Ready? OK!

Directed By James Vasquez

Review By Camryn Hansen

It’s hard not to be drawn in by the premise of Ready? OK!, the poignant new comedy by writer/director James Vasquez that tells the story of a friendly, spirited ten-year-old boy who, to the horror of his high-powered single mom, decides to quit his Catholic school’s wrestling team to pursue his obsessive new dream of becoming a cheerleader.  It’s also hard, after so many well-premised movies have enticed us to the theatres only to disappoint with slipshod execution, to go into such a film expecting it to hold up under the enormous pressure of its great idea. 

Fortunately for all of us, Ready? OK! is thoroughly enjoyable—not simply for its story, but for its sensitive writing, its gentle sense of humor, and most of all, its earnest appreciation of its unique and thoroughly human main character.  In a world where husbands and fathers abandon their families and boys go around beating each other up all day, young Josh, played at perfect pitch by the up-and-coming Lurie Poston (look for him in the July 2008 Judd Apatow comedy Step Brothers), asks nothing from life but to be allowed to stand up and cheer—literally—for the people he loves.  As Josh’s well-adjusted gay next-door neighbor Charlie (Lost’s Michael Emerson!) reminds his frantic mother Andy (Desperate Housewives’ Carrie Preston, Emerson’s real-life wife), human beings like this just don’t come around that often, and when they do, it’s a downright sin not to recognize and embrace their gifts just because the package (or in Josh’s case, the pompons) they’re wrapped in is a little off-kilter. 

Charlie’s prudent use of the word “artistic” rather than “gay” to describe Josh’s behavior allows this truth to go down a little more easily, and ultimately, Andy grows to recognize the stubborn foolhardiness of valuing social and religious status quos over her own son’s happiness and natural place in the world.  If it sounds cheesy, it’s not.  It’s good-natured character exploration that, like little Josh himself, maintains a pleasant relationship with everybody and everything it questions, critiques, and encourages to change.  See this film: it’ll cheer you up.