REVIEW: ‘Down Low’ — Irreverent With A Cast Of Gold

Zachary Quinto plays recently divorced Gary, who hires Lukas Gage‘s Cameron to give him a happy ending in director Rightor Doyle and writers Gage and Phoebe Fisher’s Down Low. Gary spent his whole life trying to conform to what his wife and kids needed him to be, but recently, when he finally came out as gay, they divorced, and he hasn’t spoken to his kids since.

Down Low is a wonderfully lude and irreverent comedy about the dangers of self-repression. It hits the nail a bit too hard on the head in the final moments, but while spending 90 minutes with Gary and Cameron, you can’t help but quickly love them both, so the schmaltzy ending does its job successfully. Everything that happens in the interim is pure and unadulterated chaos.

You can’t say too much about the specifics without giving away many of the movie’s punchlines, but for starters, Gary and Cameron never finish that happy ending. Their age difference is as apparent as their difference in sexual and romantic experience, and it kicks into play instantly in the first scene. What starts off a bit discomforting from Gary starts off perfectly riveting for Cameron, and his energy and allure carry the first few blocks of the film. Down Low’s action is not in the least bit about accepting yourself. That’s an aspect that plays in the background and comes in at the end, but for the majority of the run, it’s really just a movie about two vastly different gay men odd-coupling their way through some outrageous situations over the course of a night neither will soon forget. So once Gary softens up a tad and we get used to the banter between these two, they’re on equal playing fields of charming the rest of the way through.

A whole lot of Down Low is just Gary and Cameron playing off each other as the only two actors in the scene, and Quinto and Gage together have all the right chemistry for it. Of course, when other characters do occasionally enter the scene, each of them brings something completely different and unexpected. The style of irreverent comedy in Down Low is not always my favorite — there’s a lot of situational comedy about some truly absurd situations, but the characters here really make it all work without a hitch.

The ending is definitely a bit cheesy. I’m not entirely sure what lesson I’m supposed to take away. Even as I’m quite positive the very direct nature of several of Gary and Cameron’s conversations are trying to point me towards some kind of moral. I’m not especially bothered by it since the movie does end quite conclusively and with plot satisfaction. I just was left wondering a bit what I was meant to take away with regard to living out and living fully. I’ve drawn my own satisfactory conclusions, but I can’t feel assured they were the movie’s explicit intentions. Still, it works for me, mostly because the hijinx of the prior 85 minutes was a fun and ridiculous time that I wasn’t left dwelling on the sentimentality for all that long.

Down Low is a totally absurd comedy with a cast of gold and nearly the right mix of sincerity and moralizing in the end.

Down Low screened as part of Outfest LA 2023.