I figured that after heaping praise on Butthole Lickin’ yesterday that my luck was going to run out and that Saturday night’s feature film, a “lesbian comedy” was going to suck and that for 70 minutes I would be watching time go by so very, very slowly.
Instead I’d like to report that “And Then Came Lola” rocked!
It’s a genuinely entertaining and relatively well thought out comedy that takes the plot from Run Lola, Run and turns it lesbian. I hadn’t made the name connection until about 15 minutes in when Chaz said to me that it reminded him of the movie because of the girl’s name—and how prophetic Chaz was: it use the same story telling device to convey a story set amongst lesbians in San Francisco. The film stands well enough on its own, but if there’s any chance that you can see Run Lola, Run before seeing this film, I’d recommend it. Not only that the amount of lesbians sitting around in circles without any on-screen action was kept to an appropriate minimum.
Other than that, there were some interesting shorts—but first the forgettable film: I’m Sorry, Sterling. It had potential, but it missed. About the only thing going for it was its brevity: four minutes.
At the other end of the interesting spectrum were four other films: Transproofed, Bi-Definition, Amor Crudo, and Boycrazy. Each had something good to offer.
Transproofed was the story of an MTF who was inviting a boy over to her house for the first time and she wanted to pass as a woman, so she had to hide the very things that defined who she was: glitter, art, and clothing.
Next up was Bi-Definition, a film that defends the honor of bisexuals, in particular a guy who wants to sleep with both women and men. The plight of bisexuals is problematic since gays are certain they are only making a brief stopover on the way to total homosexuality—which it often is, making the life of true bisexuals more difficult.
Amor Crudo was a bit murkier in its message—the main point of which was left unsaid. Rather, as I saw the film, it spoke to the inability of youth (and people in general) to articulate their inner feelings about other people, whether to third parties or the objects of their lust. I found it rather sad to watch two boys separate, never to meet again, one losing a friend but seeing greater opportunity ahead, while the other is unable to fully tell his departing friend that he’s in love and that he is truly going to miss his friend and that he wants more time, just to be present.
Finally Boycrazy was a love story done as a musical, with token lesbians who make a token U-Haul joke. Honestly this isn’t typically my kind of film. I don’t process words that are sung the same way I process spoken words, so for me to follow and enjoy the story means that the filmmakers some how manage to show singing a way that works for me and the way I process it.
Neither do I. Does anyone? But I don’t get what you mean. Can you give an example please? How are you with musicals?
Greetings from 33k feet; I’m trying that Gogointernet service American Airlines is selling and it seems to be working pretty well.
I really have to work to understand the meaning of words that are sung. If it’s spoken I understand it quickly, but when it’s sung I don’t always hear the words–and it can take a lot of repetition before I actually comprehend what is being sung–if I comprehend it at all.
A few years back I was at a concert in Germany and the lyrics were in English and I knew this, but I had no idea what was being said until a German asked me what the lyrics meant — and then I had to stop listening to the music and actively focus on the words–it was a lot of work to separate the two and for me to understand the words.
>>I like the gogo service, but i’m not going to pay for it on a flight that’s less than two hours. I did it from Atlanta to Denver, but Atlanta to Indianapolis is an hour or so in the air, and by the time you subtract out the parts below 10,000 feet, it’s not worth it.
I know what you mean about speaking versus singing. There are plenty of songs that I’ve heard thousands of times, and it might be a thousand times plus one before I catch them singing something I hadn’t ever paid any attention to before that moment. I do best when reading something. I am not much into musicals, for the most part, but I did enjoy that short film.
I was going to leave a facetious comment about how “Lesbian Vampire Killers” wouldn’t play at such a festival (oh wait, I just did!), but the idea of processing sung as opposed to spoken words is interested. Maybe the listening process is similar to the speaking/singing process.
Since our son stutters, we have learned a lot about right brain/left brain connections involved in forming speech. The modern theory is that stuttering is a genetic disturbance in these connections. These connections are different for song and speech (most stutterers can sing stutter-free), so it makes sense that the brain connections for listening to speech and song are different as well.
Your theory is probably spot on.
I hadn’t meant to skip Cliff’s question about musicals but I did–and after reading Mateo’s comment I started thinking back.
In general I do not really like musicals. I like Rent. I enjoyed seeing Avenue Q. But beyond that I don’t own any musicals on DVD (except Rent and that one’s a bit shaky in quality)–and the last one I can recall watching was Moulin Rouge (on DVD) and I had to quit. Every time they broke out into song I wanted to shoot either the actors or myself. It just did not work for me.
And as I type this, I also have to confess that I tried watching some of Glee and I couldn’t stomach it — I essentially had the same reaction to it that I had to Moulin Rouge.