Dirty Laundry Patrick Davis has made a wonderful life for himself. All the way from Paris, GA he has an apartment in NYC with his partner and has refined his tastes a little. So what happens when you're forced to confront everything you've buried in the hamper of your life? Well, return to the source and deal with it. With the aid of little Gabriel, Patrick returns to his Paris, GA home to find his mother (Evelyn Davis) and sort out the mess that apparently started before he left town. We find out two things: Patrick is his middle name and his real first name is Sheldon. Patrick has a sister Jackie who seems to be not only his confidant but also the one who is best with the kids (in a few scenes she gets the kids and takes them elsewhere while the adults talk--rather fight).We're introduced to Aunt Lettuce aka "Lettie" who is the loud, hypocritical stereotype during choir rehearsal as the lead singer who showboats her talent she drops by to see Patrick but runs into his Mother (her sister)Patrick tries to adjust to his life in the small, rural town of Paris when he's woken up on a Sunday morning (his 'rest day') and told by his Mother: IN this house, we do church on Sunday. We see Aunt Lettuce again and how she married money, a little argument between Evelyn and Lettuce goes on in church. Upon returning, Patrick murmurs about how Sunday brunch was dignified with Egg White Omeletes and a glass of champagne on the pier at a restaurant he'd frequent in NYC with his partner Ryan as opposed to getting Sunday dinner at a chicken shack with biscuits and various side dishes.While Patrick is whispering about how dignified Sunday brunch is we see that Ryan has made his way down to Paris, GA and he blurts out one thing to Sheldon/Patrick "Baby", Evelyn is angered about that but also that he was ashamed of his family. Evelyn says: How dare you bring your partner in my house, a white boy...and On a Sunday too? Everyone is initially shocked but they don't focus on him being gay (which I think is interesting but unrealistic because my experience shows me that it tends to be a big deal when they first find out you're gay) but on the fact that he was embarrassed by his family. In the front room, Ryan remarks on how good the simple food is while Evelyn asks him to excuse them while Evelyn and Eugene (local butcher shop manager) tell him about how ashamed he is at his family, Sheldon says: You wanna know why I left? Because I didn't want to wake up and realize that I had become YOU! and storms off The brothers make up after a BBQ (and Mother Davis and Abigail Eugene's wife also have a funny argument I don't know where that falls into the sequence, you have to admit the egg jokes Mother Davis makes are hilarious!) and tings are on the road to recovery. Ryan shines in a scene where he encourages "Pudge" to think Diva and she aces a dance tryout, and in a pie eating contest (at a church picnic) when he and Sheldon/Patrick blurt out the fact that they are lovers (albeit inadvertently and to hilarious reactions of Lettuce, Clarine and a group of church gossips) and they both talk about what they are going to do with their kid.When dinner rolls around which is supposed to celebrate Sheldon leaving the next day, Aunt Lettuce comes in with her 4 sons (who all look like they'd be in their element in jail--just an observation) Lettuce makes a mockery of the family and how twisted she feels it is hence "airing out the Dirty Laundry" although Evelyn points out that her parents were mean to her and Lettuce was mean to Evelyn and in turn, she was mean to her kids it is in Evelyn's words: That Lion King (expletive)...The Circle..The Circle of Life..." Evelyn then corrects Lettuce saying that if she calls her fat again she's going to "go upside your big hat wearing head with a biscuit". Obviously drunk, but being as blunt as she can be, she accepts the fact that her son is gay and accepts Ryan because she loves her baby boy. Patrick manages to tell the family that they are going to stay in Paris--for a while anyway. The scene ends with Evelyn drunk and passed out Next scene opens up with Gabe, Patrick and Ryan as a family,then the scene ends with a wonderful quote by James Baldwin I love this movie! I really enjoyed it, although the job storyline wasn't resolved, I believe that it was a part of the exposition that didn't really need to be resolved, because life's issues aren't always resolved by its parties.Hope this helped you out and enjoy the movie as I have countless times!

This is an Black gay film. Not white. Not yellow. Not brown. Black. That said – Maurice Jamal, wrote acted (he plays Sherman's brother Eugene), directed, & produced this film, did a outstanding job of portraying a Black American family & their issues with homosexuality, which for Black Americans is more emotional than other races given the spiritual bond with church & home not seen in other races.This film is about Sherman-Patrick's (he goes by Patrick in New York & his family calls him Sherman) life being upset when he gets news he's a father. Upon arriving home he is confronted with his bullheaded mother, loving sister, resentful brother, & his very self-righteous Aunt. His problems gets worse when his boyfriend follows him to Paris, GA looking for answers (whether Gabriel is his son, & why Patrick lied about his Mother, and his name). This film has some very good drama & comedy, but you have to 'get it'. Since this is not a white-gay, Latin-gay, or Asian-gay film, they won't get it. But I did.The film starts off, yes, sloppy. We are indeed confused when see young Gabriel going to the airport, & then in the very next scene coming back home from the airport with Sherman. Jamal left the whole period of what happened when Gabriel was in New York until after Chapter 3 (the film's chapter, not the DVD). We, at first, are lead to believe that the family knows he's gay. This would certainty explain why he and his Mom argue when they meet after he brings Gabriel home. We even think he knows who Gabriel is for a minute or more. This makes the beginning feel very uneven, only because Jamal decides to tell us later what happened in New York rather than before – which again made the beginning uneven. But when Sherman/Patrick finds Ryan, his boyfriend, on the porch of his childhood home waiting for him (Ryan thought he was having an affair with another man named Sherman), the cat is let out the bag & the film falls into place, & continues from there. There are other silly scenes, but this is the particular character of the director (Cookie's 'crunch', the triple 'gasp', Aunt Lettuce's four sons) and just shows he has unique sense of direction.No film dealing with race and homosexuality is going to be 'perfect', but if it speaks to the intended audience than it accomplished it's goal. To Us (Blacks) we don't see Gay films as an excuse to get naked and swear. We explore the emotional-personal side of the lifestyle and not the sexual that most other races tend to focus on.To quote a white gay person: "'eye candy' seems like too strong a statement considering (again) no love scene, no shirtless scene, not even a muscle shirt... So by any reasonable measure, this is not really a 'Gay' movie." Ahem, Blacks live very different lives, and most are very spiritual. So the Gay experience for us is very different from those of other races. This was Black Gay film; therefore, no sex, no shirtless hunks, no shirtless hunks having sex – that's porn.

I caught this at a film festival, and I won't be surprised if it gets pulled the weekend after it opens in its limited release in New York and Los Angeles. It's just not watchable.This is a disappointing sophomore attempt by Jamal, who resorts to the same old one-liners delivered by stereotypical characters - so wooden and absent of any development that the viewer never quite connects with any of them.Loretta Devine is good - but not great. I've seen her in far better work. Her skills are out of place with the pedestrian acting capabilities of the rest of the cast and the "phone-it-in" direction.The only thing worse than the terrible production values is the predictable story. I found myself looking at my watch half way through the film, hoping for the end after I finally realized I didn't care about the story, the characters, or the outcome of the plot. What a disappointment for the black LGBT community.Save your money - my hunch is that this will be buried in the 99 cent give-away bin at local drugstores.

I managed to catch this film recently and you know what I'm rather glad I did. It's a great little comedy with some cracking one-liners and a fair few laugh out loud moments. For the life of me I can't understand the low marks its got.The story of an African American guy called Patrick who after a 10 years living in the City gets called back to the small Southern town where he grew up. Welcomed back into to his family, little do they know that he's Gay and little does he know of what he left behind in his home town all those years a go.It features a great scene chewing comedic performance from one of my favourite actresses Jenifer Lewis as Patrick's snobby aunt Lettuce. As well as that look out for Loretta Devine as his mother who is her usually good self. The film fizzes with one-liners for example. "You can't make a Soufflé with Powdered Eggs". Said from one woman to another who's having trouble having children.The film owes a lot to the work of Tyler Perry to my mind and if you like his Medea Films you'll love this. Well worth a look if its at a cinema near you.