LAFF: Eat With Me

LGBT films have yet to really breakthrough to a mainstream audience. Brokeback Mountain and Milk being rare recent exceptions, and those films were showered more with awards as opposed to box office dollars. Films portraying LGBT romantic leads fall into niche audiences and don't get the reception they sometimes deserve.  Eat With Me tells the story of a gay man finding first love, but that's just part of the story.  There's his mother. And his struggling restaurant. And free spirited neighbor. It would be easy to define this film as an LGBT story, but it's more than that. 

Elliot (Teddy Chen Culver) lives alone in a loft in downtown Los Angeles.  He runs a failing Chinese restaurant nearby that he inherited from his uncle (a fact you awkwardly learn towards the end of the film).  Unfortunately, Elliot is not the most creative cook and the dishes are uninspired, thus the fading business.  One night his mother, Emma (Sharon Omi) shows up at the restaurant, suit case in hand. She has decided to.....take a break from his father. Elliot agrees to let her stay with him, though it's clear there is a history and they haven't talked recently. Elliot is gay and Emma hasn't figured out how to deal with it. 

While the story spends time on the restaurant and uses that story line as a way of bringing together mother and son, the interesting and meaningful moments of the movie come between the honest interactions between each character. While staying with her son, Emma meets Maureen (Nicole Sullivan) who lives next door.  A bluntly honest and uninhibited woman, Maureen allows Emma to be comfortable and open up to new ideas and possibilities. The friendship and chemistry between the two is spot on and brings a great deal of comedic lightness to the film.  Elliot also meets his own muse, in the form of Ian (Aidan Barstow) a bass player in a local LA band. Never having been in love, Elliot must learn how to deal with new emotions and help his mother come to terms with her own misunderstandings. 

David Au's directorial debut, Eat With Me will resonate with people on multiple levels. Whether understanding new love, rediscovering old love, or reconnecting through misunderstandings, Au has written about each with a truthfulness and honesty that is heartbreaking and inspiring. The cast members had the privilege of working with various groups such as the LGBT non-profit PFLAG and it shows. Their research pays off in their performances. Sharon Omi is radiant on screen and is able to show a lot through her emotions and expressions. There is a lot of layers to this film and trivializing it to just an 'LGBT film' would do it a great disservice.