In the short Silver Fox (2024), not to be confused with the 2017, 2018, 2023, and upcoming movies with the same name, famous gay comedian Joe Fox (writer/director Julio Vincent Gambuto) returns to his home town for a show, and in his dressing room, announces that he's going to do it in drag. His oldster friends, Nick and Brian (Dan Butler of Frasier, Alec Mapa of Ugly Betty), disapprove: the audience is coming for gay jokes, not a political statement.
But his twink assistants, Chris and Rocco (Logan Rozos, Owen Vaccaro), think that the idea is fabulous.
The conversation moves from outfits to gay assimilation, straightwashing, the younger generation's debt to the gay people who came out during the homophobic 1980s and 1990s, their debt to the Civil Rights Movement, how gay stereotypes have changed over the years, how we should handle the newly revived homophobia and transphobia of the fascist state...
Wait -- Owen Vaccaro?
Could there be another one?
If you see every movie that Mark Wahlberg is in, because he's friggin' Marky Mark, then you've seen Daddy's Home (2015): Mild-mannered Brad (Will Ferrell) is trying to be a good father to his wife's kids. When their biological father Dusty (Mark) shows up, he assumes that the guy is a jerk because he's muscular and rides a motorcycle. The two try to one-up each other in being The Good Dad. Eventually they decide to co-parent.
It was not a great movie. But Marky Mark took his shirt off...
And Will Ferrell's not bad, either.
10-year old Atlanta-based actor Owen Wilder Vaccaro played their son Dylan. He displays the interest in basketball and girls that characterizes all preteen boys in Hollywood movies.
I didn't see the sequel, Daddy's Home 2 (2017), regardless of the possibility of Marky Mark with his shirt off, but I just went through it on fast-forward. The dads' Dads show up for Christmas, and try to one-up each other in similar situations. 12-year old Dylan gets "the talk," tries to impress the Girl of His Dreams, and finally kisses her.
The only queer-coded moment comes when various girls line up to kiss him under the mistletoe, and a boy is #8 in line (maybe Colton Osorio). It's a throwaway gag: a boy wants to kiss a boy? How ridiculous!
Owen's next film, The House with a Clock in its Walls (2018), is a fantasy based on the 1973 novel by John Bellairs: an orphaned boy (Owen) goes to live with his uncle (Jack Black) in a mysterious old house, fights an evil sorcerer, and gets a girlfriend. Annoyingly heterosexist.
There are two posts with gay content in Owen's social media. In May 2018, he poses with pride merchandise and says "Hooray for Target! Love wins!" (This was before the department store chain gave in to the Orange Goblin and removed LGBT people from its website and its shelves).
And in December 2018, he is shown hugging a girl named Carly. His shirt depicts an astronaut with a pride flag on his visor. Comments mostly assumed that they were a romantic couple, but one said "I think it's a platonic friendship."
But there's nothing of gay interest in his movie roles:
More after the break