Wally's mum's decided he's gay, so he needs a girlfriend, fast! His inept courting lobs him into the heart of a bizzare campaign against cafe society where he falls in love with the wrong girl.

Not sure I understand. It's just a contraction of "Wally's mother has decided"

Sorry for the appearance of no interest guys. After the first flurry, I was waiting for things to settle - and then I was out of action for a bit.

Jean-Marie is closest to the money in that the gay assumption by mum is nothing more that the prompt for him to get out courting.

Your comments show how easy it is for a logline I thought was clear to say different things to different people.

Here's my latest working version:
Forced by the need to show his mother he's not gay, an inept near-30's man needs to get a girlfriend. After a string of luckless encounters he falls for a shop-lifting girl with a coffee fetish and a crazy boyfriend, and lands himself in the middle of an anarchic crusade against caf? society, moving straight to the top of the Terror Squad's suspect list.

Sorry trayman, I have kept the "cafe society" reference.

Lx

It seems like AHStitt is not very interested by all this nattering.

Yes, why not flip the premise on its head?

Reminds me of a cartoon in the New Yorker 2 years ago wherein demanding parents nag their teenage boy: "If you don't hurry up, you're never going to be the first openly gay anything."

Previous comment was in response to dpg.

As for gay themed movies, there are good ones made in various parts of the world, including some from the US. One of the best ones, "The Adventures of Priscilla ? Queen of the Desert," is Australian.

And I think there will continue to be stories to be told about gay characters, in different parts of the world, both where it's taboo and where it's accepted.

This story seems to be a bit convoluted and out of touch.

If I understand your comments below it's about a boy whose parents WANTS him to be gay and he tries to prove them wrong by getting a girlfriend? I still don't see why he can't just tell them?

? Mom? Dad? I've got something to tell you.
? Go ahead.
? I'm straight. I know you want me to be gay, but I'm not. I've got nothing against gay people. I'm just not one of them.
? We understand. We love you no matter what.

I see. This is one of those rare instances when it feels good to be wrong.

What proves that a social, political, religious, racial situation is normalized, is when you can freely speak, write, film and joke about it; when there is no more need of "Tabou" (aka "pollitically correction")

In Europe, we have no problem with homosexuality,
We have plenty of good movies about homosexuality (Gazon Maudit, Pedale douce, L'hommes est une femme comme les autres,... ),

I can't speak for the political situation in other countries, but in the U.S. the temper of the times is changing (about-damn-time) in regards to gay children of politicians. It is no longer a political liability, a source of shame and disgrace for a conservative politician's kid to be gay or lesbian.

Not that socially conservative politicians are stampeding to accept non-hetero sexual orientations and lifestyles, embracing gay marriage, but it is politically incorrect to be seen to lack basic human decency, Christian compassion and tolerance of one own kith and kin if/when they come out.

So, as I observed earlier, if this logline is targeted for the U.S. market, I think the premise is outdated, out of synch with the times.

He didn't come off as gay to me either in the original logline. That was me taking a bit of liberty with it, trying to come up with the best way to avoid the stereotype minefield and avoid it being offensive.

I also agree that just worrying about his mom's "decision" isn't strong enough. That's why I suggested the idea of the mother being a conservative politician running for office. (But that didn't come through as clearly as I'd hoped.) So that it's not just because of what the mother thinks, but that she and her campaign manager wants to present the image of her having a "good old-fashioned family, with old-fashioned family values" and all that jazz. That might provide a bit more realistic, and up to date conflict in the story.

But it's just a suggestion.

Hi AHStitt,

My understanding is that we must read "Wally's mums decided", and not "Wally's mum's decided"

Am I right?

This feels vague. So does Wally's mom think he's gay and he feels like he needs to prove her wrong? Or is she pushing him to get a girlfriend, but he picks a girl she doesn't like? Or is Wally in denial of his own homosexuality and the girl is wrong because she should be a guy?

and what the hell is cafe society? 75% of the people i know go to coffee shops/cafes, 20% don't drink coffee, and the other 5% are children.

I'm with you AHStitt.

If your story is the one I think about, your way is better than the opposite ( Wally's parents decided he's not gay, while he is)

Hi Adam,
Hi guys,

Wally's flaw is not to be gay,
His flaws are :
1. his parents want him to be what he is not. It would be the same if they wanted him to be a basketball champ while he is 4 feet tall! (remember the beginning of Forest Gump)
2. he is clumsy!

I assume that the plot is not about sexual preference but about the relation with the "wrong girl", and the setup is just a way to make it funnier.

Maybe the moral of this story is that it's better to be gay than heterosexual and in bad company!

I agree with Adam, in that being gay is definitely not a flaw... But from the logline I didn't get that your hero was gay -- on the contrary, it's his mother that thinks (for some unspecified reason..?) that he's gay, and our hero's goal is to prove otherwise to his mother... The problem here though is one of plausibility -- unless the hero is like, thirteen years old, why the '#%* would/ should he care what his mother thinks of his sexuality to the point of it being a driving goal for movie? I don't get it. If the guy is old enough to, well, be sexual, then certainly he'd be more concerned about his peers (or possibly a dominating father??) misconstruing his sexual preference -- and even if this was the case, if the story arc isn't about him learning that one should not concern oneself over what others think of you based on your sexuality, then you might have some problems on a deeper level...

Also -- '...bizarre campaign...' and '...wrong girl' are to broad IMO. It does not seem at all connected to the inciting incident of his mum 'deciding' he's gay (and fwiw, a decision by any character does not play well as an inciting incident...too internal...) -- this is can lead to readers possibly misconstruing your plot...

Best of luck.

What Adam Bernstr?m said about the concept being a potential minefield of stereotyping and prejudice. Also, the concept seems rather outdated, out of synch with the changing times.

Being gay is not a flaw, being homophobic is. Also, you can't change your sexuality. Simply getting a girlfriend won't stop a guy from being gay. He'll just be a gay guy with a beard ? a fake girlfriend for the purpose of appearing straight. You either are born gay or straight. It's not a choice or a lifestyle.

This sounds like it could be full of stereotypes and prejudice about homosexuality, which would make a very bad and offensive movie. Or it could make fun of the stereotypes and prejudices. I'm hoping for the latter.

Also, you don't usually put names in loglines, unless it's about somebody famous/historical.

A confused teenager, eager to please and help his conservative mother's political campaign, agrees do date a girl of her choosing, to dispel rumors of him being gay and try to bring down a liberal coffee house chain when he falls for a handsome barrista in drag.

I hope that helps.

I like it!

There is a Hero, a flaw, at least a couple of antagonists, promise of big hassles,... That's enough for me.