When Adrian takes Andrew to the movies, they eventually see A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985). This "Nightmare" became infamous after its initial release due to the homoerotic subtext of the film - protagonist Jesse (played by now openly gay actor Mark Patton) struggles the whole movie with being overwhelmed and manipulated by Freddy Krueger, which has been seen by many scholars and horror fans as how gay people struggle with accepting themselves in less than hospitable places, i.e. how Adrian is struggling with telling his family he's gay or has AIDS or how its suggested Andrew may be gay/bisexual as well. Also, when they're inside the theater watching the movie, the entire audience is made up of men, most of whom look to be discreet couples.
Three of the actors in this film: Cory Michael Smith, Jamie Chung and Michael Chicklis are recurring actors on the FOX show Gotham.
Adrian and Carly meet in a diner named Tan's Diner, after writer-director-editor Yen Tan.
The director does not like the name of the diner in the film. The menu's that displays the diner as "Tan's Diner" was made as a joke not intended to be displaced prominently in the film, it was only used because it blocked the reflection of the camera in the plexiglass.
All four lead actors, Cory Michael Smith (Adrian Lester); Virginia Madsen (Eileen); Michael Chiklis (Dale Lester) ; Jamie Chung (Carly) have all starred in a DC Comics related series, Gotham and Swamp Thing.