A sensitive type gets rowdy in gross-out flick

Writer-director Todd Stephens has said that due to distribution problems with his delightful “Gypsy 83,” he wrote “Another Gay Movie” when he was “very angry” -- and it shows. He set out to make the raunchiest gay teen movie ever, which this picture most certainly is, but the result is far more frenetic than funny.

“Another Gay Movie” reveals just how difficult it has become to be outrageous (especially in gay comedies), how hard it is to make gross-out humor in either gay or straight pictures work anymore, and how well-nigh impossible it is to spoof, send up or satirize characters who are already caricatures. Stephens, who wrote the landmark gay coming-of-age film “Edge of Seventeen,” shovels on and piles up crass sexual humor with more grim determination than inspiration. The irony is that his approach may well pay off with youthful gay male audiences in an undemanding mood, paving the way for an already planned sequel, “Another Another Gay Movie: Gays Gone Wild,” a spring break sex comedy set in Fort Lauderdale.

Never mind that pals Andy (Michael Carbonaro), Jarod (Jonathan Chase), Griff (Mitch Morris) and Nico (Jonah Blechman) are seniors at a Southern California high school named “San Torum,” an amusing reference to the notoriously homophobic senator from Pennsylvania, for they are out and proud. Andy is the good-looking boy-next-door type, and Nico is a flamboyant cineaste with two-tone hair and a lot of makeup. Griff is the class valedictorian, as buff as he is brainy and secretly in love with football star Jarod. Sexual orientation may be a nonissue with these guys, but total sexual experience has eluded them. Therefore, their goal for their summer vacation before starting college in the fall is to correct this situation, thus setting off a series of misadventures.

Along the way Nico has an encounter with “Survivor”-turned-convict Richard Hatch, and a shamefully wasted Lypsinka (John Epperson) appears briefly as Andy’s mother. With an aptness that cannot be denied, Stephens got Nancy Sinatra to sing his film’s theme song, “Another Gay Sunshine Day.”

*

‘Another Gay Movie’

MPAA rating: Unrated

Times guidelines: Raunchy sex humor, some nudity and sex

Distributed by TLA Releasing. Writer-director Todd Stephens. From a story by Tim Kaltenecker and Stephens. Producers Jesse Adams, Karen Jaroneski. Cinematographer Carl Bartels. Editor Jeremy Stulberg. Running time: 1 hour, 32 minutes.

Exclusively at the Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (323) 848-3500.