I'll get this out of the way up front: I'm not much of a fan of romances of any sexual orientation. But I am a fan of cultural curiosities, so sitting through two new polar-opposite romances in a single week provided its own brand of overwrought appeal. While the diverting (though a bit overearnest) Zac Efron vehicle/longform HGH infomercial The Lucky One is poised to invade the hearts of millions this weekend, another romance of a very different breed opens in limited release in New York City (with a run in LA to follow in May).

Going Down in LA-LA Land tells the story of Adam (Matthew Ludwinski), an aspiring actor who relocates from NYC to Los Angeles to live with his longtime friend and fellow fame-seeker, Candy (Allison Lane). Once on the sun-soaked streets of Hollywood, Adam finds that getting auditions for film and television is tough - but landing in front of the camera in the adult entertainment market is surprisingly easy when you're young, dumb, and full of ... ambition. A series of questionable decisions later, Adam is a prostitute with a junkie boyfriend (writer/director Casper Andreas) and he finds himself caught up in a tabloid-ready scandal with a closeted TV star (the adorable Michael Medico).

As Hollywood romps go, Going Down doesn't stray far from the formula - it's got pretty people doing ugly things, drugs, sex, cameos, and lots of sassy-looking drinks. And as our hero's increasingly poor judgment takes him farther from his dreams of mainstream stardom (and further and further down the lube-spattered path to XXX infamy), things get ugly - at least, in theory. The film is so uninterested in passing judgment on Adam's decisions, his friends, and their behavior that even the most audacious turns are met with a shrug and a smile. Heck, this movie even manages to make an overdose seem like good, clean fun.

Going Down is an interesting creature - it's not really funny enough to qualify as a romantic comedy, yet it's too blithely uninterested in taking any of its darker elements seriously to be considered a cautionary tale. Its sunny disposition rules out drama (as does the parade of WTF cameos provided by the likes of Bruce Vilanch, Alec Mapa, Perez Hilton and the incomparable Judy Tenuta), and it's too straightforward to be called a Hollywood satire. So in many ways the movie is much like its lead character: pretty and endearing, but too indecisive to really go anywhere.

I realize that faulting a romantic dramedy for being too good-natured is like hating on a Cocker Spaniel for being too cute. Part of me gives credit to Andreas (and possibly Andy Zeffer, the writer of the semi-autobiographical novel, which I have not read) for managing to make a downward spiral seem as pleasant as a mid-afternoon trip to Pinkberry, which is in its own way somewhat transgressive. But another part of me wonders if giving the story a little more teeth might have resulted in a more engaging film - because while I wasn't necessarily bored, I wasn't particularly moved by Adam's story, either.

While it may seem like faint praise, I do think Going Down shows a lot of promise both for the eager and admirably productive Andreas (this is his 6th film in 8 years), who is proving himself an uncomprimising gay director determined to tell gay stories, and for gay films themselves, which are constantly struggling to find their own voice amidst an avalance of straight entertainment. I may not have loved this movie, but I do find it a fascinating counterpart to similar stories told by queer filmmakers of decades past. Bruce La Bruce might have peppered the film with penetration and perversion, as he did with Hustler White; a young Gregg Araki may have opted for a nihilistic ending (The Doom Generation) or candy-colored splatter (Nowhere); John Waters probably would have giggled maniacally as he replaced the attractive cast with an assortment of freakshow castoffs and added a few jabs at the Catholic church (name it). Todd Haynes of course would have told the story with Ken dolls.

Though it is still horribly underrepresented, gay film today doesn't serve the same purposes - or exercise the same demons - that it once did. Our cultural landscape is very different than it was when American queer cinema first emerged, and it's only natural that gay films would change with it. Going Down has no interest in agitating, shocking, or breaking new ground - and while my own tastes might generally lean in those other directions, I can appreciate that many moviegoers just want to sit down to watch a nice story. "Nice" pretty much sums up this movie. Unobtrusively shot in manner that's slick without being flashy or distracting, it's a professional-looking, solid little indie that seems unlikely to offend anyone. The leads are likeable (particularly Ludwinski, whose natural screen presence is wonderfully disarming long before he takes his clothes off), the pace is jaunty and the editing crisp. It's sort of like a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie as directed by Chi Chi LaRue.

Actually, I'd like to take a minute to complain about the way that many (most?) gay films are marketed. You'd think from the poster for Going Down that the film is an all-out softcore porn, when in reality its depiction of prostitution, the gay porn industry, and gay sex is never exploitative, and at times downright sweet. I for one am actually less likely to pick up a film that looks like cable-version porn, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that underneath the trashy packaging Going Down has a story and is really no racier than your standard HBO series (and a few pickle shots behind any given episode of Spartacus).

For all my hemming and hawing about movie romances earlier, I actually found the central love story between Adam and John to be quite sweet, and the obstacles to their happiness to be far more convincing than those presented in The Lucky One, which goes to increasingly ridiculous lengths to keep its two insanely attractive and unattached main characters from getting together. While the biggest obstacle to Adam's happiness may be the fear of society's refusal to accept an openly gay star, it's encouraging to know that people behind and in front of the camera continue to disavow this same fear. There are lots of gay stories to be told out there, in La-La Land and beyond - we just need to keep telling them.