Zerophilia

Comedy
USA  /  English

Written and directed by Martin Curland, ZEROPHILIA is an untraditional romantic comedy based on the fictional phenomenon known as Zerophilia. A chromosomal disorder by which a person's gender changes as a result of getting sexually aroused, the disease first shows up in adolescence. Luke (Taylor Handley) is perfectly happy experiencing all the ups and downs of being a teenage boy, but he is forced to reexamine his gender identity when he suddenly grows breasts while on a date with his dream girl. Informed by a sexy doctor specializing in the condition that Luke's Zerophilia emerged because he recently lost his virginity, Luke doesn't know what to think. The young man spends the rest of the film trying to negotiate some truce between his male and female selves, taking the doctor's advice and trying out both genders just to make sure of his preference. From here, things slowly spiral out of control, with inevitable misunderstandings, several twisted love triangles, and quite a few seductions getting in the way of Luke's quest for self-understanding. Enjoying some success on the festival circuit, ZEROPHILIA is a small film that takes on big issues. The story is ambitious, asking questions as deep as "What is gender?," while trying to maintain a light, humorous tone. In attempting to be both dramatic and funny, the film sometimes lacks consistency, but also succeeds in keeping what could be a heavy, political topic personal and unsentimental.