"Tara's a fag-hag?" Amber Benson's new movie might be gay, but is it good?

Amber Benson, who captured our hearts as lesbian witch Tara Maclay in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, is once more in the limelight as her new movie has just been released stateside.

In Race You To The Bottom, Benson co-stars as Maggie (the role for which she won best actress honors at L.A.'s Outfest film festival), the best friend of bisexual journalist Nathan(played by Cole Williams).

Despite both being in relationships with other men, the depths of their relationship are explored, and the boundaries of their friendship tested, when Nathan is assigned to write a travel article on romantic hotspots in Napa Valley, and the film studies how their increasingly complex feelings develop.

Ms Benson seems to be carving a niche for herself in playing the straight best friend character in queer romantic comedies, such as Latter Days and the upcoming Kiss The Bride, in which she co-stars with little rich girl extraordinaire, Tori Spelling,and while it's nice to see Amber enjoy continuing success, especially in queer-themed and gay-friendly films, the word is going round that she's the best thing about Race You To The Bottom.

The New York Times bemoans the poor casting, saying that while "Ms. Benson is a lovely actress with a vulnerability that can be extremely touching...she enjoyed more chemistry with Alyson Hannigan on Buffy the Vampire Slayer than she does with Mr. [Cole] Williams."

But hey, when Amber's looking this good, who cares who's in the rest of the movie?