Cherry Pop (US 2017)

The Gist:

A straight white man becomes a drag queen as it's his last chance to sing onstage. Comedic stuff not related to that happens. 

Comments:

Apparently straight white drag queen facing and overcoming prejudice from queer, mainly non-white drag queens is a queer movie subgenre. A somewhat boring one, for me at least, since "straight white dude enters queer people of color dominated space and overcomes prejudice to succeed" is not exactly a story I am personally interested in.

Main storyline aside, pretty much all there is to the movie is intentionally cheap n tacky jokes. Queens who hate each other, a queen with a mother in denial that her son Is gay, an ongoing thing about an older queen grieving her dead lover. Yes, that last bit counts as humor.

Truth is despite boring me a little, the movie is competent in telling it's jokes and succeeds in doing what it promises to do, providing an opportunity to see assorted RuPaul alumni and other more or less famous drag queens on screen. 

Women:

Yes

People of color:

Yes

Gratuitous nudity:

No 

• Director: Assad Yacoub
• Writer: Nick Landa
• Actors: Lars Berge, Mayhem Miller, Detox, Tempest DuJour (if not obvious, drag names of the actors) 
• 79 min
• IMDB

First Period (U.S. 2013)

The Gist: 

A girl set on having a great 16th birthday party next weekend is faced with a problem. Her family has just moved into town and she doesn't know anyone yet, so she only has five school days to become popular at high school. A prospect that Heather, the current reigning most popular girl in school is not exactly thrilled with. 

Comments: 

The movie is a farce of 80's high school comedies with the protagonist and her new best friend, the school's 'freak' girl both being played by men. There's also the school's mean girls who are both named Heather, pretty much all the speaking roles played by people who haven't been teenagers in quite some time, insane teachers, lots of 80's "valley talk," the near lack of adult roles, the near lack of actual classes, and other high school movie cliches amped up and played for laughs. 

While there are some problems and minor issues, the movie more or less succeeds at being a camp high school farce. Thing is I didn't particularly like it. A case where my tastes don't align with the majority, because poking around online it looks like that for the most part people enjoy the movie and think it's really funny, cute and engaging, while I was largely indifferent to it. 

My lack of enjoyment aside, if you're into high school movie farces, or like campy, wacky movies with male actors playing women, then it may be worth checking out. 

Women: 

Yes 

People of Color:

Yes

Gratuitous nudity:

No

• Director: Charlie Vaughn
• Writer: Brandon Alexander III
• Actors: Brandon Alexander III, Dudley Beene
• 100 min
• Note: While there are some gay characters in the movie, it's the adult male actors playing teenage girls camp aspect that gets it included in lists of LGBT movies. 
• IMDB