BIG-HEARTED and often quite funny if crudely made, “Fat Girls” cleverly subverts the clichés of high school comedies to serve an autobiographical story about an overweight gay teen in a small Texas town.
Ash Christian, who also wrote and directed, is appealing (if somewhat mature) in the main role. He hangs out with an enormous girl (Ashley Fink) while his sex life is limited to furtively groping his ostensibly straight co-star in the school’s production of “The Odd Couple.”
He longs to move to New York to escape his devoutly Christian mother, but local romantic opportunities present themselves – in the form of a hunky British classmate (Justin Bruening) and the drama teacher (Jonathan Caouette of “Tarnation”), who our hero discovers moonlights as a drag performer in a gay club.
Running time: 83 minutes. Not rated (sex, profanity). At the Quad, 13th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues.