Hard Pill

FROM THE LINER NOTES

It’s an insidious but intriguing question: if a pill could make a gay person straight, would it ever be worth taking? John Baumgartner’s suspenseful debut feature explores this charged topic, turning in a highly original work of gay science fiction, and sketching a near future that is distressingly not inconceivable. Tim Barrens is a lonely gay man who’s sick of dead ends. Doted on by women friends, spurned by other gay guys, and resorting to sex with a straight buddy, he’s enlivened by news of clinical trials for a new pill that may change his sexuality, and perhaps (he hopes) improve his life. But can his very personhood survive this test? Baumgartner’s taut screenplay and direction, supported by a sterling cast, take on a chilling prospect, drawing provocative conclusions.