Bed Buddies (US 2016)

The Gist: 

Three best friends wake up from a night of drinking and realize they might have accidentally all slept with each other. 

Comments:

In this short film we have three men, best friends, waking up from a night of heavy drinking, to realize they’ve crossed the boundaries of friendship, so try to figure out what this means by talking about it. A lot. Which wouldn’t be a bad thing except that the dialogue drifts from things actual real people would say into monologues that while they sound deep and meaningful, also sound a bit fake.

While our boys tend to get a bit melodramatic about their situation, it is just sex after all, there is some merit to their freaking out over the possibility of screwing up their friendship. Unfortunately, the acting and writing dilutes this concern, so while the movie is cute and sexy, it feels like it could have been better.  

Women:

No

People of color:

One of a cast of four 

Gratuitous nudity:

Implied nudity along with implied sex 

• Director: Reid Waterer
• Writer: Reid Waterer
• Actors: Dylan Wayne Lawrence, Daniel Lipshutz, Enzo Nove
• T15 minutes
• Short film
• Color and Black & White
• IMDB

Sauna of the Dead: A Fairy Tale (UK 2016)

The Gist:

A bored man goes to a bath house just in time for a zombie attack.

Comments:

A short film where we have men getting together for sex turning into a zombie horror story. Considering this setup I expected the movie to turn into a metaphor about AIDS. It didn’t, which I guess says more about me than the movie, specifically my age, that my first thought was of course a story like this would use zombies as metaphor either for AIDS or fear of AIDS.   

But again, it doesn't. There is metaphor happening, but for a much more modern (or not) issue of making a human connection instead of just using each other for meaningless sex, which could count as spoiler, but I’m deciding doesn’t since the movie broadcasts this idea fairly quickly early on in its short run time. 

I’m not a huge horror person, but this is done rather well and worth checking out. 

Women:

No

People of color:

Yes 

Gratuitous nudity:

No, everyone manages to keep a towel on, even when turned into flesh eating undead 

• Director: Tom Frederic
• Writer: Tom Frederic
• Actors: Tom Frederic, Kumar Muniandy
• Short film 
• 21 minutes
• IMDB 

Hurricane Bianca (U.S. 2016)

The Gist:
A science teacher moves from New York to Texas, where he almost immediately gets fired for being gay. He just as quickly gets himself rehired while dressed in drag pretending to be a woman in order to get revenge; oh, and also to manage to be the only teacher to get through to the worst kids in school.


Comments:
From what I’d heard about the movie from people who saw it in real life I was expecting it to be horrible, so I was surprised when it turned out to be just regular run of the mill independent-low-budget movie average level of bad.


A shame really, since there are interesting ideas here and it touches on trans issues as well as pointing out that the lack of LGBT rights in many states makes discrimination legal. Unfortunately, the writing, as well as lots of the acting skills, are not up to task of handling these subjects. Ultimately, the movie ends up a bit mediocre because it embraces far too many cheap movie clichés and stereotypes, seemingly unable to be, or perhaps not wanting to be, anything better than a generic throw away ‘flick.’


In the end the only reason to see it is if you’re a fan of Bianca and RuPaul’s Drag Race, since some of the contestants/queens make appearances here as well as some other known faces. Some such as Deborah Ward appear to be trying hard, but don’t have enough to work with to make the movie succeed. Others have no real acting skills, then there's William who seem to be sleepwalking through the movie. Finally we have Bianca, who actually isn't that bad. She's good enough that I’d like to see her, in or out of drag, trying out something better written than this.


Women:
Yes


People of Color:
Two, including Bianca


Gratuitous nudity:
Yeah

• Director: Matt Kugelman
• Writer: Matt Kugleman
• Actors: Roy Haylock, Lola Botha, Wiliam Belli, D.J. 'Shangela' Pierce, Deborah Ward
• 84 min
• IMDB