Raised by Lesbians

Description
**** (four stars) Raised by Lesbians confirms what I already knew: Home Depot is a dark, scary place. The infamous da-da-duuum auditory-doom gag sounds at every mention of the tools-'n'-more megachain in Leah Ryan's comedy, and eventually we learn the reason it looms so large: Sixteen-year-old protagonist Joe's mom came out of the closet there, and then promptly “bought a circular saw.” To be fair, Joe feels like an outsider not just because his mom is a lesbian, but because every teenager feels like an alien; in the end, he's more concerned about making the basketball team and getting a cute girl (whom his whip-smart friend calls a “dial tone”) to go to the dance with him. The cast of characters—including Eileen, Joe's quilting addicted stepmom, played by the very funny Virginia Bryan—is introduced and exposed in a series of frenetic scenes; the actors metamorphose into different roles that alternately represent the characters' realities, desired realities and highly dramatic ids. (Joe as “feral freak boy” one moment and then a shy teenager the next.) Director Dev Bondarin's fast, nearly surreal pacing keeps up with Ryan's sharp script.—Erin Wylie, Seek Editor