Parallel Sons

Set in a drab little town in upstate New York, Parallel Sons stars Gabriel Mann as Seth Carlson, a young man who attempts to be black-identified in his dress, music and hairstyle, though he has never met a black person. As the movie unfolds, it becomes clear that Seth's attempts to absorb another identify are a proxy for his larger sexual-identity issues as a gay man in small-town America, which are brought to the forefront when he hides a wounded black fugitive, Knowledge Johnson (played well by Laurence Mason), who, conveniently for the plot, also happens to be gay. As said plot develops--after a man is accidentally shot, Seth and Knowledge go on the lam--we wait, in vain, for anything more than the plodding moral lesson, told rather than illustrated, that being gay is okay. Painfully earnest and didactic, with supporting characters that are tediously one-dimensional, this is not recommended. (K. G. Schneider)