't decide what to do with the old pictures of Marcus that adorn his apartment.

While Corey and Omar provide the bulk of the drama, Corey's other friends provide most of the comic relief in the film. Daren Fleming is hilarious both in and out of drag and the aptly named Cassandra Cruz spends most of her time cruising. But perhaps no character engenders the audience's wrath more than Byron (Nathan Hale), who comes alive as the man we love to hate.

Ski Trip is a well edited and directed, modern-looking film. The winner of the "Best New Feature Film" category at the 2004 Oakland Black Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, it presents a positive message about black and Latino LGBT identity and explores our relationships for what they really are rather than what we would fantasize them to be.

I have to admit, I saw the preview of The Ski Trip with a slight bias. My partner Nathan stars in the film, and the Chappelle Show (directed by the director of Ski Trip) is one of my favorite shows on television.

All biases aside, what I got was a lively and entertaining combination of comedy and drama packed into a feature-length film. Ski Trip is a welcome vacation from the mountain of feature films that exclude us.

The Ski Trip world premiere will take place Tuesday, October 19 at 7 p.m. at the Lincoln Theatre in Washington. Admission is $9. The director and cast are scheduled to appear to conduct a question and answer session following the film.

For more information, visit the Ski Trip website.

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