Review: 'Chrissy Judy' A Love Story about Best Friends and Growing Up

Fresh film talent Todd Flaherty writes, directs, and stars in "Chrissy Judy," a light – and yet substantial – charmer about a drag performer stepping to his own beat and getting lost along the way.

Judy (Flaherty) – or James, though Judy is more than a stage name to him; it's his deep-down identity – has been toiling at drag with his performance partner and best friend Chrissy (Wyatt Fenner) for so many years that if they were ever a romantic coupling that's now faded to a deep, comfortable friendship, the kind that might still have ended up with marriage except that Chrissy has got a serious boyfriend now... so serious, in fact, that he's decided to give up on playing the Pines and hoping for a residency in Provincetown and move to Philadelphia to settle into domestic bliss.

Suddenly alone in his gigs, entering his thirties, and still adrift in his personal life, Judy starts to spin, and then to spiral. A fleeting fling with a hottie named Marcus (Joey Taranto) goes to all the expected places, ending up the only way it can; his solo act, which relies on vintage jazz numbers and corny routines, is stale and boring; even his living situation (briefly but effectively sketched, and looking faux-Bohemian in a 20-something sort of way) starts feeling claustrophobic. What's a New York City boy to do when his yellow brick road suddenly becomes a dead end?

A story more about friendship than sex, "Chrissy Judy" drops a flighty fuckboi into a tale about the power of enduring bonds as he discovers that the only way to find his own true voice is to let go, have faith, and get out of his own way. His journey is funny and moving, but it also rings with universality. It's not always the wisest move for a writer-director to cast himself, but in this case it's necessary: Flaherty knows the character, and brings him fully to life. It only helps that his chemistry with the rest of the cast – especially Fenner – feels so genuine; the two of them are adorable, but more importantly they make you believe in the depth of the characters' longstanding friendship (and thus in the pain of the inevitable separation that life, and adulthood, makes necessary).

Flaherty's writing and direction are unforced, yet compelling; the film's pace is unhurried, but not slow; and each scene feels like a potent one-act play in miniature, all unfolding to the spell cinematographer Brendan Flaherty weaves with gorgeous black and white photography. Dripping with atmosphere and replete with emotional authenticity, this is a film not to miss, and quite possibly the debut of a major new talent.