Jason T. Gaffney is the writer, director, and star of Analysis Paralysis, a laugh-out-loud funny and sizzlingly sexy “boy meets boy” romantic comedy playing through Valentine’s Day at the Camelot Theatre. His husband, California native Matt Gorlick, is one of the film’s producers. And they know a thing or two about “meet-cutes.”
Jason and Matt met through an on-line dating site. But both men had been disappointed so often, they scheduled a first “date” at a brightly lit local Panera on a busy week-day mid-afternoon. Both had appointments that kept them from lingering, but lightning struck.
It wasn’t long before Matt introduced Jason to his beloved Palm Springs, and Jason fell in love with the desert, too. A few years later, in the spring of 2016, the two young men were married at the Living Desert, surrounded by family and friends.
So when Analysis Paralysis was given the honor of a Cinema Diverse “Best of the Fest” award—and a limited run at the Camelot Theatre that included the perfect rom-com movie date-night of Valentine’s Day—it felt like coming home.
“You wrote that movie, with those sex scenes, with your father…?”
In Analysis Paralysis, Jason plays a writer whose anxiety is spiraling out of control. When he decides to pursue his cute neighbor (Kevin Held), every step from meeting to moving in—including the universal terror of first-time-with-a-new-guy sex—is preceded by a flurry of imagined, hilarious disasters.
When the movie first hit the festival circuit last fall, Jason anticipated being asked a question or two about writing the screenplay with his dad, Ed Gaffney.
But son and father have teamed up before—first for the LGBTQ indie movie, The Perfect Wedding, and then for their “California Comedy” series of m/m novellas (Creating Clark, A Match for Mike, and Fixing Frank) that include, as do all good romance novels, a steamy love scene or two.
In a 2016 blog, Ed spoke extensively about writing that romance essential—a sex scene between the story’s two heroes—with his son. Writing a love scene together was, he said, “an opportunity for me, as his dad, to communicate to him that I firmly believe that all parts of his life, including sex, are to be celebrated.”
A truly romantic comedy…
The fact that many of the movie’s sex scenes are comedic always resulted in a great deal of laughter on set—laughter that was echoed by the sold-out house during the film’s warmly received world premiere at the Cinema Diverse Film Festival last September.
But the movie delivers the romantic, too, with moments of sweetness and joy that make it the perfect Valentine’s Day fare.
The husband-and-husband filmmaking team will be back in town this weekend to continue promoting their indie film. If you spot them handing out postcards in town, lingering in the theatre lobby, or having a drink in the VIP lounge, they’d love it if you’d stop and say hello.
ANALYSIS PARALYSIS
Feb 8 – 14
Tickets
Trailer
An interview with Analysis Paralysis stars Jason T. Gaffney and Kevin Held on The Big Gay Fiction Podcast: https://www.jeffandwill.com/biggayfictionpodcast/2019/01/24/bonus-episode-stars-jason-t-gaffney-kevin-held-talk-analysis-paralysis/