nnenok Make the Yuletide Gay is a movie about Olaf, a proud gay-on-the-campus, who is afraid to come out to his eccentric family due to hearing many stories about good family relationships failing after a member came out of the closet. However, it appears that this Christmas, when his boyfriend Nathan joins Olaf's family festivity and his parents want desperately to pair him up with the pretty neighbour Abby, the truth will have to be told.I did not have high expectations for this movie, as the production appears fairly low and, at first sight, the acting seems b-class. I could not be more wrong, and once again it shows how so often great works are overlooked just because they are not made on high budget or weren't promoted or stars do not play in them. The script is cool, everyone of the main cast is really strong - actors have great chemistry among each other as well as with their own character - and you can feel their enjoyment of acting in this movie through the screen. The jokes are funny and I haven't laughed like this at a movie for a long time. Definitely worth seeing and more than once!

Havan_IronOak I've been a fan of Adamo Ruggiero since his earliest Degrassi days and I really wanted to like this film. Unfortunately it was so poorly made that I can never recommend it to any of my friends. The film just couldn't seem to get out of it's own way.The parents and the neighbors were more caricatures than characters. In fact they would have had to have been toned down considerably to have been reasonable caricatures.The dialogue was good in spots but then seemed to immediately slip off the rails. The dialogue jokes were forced at best and often groan-worthy. If half of them had been removed, the story might have been able to carry them but as it was they were just too much. Just as there always seemed too be one syllable too much in the name Gununderson, the lines always seemed to go a bit too far.Actually, the main characters Olaf and Nathan were OK and both actors were adorable and able to make me care about their characters. However, the mother's character was just too far over the top and the father was beyond "beyond." (I've seen Derek Long in one of this director's earlier works and he was MUCH better in that) I'm not saying that the actors didn't do a great job with what they were given but this film could have really used at least one more script revision before it was shot. I've often railed about the lack of perspective that occurs when the writer is also the director and this film is just another example of that problem.Just one example should suffice but this does contain a spoiler so be forewarned: When Nathan returns to the Gununderson's house after claiming that he's going to fly home. The audience is concerned with what Olaf will think and do. Will he welcome Nathan back? Will he finally be honest with his parents? Instead we're given a meaningless joke about headless gingerbread men. The joke was entirely unnecessary, and then it isn't even executed correctly as Nathan lifts a normal gingerbread man from a plate that has just been shown to contain only headless ones.Overall I really wanted to like this movie and it wasn't as painful as a few gay films that I've been unable to sit through but it was clearly pushing that limit.

dennis_chiu1 Writer / Director Rob Williams has created a pleasant and funny independent, small budget film that features a stand-out performance by Keith Jordan as Olaf 'Gunn' Gunnunderson, the main character who is a gay student leader at college, but stuck in the closet with his Midwestern family. Christmas time is the setting for a sometimes hilarious and touching coming out story.Jordan reaches a genuine honesty in every scene, and considering how fast the shooting schedule is for these low budget features, this is the mark of genuine talent. Jordan's performance is the heart and core of the film and keeps it grounded despite the screenplay by Rob Williams that is filled to the brim with sexual double entendres. However, through the miracle of Jordan's pitch perfect performance, no matter how many references there are to tops, bottoms, muffins, and penis size, the film stays on course.Support for Jordan's acting comes from Austin Wintory's low-key folksy songs and soundtrack that provides a grounded tone to each scene, and from a great supporting role by Hallee Hirsh, who plays Jordan's ex-high school sweetheart. For "Star Trek: The Next Generation" fans, Gates "Beverly Crusher" McFadden has a brief but important role that is the catalyst for mayhem as the mother of Olaf's boyfriend, Nathan Stanford (played by Adamo Ruggiero), who abandons Nathan at Christmas, forcing him to seek refuge at his boyfriend's home -- thereby creating the pressure on Olaf to come out to his parents."Make the Yueltide Gay" was a surprisingly entertaining late night film downloaded from Neflix that held my attention. If you keep your expectations at the level of a campy low budget film, I think you will be pleasantly surprised. I recommend this film.

Dennis Hirschmann Actually I was hoping it would be something along the lines of "Home for the Holidays", you know, big family of goof balls in midst the already insane holiday crazy, only with the focus being the gay son. "Make the Yuletide gay" is anything but that. No holiday antics, no pestering relatives, in the end it's just a coming-out-story. Which isn't a bad thing at all, of course, but... OK, one step after another.The first thing we learn about the main character, "Gun" (actually Gustav - his family is Swedish, methinks), is that he's one hot dude, known in his college as the "Big Gun". Who tells us this? His philosophy professor! Who sort of hits on "Gun" after he has finished his last exam of the year. Whose also a pretty hot dude himself, because we all know how sexy philosophy profs are. OK, I was already prepared to hate that movie. So in comes Gun's boyfriend Nathan. Or should I rather say "flies in"? Like a fairy? Throughout their first romantic scene together, where they exchange gifts (well not exactly "exchange" - Nathan bought one for Gun and for himself and makes Gun give it to him, hahaha. How sweet.) my eyes were rolling as if they'd try to screw themselves out of my head.Anyway, Gun is going to stay at his parents over Christmas holiday, BUT he isn't out to them yet. Nathan was originally supposed to stay at his parents, but they won a Christmas cruise and decide to simply leave their son on his own over the holidays. So Nathan decides to stay with Gun's family. Much to the dismay of Gun, because he never told his boyfriend that his parents think he's straight. This, of course, is when things get more interesting, funny and occasionally even touching in an understated way.Now, Gun's parents are two very special people. At first I thought his father had Altzheimer because he constantly forgets things and mutters random nonsense, but it turns out he's just a weed head. A hardcore weed head. He hasn't a single scene where he's sober. Apparently Gun's mother isn't doing drugs, but then again... she's always giggling, always cracking weird jokes and I swear in one scene where Nathan's just in his underwear, she drops on her knees to take a closer look at Nathan's panties because there are monkeys on it! I can't believe she's sober! Well, OK, maybe kissing a guy who smokes weed 24/7 makes you stoned too, I don't know. Most scenes with those two turn out to be more awkward than funny, with many pauses and the camera lingers on them for far too long after they said anything substantial, adding to the already awkward atmosphere.Then there's also Abby the girl next door and mom's first choice for Gun's bride. Abby seems to be a nice, harmless, obnoxiously sweet girl at first, but as soon as she meets Nathan, she immediately finds out the two guys are gay and *snap* out of the blue turns into a freakish Paris Hilton-style fag hag, calling them bitches and all of that hilarious stuff. It's painful to watch. And finally there's Abby's mother, who is... just some obnoxious snob who has a feud with Gun's mother and has no real relevance to anything.Well, with the side characters out of the way, I'll finally get to the part that actually made the movie worthwhile. Our two heroes of course. It's undeniable, there is a good chemistry going on between these two. They're also by far the best actors in the movie. Keith Jordan as Gun does a good job conveying that irrational fear that makes it so hard for him to come out to his parents. He doesn't want to lose their love, because he's afraid that they might be not as liberal as they appear on the outside. That's a feeling a lot of homosexuals (either men or women) can relate to. His portrayal of this struggle within him is low-key and thus more convincing. But to my surprise it's Adamo Ruggiero as Nathan who is most interesting. Turns out he isn't the queen I figured him out to be. In the end he's by far the more mature of the two men, though he also has his fears and problems (i.e. his cold, unloving parents). It was fun to watch him as he watched Gun and his family in disbelief and actually touching when he gradually started to compare this family to his own. You can actually see how this feeling of loneliness unfolds in him.It's the moments the film spends exclusively on these two that made it worthwhile for me. And in a romantic comedy that's what counts the most.I didn't go much into the plot, because, frankly, there isn't one to speak of. It's more like an observation of this family's Christmas holidays with Gun's struggle as the red thread. I give the film credit for trying. Director Rob Williams captured that everyday feeling quite well and the movie never gets boring; the message is clear but not forced on you with schmaltz and although I didn't like any of the side characters, they're quite original. And it's humor is OK too - if you like humor that almost entirely consists of double entendre. I swear, they crammed every sexual innuendo into this movie the setting has to offer. Like loft-beds, Swedish sausages and... beavers? OK, I'm not so sure about this. Are beavers actually standard decoration in America on Christmas!? Well, as you can see it's quite lowbrow humor but it usually came so unexpected that I found it genuinely funny.All in all you won't lose anything from watching this movie. And especially with the holidays approaching, it's a nice way to spend an evening with your sweetheart. And I think I learned some lessons on tolerance myself as well.