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

Violet Tendencies (U.S. 2010)

The Gist:

Violet is the "last fag hag in New York," or at least the last woman left in her crowd of friends, all gay men. Rapidly approaching 40 and still single, she is facing the prospect that in order to find a boyfriend she may need to quit her "boys" cold turkey and leave the gay world behind, because it's not like she's going to find a straight man hanging out at gay bars. Also, there's two subplots where two gay couples don't do very much, but drama happens anyway.

Comments (with a couple unimportant spoilers):

Mindy Cohn plays Violet, so the expected joke in writing about the movie would be something about how Natalie from the Facts of Life grew up to be a middle aged fag hag in New York. Although oddly she's not the only familiar face in the movie. I recognized a few men from other indie gay movies, so my viewing went like this: 

"Hey, I remember him. He played a gay writer in another gay movie. Huh. He's a gay writer in this one." 

"Hey I remember that other guy. He played a slutty gay in another gay movie. Huh. He's a slutty gay in this one."

So the lesson is that not only can you be typecast as gay but as a specific kind of gay? Or maybe the lesson is that roles available in indie gay movies are a bit limited, or maybe I'm being too harsh.  

Regardless, the movie is neither good, nor bad, just average. It's also a bit over long, and unfortunately spends a bit too much time on the secondary (and uninteresting) gay characters instead of Mindy, er, Violet. 

Actually, there is something interesting about the her gay boys. The idea is thrown out that they take her for granted and to a certain extent sabotage her attempts at relationships. In the end this is supposed to be untrue because they "love her," yet, pretty much all the movie does is show them taking her for granted and to a certain extent sabotaging her attempts at having a long term relationship.

There is a caveat to my saying the movie is just average, which is that this is obviously not a good movie to watch if you object to the term "fag hag" (or jokes about women's body parts, or lewd humor).

Women:

The protagonist, a co-worker, and a couple other minor roles. 

People of color:

A couple

Gratuitous nudity:

Not technically, though there are some rather revealing gogo boy outfits.

• Director: Casper Andreas
• Writer: Jesse Archer
• Actors: Mindy Cohn, Marcus Patrick, Jesse Archer
• 99 min
• IMDB