David Searching

Posted by Martina Birk on Monday, June 3, 2024

Awitty, wryly observed and engaging comedy about the search for love and life's meaning by a frustrated gay docu filmmaker and his female roommate in the Big Apple, "David Searching" has a punchy script and polished perfs. Ultra-low-budget pic has real potential to reach beyond its natural aud of gay men and festgoers and play in upmarket urban venues. As film opens, David (Broadway's "Rent" vet Anthony Rapp) runs across an open field and jumps into the waiting arms of Gwen (Camryn Manheim), planting a contented kiss on her mouth. Unfortunately, she's the wrong gender for him, and this is her nightmare, a fittingly amusing intro to a brash and brittle pair of chronically single roomies on quests to meet their ideal men.

After a series of flashbacks recalling how they became flatmates before becoming close friends (despite vowing never to share more than the rent), we learn that Gwen is divorcing a man she still cares for and is seeking a little peace and male comforting, while David seeks both a career start (via a perpetually postponed meeting with PBS execs) and true love.

And despite Gwen teasing David about his two-year sexual hiatus (“Doesn’t virginity grow back?”), sex, it would appear, is not really in short supply in Gotham. David gets offers as he walks down the street, through the park and, not surprisingly, at sex clubs. But, being a nice, if neurotic, guy (who admits to being the king of self-pity), David is tired of meeting sleazy men with no interest in his brain.

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After a series of comically bad dates for both David and Gwen (including one guy who dates them both on separate occasions), David spots his ideal man on the street and, after spying him having sex with strangers in the park and at sex clubs, lures the man, Michael (David Courier), to coffee. Michael tells David there is no such thing as a perfect match — just well-suited people who stay together for a while. He then draws parallels between life and cable TV, and David is smitten.

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More crucial than finding Michael is David’s emotional journey, in which he realizes that chance encounters and the ability to change one’s perceptions of people may be as important as a sense of destiny. Most integral to David’s development is his chance meeting with standup comedienne Julie (a standout perf by Julie Halston), who swiftly gives him a reality dose.Arguably, the most interesting and important characters here are female, including David’s grandmother (Kathleen Chalfant), seen in David’s docu footage, and Gwen. The latter occasionally steals the show, especially in scenes with her “sex comfort” partner Walter (Joseph Fuqua), who, after flirting briefly with both sexually deprived roommates, seduces Gwen.

What sets “David Searching” apart from the standard young, desperate and dateless fare is the depth of the emotional portraiture of the main characters and the richness of the supporting roles, not to mention spot-on perfs by all concerned. But while these ingredients may charm auds into going along with the premise that a journey of angst and chance, rather than one ruled by a sense of destiny, can be rewarding, one does wonder if all men are as forward as they seem to be in this film.

Tech credits are fine, and pic is lifted by an upbeat score, featuring mostly original music from the likes of Julee Cruise, Man Ray, Thunder’s Monkey and Itchy Trigger Finger

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David Searching

  • Production: An L4 Ltd./Backpain Prods. presentation. Produced by Leslie L. Smith, John P. Scholz. Directed, written by Leslie L. Smith.
  • Crew: : Camera (color), John P. Scholz; editor, Toni Blye; art direction, Tina Parise; sound design, David Bronstien; sound, Michael Jordan; assistant director, Arthur Goldsmith. Reviewed at Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Film Festival, Feb. 25, 1997. (Also in SXSW fest.) Running time: 101 MIN.
  • With: David ..... Anthony Rapp Gwen ..... Camryn Manheim Julie ..... Julie Halston Walter ..... Joseph Fuqua Michael ..... David Courier Beau ..... Michael Rupert Susan Bruce, Kathleen Chalfant, David Drake, John Cameron Mitchell, Stephen Spinella, Craig Chester

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