Homo Heights (US 1998)

The Gist:

Gay icon Malcolm (Quentin Crisp), beloved by all the people of Homo Heights (an apparent all queer city) is not so secretly a prisoner of Maria Callous (Stephen Sorrentino), drag queen leader of the gay mafia.  

Malcolm wants to leave, womanizer Clementine (Lea Delaria) wants her old girlfriend Stella back. Stella wants her new girlfriend Blanche to be less annoying. Nerdy reporter Tootsie wants a scoop. 

Comments:

This is an odd duck of a movie. It is a high camp comedy that despite the implications of those adjectives is not merely loud and obnoxious, but also at times fairly calm and subdued. 

Calm being the result of casting of Quentin Crisp, who was in his late eighties at the time, and filled his his scenes with softness and muted elegance as he more or less plays himself, quoting Oscar Wild and acting somewhat bemused by everything around him as his character waits calmly to leave the earthly plane behind. 

Despite sounding like an odd combo, some of the best scenes here involve Crisp and Delaria playing off each other. There seems to be a genuine fondness between them. Stephen Sorrentino as Maria Callous is also amusing as the drag queen mafiosa. 

There's not much to the story, at least to the main story of holding Malcom against his will. While there's a bit more to the Clementine romance subplot, actual plot seems besides the point here, which is letting Quentin Crisp just be his fey self, interspersed with humorous scenes of lesbian dramedy and gangster drag queens.

The movie is quirky and doesn't entirely work, bouncing back and forth from loud and wacky to smooth and creamy, and yet I'm really fond of it. 

Women:

Yes

People of color:

A couple of drag queens 

Gratuitous nudity:

No

• Director: Sara Moore
• Writer: Sara Moore
• Actors: Quentin Crisp, Lea DeLaria, Stephen Sorrentino 
• 92 minutes
• IMDB

The Coffee Shop (U.S. 2014)

The Gist:

Various mostly, though not entirely, related events take place at a gay coffee house: a bisexual man has dating problems, a young woman comes out to her mom, a gay male employee acts slutty, the drag queen coffee shop owner needs to find a new employee, vampires stop by for a drink, etc..

Comments:

I've found very little information about the movie, so I don't have an explanation for why it is so odd. Is it a movie intended to be a series of shorts using the same setting to pull them all together? A compilation of various episodes of a web series? A film school project with other short stories added to bump up the time to full movie length? 

Whatever the answer, the result is a movie that doesn't work. None of the shorts are particularly interesting, well acted, or funny. It is also borderline offensive, or at the very least annoying in dealing with bisexuality. The expected standard when you have your main characters telling offensive phobic jokes is to take a position that they're wrong. Something that doesn't happen here. Jokes are made about the bi dude, and nothing is said or done to show this is wrong. So by implication bisexuality really is wrong?

The best thing about the movie is that not everyone in it is a young gay white man, so it almost resembles the real world. Unfortunately, other than that, everything else is pretty much wrong. 

Women: Yes 

People of color: Some

Gratuitous Nudity: No 

• Director: A. J. Mattioli
• Writer: Many people 
• Actors: Blanche Baker, Keith Collins, Edvin Ortega, Julia Weldon
• 90 min
• IMDB

Two Weddings and a Funeral (Du Beon-ui Gyeol-hon-sik-gwa Han Beon-ui Jang-nye-sik) (Korea 2012)

The Gist: 

A gay man (Min-soo) and a lesbian (Hyo-jin) have married each other to fulfill family, societal and legal obligations. They just have to play at being a couple for one year, then they can divorce and go on with their lives with everything they wanted. Unfortunately this act becomes harder and harder to pull off as life threatens to intervene and reveal their secrets. 

Comments: 

The movie is fairly well done, though the story gets rather melodramatic at times as society is shown to literally beat down people for the crime of being gay. Aside from this external homophobic melodrama affecting the characters, there's also self produced angst as the characters overreact and overact their soap opera lives.  

So yeah, lots and lots of drama. Part of that is also do to essentially all of Min-soo's gay male friends being big queens. I've normally no issues with effeminate men in gay movies, except when it is used as a joke, and to an extent that is what is happening here. The exception being the character "Tina," who is played as bit of an effeminate clown. Unlike the rest of the secondary characters though, he is given enough of a background and motivation that he comes off as a well rounded interesting character who could almost be a real person (far more so than he somewhat boring dull lead). 

Story and representation aside, there is also an issue with translations. Not a major problem, it's just that the subtitles in the version I saw were occasionally a little wonky with odd grammar or unusual word choices that made things a little confusing, such as when a character explains that he left Korea in order to move to Korea. 

Overall the movie is okay for what it is, but what it is, is a bit too melodramatic for my personal tastes. 

Women:

Yes

People of color: 

Everyone. Unless we reverse the question to "Is anyone not Korean?" then the answer is no. 

Gratuitous nudity:

No

• Director: Jho Gwang-soo Kim
• Writer: Yoon-sin Kim, Hae-yeong Park
• Actors: Dong Yoon Kim, Hyeon-kyeong Ryu
• Korean
• 106 min
• IMDB

The Foxy Merkins (U.S. 2013)

The Gist:

A young naive gay kid, new to hustling, is shown the ropes by a more experienced hustler and they make a connection, becoming friends and more, despite the more experienced hustler being, or at claiming to be, straight, as they do what they can to survive the tough life on the streets. 

Now take the cliche filled hustler movie you've pictured in your head and turn into a comedy with adult women in place of skinny gay twinks. 

Comments:

The movie was made by the same people who did Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same. This time instead of low budget, extremely quirky and decidedly odd comedy riffing on bad 50's sci-fi movies, we have  a low budget, extremely quirky and decidedly odd comedy riffing on hustler movies. 

The two leads have great chemistry together, and overall it's a funny movie, though given the subject matter it helps if you're familiar with the genre, specifically Midnight Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho. Many of the jokes and situations only really make sense if you are familiar with the source material, otherwise the requisite "search to find my lost mother" or the required "men are incapable of loving another man" speech are not so much funny as just confusing. Although in case with the reversed genders it's now "women can't love other women," which comes off as very strange and nonsensical, and presumably is part of the intent and source of much of the humor. Other jokes, such as having the clothing store Talberts be THE place for lesbian prostitutes to hang out at are a bit more straightforward.

While I enjoyed it, it's not exactly a great movie. It does have a lot of issues. Not all the jokes are funny, some, such as the harassing cops sequence go on for too long; and there is no real plot, just our leads drifting in a vaguely Private Idaho direction with occasional Midnight Cowboy imagery. The basic idea of the movie is a problem as well, as unlike the Science Fiction of Codependent Lesbian Space Alien, not everyone has seen hustler movies which limits its audience to a large extent. 

So while I liked it, I'm not sure I'd recommend it. At least not without a lot of caveats. That you be a fan of quirky low budget movies. That you can easily ignore the lack of plot. That you know your hustler movies. But mainly that you have a very odd-ball sense of humor, because this is no where near 'normal' comedy territory.

Women:

Yes

People of color:

Yes 

Gratuitous nudity:

Yes

• Director: Madeleine Olnek
• Writers: Lisa Haas, Jackie Monahan, Madeline Olnek
• Actors: Lisa Haas, Jackie Monahan
• 81 min
• IMDB

Stud Life (UK 2012)

The Gist:

When 'Stud' lesbian JJ falls for femme fatal Elle, her life is thrown out of whack. As this goes on her best friend Seb makes poor choices of his own when it comes to men. 

Comments with a minor spoiler:

We are big time lesbian drama here, of the Stud variety. If you're unfamiliar with the term, a stud is essentially a very butch dyke.  More so, JJ is an uber butch, a stone butch. She is so butch that this source of strength for her becomes a weakness in that she ends up being overly rigid in life which is where the drama comes in,  as even though Elle is a femme and theoretically they should fit fine as a couple, it turns out that being with Elle may force JJ to be more flexible in her expectations of life and love. 

Despite being set in modern day London, the movie feels sort of oddly old fashioned. I'm guessing much of this comes from the strict Butch and Femme pairing, as if this were a 1950's period piece when it was survival tactic for a lesbian couple to only be a femme paired with a butch who could pass as a man if needed. 

This "old fashioned" interpretation of the movie is just me however, coming from my own biases, since JJ's world of strict butch / femme determination of roles is foreign to my experiences. The lesbians I know in real life joke about femme and butch rather than follow them as strict guides. Interestingly, to me at least, while I am unfamiliar with that aspect of the movie, another part, one where lesbians and gay men get to be best friends is totally in my realm of experience. One where queer women and men don't spend their lives isolated from each other (vs. how many 'gay' movies portray the world, as a place where queer men barely know any women at all let alone lesbians, let alone be friends with them). 

In the end the movie is okay for what it is, an average quality romantic melodrama.  

Women:

Yes

People of color:

Yes, much of the cast

Gratuitous nudity: 

Yes

• Director: Campbell X
• Writer: Campbell X
• Actors: T'Nia Miller, Kyle Treslove, Robyn Kerr
• 91 min
• IMDB

The Four-Faced Liar (U.S. 2010)

The Gist:

Five college-age people, two straight couples and a womanizing lesbian meet in an Irish bar, not as the lead into a bad joke, but rather as the start of a romantic drama, where after becoming friends with the lesbian character, one of the straight women realizes that she does not have to live the life that was planned and laid out for her in excruciatingly exact detail from birth to wedding to death.

Comments (with one big semi-spoiler):

The one big semi-spoiler is this: (Possibly?) in order to make the protagonist seem less of a "bad person" for having an affair with her new lesbian best friend, the story has her boyfriend do some terrible things to help "accidentally" push her away from him. Which I only bring up because this creates a huge problem for me in that he crosses lines which should have made him a pariah in his circle of friends rather than just being treated as the poor guy whose girlfriend dumped him for a woman. 

Other than that, this is essentially a standard romance drama following many of the standard romance drama rules of people falling in and out of love, acting stupid, misunderstandings, and predictability before the couple you expect to end up together finally end up up together. 

Women:

Several (a good thing considering this is a lesbian love story)

People of color:

None. It seems New York City only has white people living in it

Gratuitous nudity:

Not really

• Director: Jacob Chase
• Writer: Marja-Lewis Ryan
• Actors: Marja-Lewis Ryan, Daniel Carlisle, Todd Kubrak, Emily Peck, Liz Osborn
• 87 min
• IMDB

West Hollywood Motel (U.S. 2013)

The Gist: 

A young gay couple with issues of compatibility, a lesbian couple whose issue is that things are not as "hot" in bed as they used to be, two young men with numerous issues who've just met, and a middle aged straight couple who gain an issue when the wife suddenly grows a penis, are all staying at the same motel as a not very good at his job of being an omniscient narrator tells us about how they deal with their problems. 

Comments, with minor spoilers: 

This is a very odd movie. It feels like an amateur student film in some respects, but well, these days things like film development errors do not exist unless intended to. Which leads me suspect that it's all intentional. But does that mean using then quickly abandoning the idea of the narrator as soon as the characters were introduced was a narrative choice as well? Spoiler, the narrator disappears fairly quickly. Does it also mean that the establishing shots mixing up Hollywood and West Hollywood is also intentional? Spoiler, Hollywood and West Hollywood are two different places. 

Aiming to recreate the feel of a weird decaying educational film is a valid aesthetic goal I guess, but it is strange when as viewer you can't tell if something is a mistake, or if it is just someone trying to skillfully and intentionally make it appear as if it were a mistake. In the end the way the story is told is distracting enough that I think it impedes the movie more than helps it. 

Compared to the storytelling esthetics, the four stories, even the odder ones, are fairly straight forward. The two 'reality-flexible' stories, of the penis growing wife and of the incompatible gay couple (that turns into a meta commentary about love as presented in gay romance movies) are the better of the stories. The lesbian affair one should have been interesting but falls flat for some reason. 

Oddly, or not, the least interesting of the four tales was the one with the most gay "eye candy," the story of the two, cute, young, Latino men. Least interesting, because their tale never gets much further past the very basic premise of "two attractive men end up sharing a hotel room because they are broke and... stuff." 

It's not a must see kind of movie, but if you're in a mood for quirky this would fit the bill. 

Women:

Yes

People of color:

Yes

Gratuitous nudity:

No

• Director: Matt Riddlehoover
• Writers: Matt Riddlehoover, Ethan James
• Actors: Matt Riddlehoover, Andrew Callahan, Amy Kelly, Phil Leirness, Cesar D' La Torre, Starina Johnson, Heather Horton, Luis Lucas
• 78 min
• IMDB

Cloudburst (Canada 2011)

The Gist: 

Stella and Dot, life partners for 31 years, face being forcibly separated as Dot's granddaughter wants to put her grandmother into a special care home. They decide to fight for their right to stay together by taking off to Canada to get married.  Along the way they pick up a male hitchhiker. Dramedy ensues.  

Comments with an unimportant spoiler:

We are in deep in Hallmark style movie territory here with a story of two older women working to overcome an obstacle. In this case a crisis created because one of the women never came out to her granddaughter. A granddaughter who apparently has never realized that grandmother's curmudgeon, take no shit from anyone, butch dyke roommate is actually her grandmother's long time lover. 

Despite touching on serious subjects such as the lack of rights faced by many elderly queer couples, over all it is a rather goofy movie tending to focus more heavy on the comedy aspect of "dramedy" rather than drama.

Besides the two women, there is also the young hitchhiker. The spoiler is this: he remains a bit of a cypher. Apparently the guy is no longer welcome in his family home, but the reason why is never quite explicitly spelled out. Because he is gay? Bi? Straight? A dancer? A hustler? Who knows? Then again, it doesn't really matter as the movie is appropriately enough not about him, but rather about the two women. 

While not a must see movie, its not bad for what it is, a melodrama of the week style flick, and if nothing else, Olympia Dukakis seems to be having a grand time playing a cranky, strong willed, foul mouthed old dyke. 

Women:

Yes

People of color:

No

Gratuitous nudity:

Yes, though oddly enough for a "lesbian" movie, only of the male variety. Then again, all the scenes involving nudity are done as comedy since it seems nothing is more hilarious looking than a naked man.

• Director: Thom Fitzgerald
• Writer: Thom Fitzgerald
• Actors: Olympia Dukakis, Brenda Fricker, Ryan Doucette
• 93 min
• IMDB

2 Minutes Later (US 2007)

The Gist:

After insurance investigator Michael Dalmar's twin brother, a famous photographer, goes missing, he partners with private detective Abigail Marks, pretending to be his own arrogant brother in order to find out what has happened to him. 

Comments with minor spoilers:

We have a movie playing around with mystery movie cliches and expectations by giving us a womanizing lesbian detective and a relatively passive gay man as her partner. Although reversing gender expectations is about as far as it messes around with the mystery formula. All the other expected cliches are still there. Monologue voice over narration. Private eye who used to be a cop. Guns with unlimited bullets. Good twin, evil twin. People making stupid decisions. People acting oddly in odd ways to ensure clues are had (such as carrying around a stamped, self addressed envelop in order to mail yourself the MacGuffin). A detective in very thin stiletto heels that make you cringe in sympathetic pain as she runs towards a shoot out.

Okay. Maybe not that last one, especially since a real lesbian, "lipstick" or not, would have taken those shoes off before running into danger. Regardless, for the most part this is a standard mystery movie, although not a fair play one, and one painted over broadly in "gay," so throw gay flick cliches into the mix as well. Most notably lots and lots of male nudity. Seriously, a lot. The missing brother's job as famous *sshole photographer allows for far more floppy penises than usual in a gay flick. 

Cliches and penises aside, the movie is neither particularly good nor bad. but rather just ok. The acting is adequate and the story is told more or less competently. The movie was obviously designed for sequels, although as far as I can tell there have been no further adventures of our queer detective team. 

Women:

Yes

People of color:

Yes

Gratuitous nudity:

Yes. Lots

• Director: Robert Gaston
• Writer: Robert Gaston 
• Actors: Michael Molina, Jessica Graham 
• 78 min
• IMDB

Horror in the Wind (U.S. 2008)

The Gist:

Two oddball scientists are attempting to become rich by creating a pest control "formula" that eliminates rat's sex drive. President Pat Robertson hears of the project and steals it to spray over the entire world as part of his war against premarital sex. Unfortunately the "formula" doesn't actually stop rats (and people) from having sex, it just changes your sexual orientation, threatening to turn the entire world gay. While all this "science" and "intrigue" is going on, the two oddball scientist's wives do a lot of nude yoga together. 

Comments with major and unimportant spoilers: 

The movie pretty much fulfills all the stereotypes of terrible low budget movies. Everything from acting to plot to technical issues and special effects is bad. Worse, it also fails at humor, so instead of the farce with comments about religion, homophobia, and politics that the premise sets it up to be, it's just boring. 

Also slow. There are so many montages going on. "We are doing science" montages, "we are fishing" montages, "the entire world is now gay and loving it and having sex but we aren't" montages. That last one counting as character development I guess, because despite having been turned gay and falling in love the two goofy scientist leads are moody and wishy washy about moving their bromance up to next level of actual sex even though everyone else in the world appears to be reveling in gay as the new norm. 

Put short, it's not good. 

Women: 

Several 

People of color:

Barely

Gratuitous nudity:

One quick partial male butt, and lots of female baldy parts during the female nude yoga scenes (because nothing says gay movie like female nudity?)

• Director: Max Mitchel
• Writer: Max Mitchel
• Actors: Perren Hedderson, Morse Bicknell, Courtney Bell, Jiji Hise
• 90 min
• IMDB

Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same (US 2011)

The Gist:

When they are determined to be a threat to their planet's environment because of their "big feeling," three alien lesbians are shipped off to earth to fix them. That is, the Earth lesbian dating scene sucks so bad that it will break their hearts and eliminate those pesky emotions, er "big feelings."

Except that it does not go quite to plan and one of the aliens, Zoinx, ends up in a relationship with a bit of a sad sack woman named Jane, while two "Men in black" guys observe the goings on. 

Comments:

It's difficult to make a low budget comedy which riffs on bad low budget movies without ending up bad in the process, but this movie succeeds. Well, mostly. There are parts that are a bit rough / are weaker than others. Also, while it is funny, the jokes, at least for me, were a bit more smirky humorous than laugh out loud hilarious.

Even though I think it was well done, it is not something I'd recommend without hesitation unless you were into oddball, quiet humor, have a high tolerance for nonsensical plots, and a love for silly 50’s sci-fi B-movies. 

Women:

Well, yes… Obviously 

People of Color:

Some of the Earth women dates 

Gratuitous nudity:

No 

• Director: Madeleine Olnek
• Writer: Madeleine Olnek
• Actors: Lisa Haas, Susan Ziegler, Jackie Monahan, Cynthia Kapalan
• 76 min
• IMDB

The Skinny (U.S. 2012)

The Gist:

Best friends from college, three gay men and a lesbian, get together for New York gay pride weekend. One discovers something about his boyfriend, two can't get laid, one can't ever stop having sex, and the last, a virgin, is desperately in love with his oversexed friend. Drugs, liquor, lies, and drama ensues. 

Comments:

I had a little bit of difficulty connecting to the characters because they are all essentially trust fund kids. They come from monied families where getting a condo or a year long European trip as a graduation present is expected and normal. With two exceptions that is, one of the young men isn't merely exceedingly well off, he's just out and out mega-rich, while another is "living on public assistance" ghetto projects poor. There are no middle class African-Americans in the story. None of the major characters at least. 

The other connection difficulty was of characterization. One of the guys is shown as super innocent to the point of willful dis-knowledge to way the world works, which makes him a bit too unrealistic to be believable, although super innocent is at least a more interesting trait than the main protagonist's defining characteristic, that he's perfect. 

Structure wise, it sort of feels like several episodes of a TV or web series strung together rather than a singular movie. 

Which all sounds like I didn't like it, which isn't true. Production and acting are good and while the story goes a little too melodrama for my personal taste, overall it's a good movie. 

Women:

Two

People of color: 

Yes

Gratuitous nudity:

Yes

• Director: Patrik-Ian Polk
• Writer: Patrik-Ian Polk
• Actors: Jussie Smollett, Anthony Burrell, Blake Young-Fountain, Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman, Jennia Fredrique
• 103 min
• IMDB

Beatific Vision (U.S. 2008)

The Gist:

Michael has little time to grieve when his lover Chad dies, because "Angel Chad" (an all seeing/knowing voice) immediately comes back from the dead to cajole "guide" Michael to what dead angel Chad sees as best for him, a new unconventional family.

Comments with major spoilers:

Beatific vision is a part of Christian theology, overly simplified, it's sort of seeing /communing with god. In the case of the movie, the communing is not with god, but with the voice of dead Chad, and it's not so much communing as much as just dead Chad manipulating Michael into what dead Chad sees as best for Michael, a sexual triad relationship with two men, who have a familial relationship with two women, Michael's best friend and her girlfriend, the former wife of one of Michael's two new lovers. 

According to the IMDB plot summary, there's more details, such as dead Chad having died from brain cancer (I must have missed the line explaining this), and that dead Chad having seen Michael's future, decides to intervene. Another line of dialogue I must have missed, because from the movie I saw, it was pretty clear that controlling Michael's life was Chad's intent, even before he died. Coming back after death just made the job easier. 

It seems that the idea was to make a movie about spirituality, but what it ends up being is a weird thing, where the dead come back to control your life, which I don't think technically counts as spiritual. 

With a leather daddy with daddy issues, a newly out overly shy awkward therapist, a bold young student of human sexuality, a lesbian best friend, the newly out lesbian ex-wife of the newly out overly shy awkward therapist, and the bossy dead “angel” lover of the leather daddy with daddy issues, this movie has a lot of oddity going on, and in the end it isn’t able to make it work. Put more simply, it’s bad.  

Women:

Two (out of a cast of five).

People of color:

All the men. Well, all the living men anyway.

Gratuitous nudity:

Yes

• Director: Sountru
• Writer: Sountru
• Actors: Joe Higachi, Norm Munoz, Marianne Shine, Michael Vega
• 70 min
• IMDB

Love life (U.S. 2006)

The Gist:

Joe and Mary, a closeted, gay, former pro-athlete and a fairly repressed lesbian, are in a marriage of convenience, for both appearance sake, and for Mary to not be cut from family money by her mother. While the rules of their marriage allow for (discrete) sex with other people, an emotional connection with anyone else is forbidden, a rule that is tested when an old (female) college friend visits Mary, and what should just be a quick hook up with a man threatens to turn into something more for Joe. 

Comments:

We have "closeted although he apparently constantly cruises parks for sex with men" husband Joe and "closeted to the point of repressing all emotions as much as possible" wife Mary, and the two people who end up testing the rules of Joe and Mary's farce of a marriage: out gay landscaper Thomas and out lesbian friend from college Aura. 

All in all a rather attractive, if not particularly likable group of people. Actually unlikeable is being polite. At times they, especially the two leads, act like complete and utter jerks, although perhaps this is understandable considering the restrictions of their fake marriage has made them both miserable, as the dialogue and over-obvious metaphors make abundantly clear (their house is undergoing a remodel so the interior is covered in confining, oppressive plastic tarps, and if that weren't clear enough, dead plants abound).

It has some of the standard low budget movie technical issues, and while not exactly bad, is not exactly good either. It's main fault is that the story is simple enough that even at a relatively brief 72 minutes, it goes on way too long, and ends up feeling like it might have been better as a relatively brief short film. 

Women 

The wife, her friend, a reporter, and that's about it, although in its defense, the movie has a very small cast. 

People of color:

One rude reporter, although again, a small cast.

Gratuitous nudity: 

A male lead who sheds clothes at the drop of a hat, and multiple sex/love making scenes, so yes, both boy and girl "bits" are on display, although it does a good enough job of making it feel natural that gratuitous is not quite the right adjective.

• Director: Damion Dietz
• Writer: Damion Dietz
• Actors: Stephen D. Gill, Stephanie Kirchen, Keith Bearden, Jill Kirchen
• 72 min
• Note: I listened to the DVD director's commentary, and the most interesting thing was not about the movie itself, but rather about reactions to the movie, mainly about how assorted LGBT film festivals tripped over themselves at trying to figure out how to schedule a movie that had both gay men AND lesbians characters, and thus wouldn't fit into their neat (and segregated) boxes of L or G or B or T films. 
• IMDB

Ornaments (U.S. 2008)

The Gist:

Three friends and their assorted significant others have spent the Christmas holidays together for the past eight years. This year that means a self-centered woman who is indifferent to her girlfriend's desire to be a mother; a depressed man who is antagonistic to the fact that his new boyfriend is in love with him; and a sappy man whose wife is so newly pregnant, no one has been told yet. Over the course of the get together people act terrible to each other, testing love and friendship to the breaking point. 

Mildly Spoiler-ish Comments: 

There seems to be a train of thought that the holiday season isn't depressing enough on its own, so Christmas movies should be sad to lend a helping hand in making everyone even more miserable. Although in this case the Christmas setting is inconsequential. Any holiday or date of note that friends would use as an excuse to get together would have served, spring break, thanksgiving, a birthday, a graduation reunion, even Arbor Day would have been equally fine.

The issue of holiday aside, we have people leading sad lives, and facing issues that will quite likely end their friendships and relationships. Happy times. 

On the positive side, the acting is more or less ok (with a couple dips into over-dramatic). A larger sized man is cast as the depressed self-destructive gay man, so if nothing else, he is not the standard actor you'd expect for a gay role. 

Also, the story isn't uninteresting. It's just massively depressing. Additionally several of the characters are written to be incredibly unlikable, to the point that I didn't care about the terrible things they were going through. If anything, it quickly turned into "Oh that horrible person just had a bad thing happen to them? Good."

If movies where you actively want people to end up divorced and alone is your kinda movie, this was tailor made for you. 

Women:

Yes

People of color:

One boyfriend

Gratuitous nudity:

Nope

• Director: Brian Samuel Davis
• Writer: Brian Samuel Davis 
• Actors: Mattie Spradlin, Arthur Spradlin, Julie Tolman
• 92 min
• IMDB

Why not me? (Pourquoi pas moi?)(France 1999)

The Gist:

A group of 20-something, lesbian and gay, French expat friends living in Barcelona decide to finally stop lying and come out to their parents. Further, they figure the best way to do this is at all at once at a party for mutual support, both for themselves, and their parents as well. Little do they realize that the drama they were expecting, of potential parental disapproval, would be the least of what happens that night. 

Comments:

It's a cute fun movie with a large cast. Hmm, considering we are talking about a lothario lesbian in danger of running out of available women in Barcelona, a football (soccer) playing gay man 'crushing' on a team member, a Star Wars obsessed woman, her educated-to-the-point-of-unemployable girlfriend, a "straight but not narrow" secretary, all their parents (who are another long list of attributes and quirks), and all their potential love interests, make that a very large cast. 

There's a "Almodóvar-lite" feel to the movie, with the brightness of it, strong female roles, wild coincidences, and high drama, though admittedly, not with the same quality or skill. It also plays with elements of fantastic realism, but in the end the main qualities that struck me were again, that it was cute and fun. 

It's worth a watch.

Women:

Many. 

People of color:

A couple.

Gratuitous nudity:

Extremely minor.

• Director: Stéphane Giusti
• Writer: Stéphane Giusti
• Actors: Amira Casar, Julie Gayet, Bruno Putzulu, Alexandra London
• 96 min
• French, Spanish
• IMDB

Fruit fly (U.S. 2009)

The Gist:

Bethesda, a performance artist, moves to San Francisco for a six month stay to work on her next piece, a variant of the work she habitually returns to, her desire to find her biological mother. While in the city she makes a new family of friends, and in getting a new gay best friend, gains the label "fag hag" much to her initial annoyance. Also, being a musical, people sing and perform as the city is filled with the lights and tinny sounds of 6 bit games. 

Comments:

From an interview I read, the story goes that while promoting an earlier film they'd worked on, whenever H.P. Mendoza (Writer/Director) and L.A. Renigen (Bethesda)  'hit' a LGBT festival, men would automatically assume that she was a fag hag. This oddity prompted an idea that turned into Fruit Fly. 

It's not your standard musical. Many scenes were filmed in gorilla style, that is, on public streets and locations on the sly without permits. People sing about public transportation, teenage angst, hooking up, and 'workshop-ing' their lives to tunes intentionally reminiscent of old video games. Instead of grandiose story of large massive events with a definitive dramatic conclusion, this is more of a character piece where life happens.

From what I remember, (professional) reviews tended to be mixed, but personally I really like it. The movie is fun and filled with energy and light, and features people who (in gender, race, age, and sexuality) would normally be ignored in most movies. 

Regardless of my opinion, if the inherent goofiness of people breaking out into song is off putting to you, or alternatively, if you are a strong musical fan who can't stand when actors don't have strong voices, then it wouldn't be worth watching. 

On the other hand, if quirky oddball movies with a strong sense of style and place are your kind of thing, then it's worth a watch. 

Women:

Many 

People of color:

Many 

Gratuitous nudity:

Nope

• Director: H.P. Mendoza
• Writer: H.P. Mendoza
• Actors: L.A. Renigen, Mike Curtis, Theresa Navarro, E.S. Park, H.P. Mendoza
• 94 min
• Musical
• IMDB