Trick ⁞⁞ Queer Classics

With its 25th anniversary coming up in July, it's a great time to revisit the festival award-winning 1999 romantic comedy Trick. The film presented a classic boy-meets-boy love story. Told upon the backdrop of a busy New York community, the film followed aspiring Broadway musical writer Gabriel (Christian Campbell), an introverted young man who often defers to the bigger personalities around him, from his irritating best friend Katherine (Tori Spelling) to his domineering roommate Rich (Brad Beyer), who often bans Gabriel from their studio apartment so he can use it for sex. With a stalling career and love life, Gabriel crosses paths with Mark (John Paul Pitoc), a handsome stripper, on the subway after leaving the gay bar. Mark surprises him with his flirtation, putting the pair on a mission to find a place to be alone, leading to several misadventures that carry them through an eventful night in the city. The journey leads to Gabriel getting to know a potential new love, as well as getting to know himself, leading to the unlocking of some new self-confidence to finally stand up for himself and what he wants in his life. The film features a supporting performance from Steve Hayes as another prominent queer character, Perry, who acts as a mentor to Gabriel.

Queer Classic Film Facts: 

• Tori Spelling, a longtime LGBTQ+ ally, would later star in another queer comedy, Kiss the Bride, playing the titular bride whose fiancé contends with the arrival of his former male love as his wedding approaches. 
  
• Trick would not be the last prominent gay role for leading man Christian Campbell. He would later play Peter Webster, the openly gay son of a church minister on the NBC series The Book of Daniel in 2006.
• The film marked John Paul Pitoc's film debut. At the time, he went by the shortened name J.P. Pitoc.
  
• Production on the film completed in less than three weeks, despite filming around the busy city of New York. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 1999.
  
• Director Jim Fall and the film's cast have often discussed a potential sequel to Trick in interviews in the years since the film released, even as recently as 2014 during the film's 15th anniversary celebration. However, no sequel has reached the development stage.
• Famed drag queen Miss Coco Peru (Clinton Leupp) plays a small role as an antagonist who targets Gabriel at the gay bar after seeing him with Mark. Clinton appeared in several films in the late '90s and early 2000s as his drag persona, including Straight-Jacket, Nick and Jane, Girls will be Girls, and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar. Miss Coco Peru also appeared on several hit series including Arrested Development, Will & Grace, and How I Met Your Mother.
  
• Leading men Christian Campbell & John Paul Pitoc would appear together a few years later, starring as straight bandmates in the music drama Thank You, Good Night.  
  
• Two years before Trick, Tori Spelling appeared in the horror film Scream 2, playing a fictionalized version of Sydney Prescott, the lead character portrayed by Christian Campbell's sister, Neve Campbell. 
• The film features several notable cameos, including Missi Pyle (Gone Girl), Kate Flannery (The Office), Lorri Bagley (Ice Age), Helen Hanft (Moonstruck), and Kevin Chamberlain (Jessie).
• Trick is one of several films set in New York before 9/11, that features several establishing shots of the city including the Twin Towers.