Sophia Bilu Week 8: Oy Vey, My Son is Gay!

 I am always looking for new movies to watch. Animated, horror, dramas, rom-coms, you name it.  Today, I delved into the realm of Tubi rom-coms. Tubi is a free streaming service, albeit, with ads, that has a surprising range of content. Once my brother and I saw the title “Oy Vey, My Son is Gay,” we knew we had to watch it. This movie has to be one of the best worst movies I have had the privilege of watching. 

The movie's plot seems simple, but the more you think about it, the weirder it gets. The first challenge of the movie is the aforementioned son referenced in the title, Nelson Hirsch, attempting to come out to his parents. A full 30 minutes were dedicated to Nelson and his parents' misunderstanding and talking circles around each other. Finally, Nelson builds the courage to come out in the middle of his cousin’s wedding ceremony. As the movie's plot finally progresses, we see that this movie is not actually about Nelson Hirsch but his parents. Nelson barely even shows his face again until the end of the movie. 

Now, to the real main characters, Shirley and Martin Hirsch. The next middle chunk of the movie is dedicated to Martin and Shirley coming to terms with their son being gay. Both parents wildly swing between acceptance and trying to “fix” Nelson. The scenes in this part of the movie include gay bars, fights between the married couple, Martin trying to convince Nelson that he is straight, and Shirley attempting to organize meetings with other gay Jewish men to better understand their son. The B-plot unveiled in this section of the movie is that Shirley’s brother is gay, which they find out by seeing him in the gay bar. Needless to say, it's a hot mess. 

In the final fifteen or so minutes of the film, Nelson’s boyfriend decides that they need to take their relationship to the next level and adopt a child. This plot twist comes out of left field with no precedence or warning. They don’t even inform their parents of their decision. Both men’s parents find out that the baby is being adopted because the happy couple is on the news. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, adopting babies as a gay couple is not legal yet in the movie. 

Nelson and his boyfriend’s radical decision to adopt a child sparks a large show of support from the LGBTQ+ community and, in response, a very violent homophobic protest. Shirley and Martin see this protest on screen and run to support their child. While they're there, Martin attacks one of the homophobic protesters trying to reach his son. After this assault, the movie cuts to the newspaper taking a giant family photo of both boy’s families together. The movie is overall amusing and ends happily (I think?), but it is certainly a wild ride to watch.