2004 G & L FILM FEST

This year I could only afford to see nine films in the festival. There wasn't a wide range of offerings even if they did add two new screening theatres (In Oakland?). While I usually try to see many different types of films, this year I seem to be going to quite a few with one word titles.

I was very disappointed by the majority of the "films" in the festival this year. Digital video has planted itself in the center of queer cinema and yet Frameline seems to be totally ignorant. Their program lists many of these features as films when in reality they were shot on DV and the festival is screening the material after it's been transfered to filmstock. Either they need to change the name to the film and video festival, have a seperate festival for video or start telling us the truth about the material featured in their festival.

Shiner

This video was so bad, I don't even know where to begin... What made it worse was waiting until the end to hear the Q&A with the writer/director. His amorphous and pathetic attempts to justify his "process" sounded like some lame-ass Freshman at film school diatribe that had nothing to do with anything. Newsflash for first-time directors: tight shots, shaky hand-held camera work and bad lighting DO NOT make your work seem more arty or important.

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Ballroom

I missed this one... I was supposed to stand in the non-members line for this one and because I didn't arrive an hour early, I decided to skip it entirely. The good seats at the Herbst are bad enough, lord only knows what I'd go through up in the balcony...

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Wave Babes

This was the funnest film of the festival. Inspired by the summer blockbuster, Blue Crush, this film centers around a trio of women twenty years after their Blue Crush days... Witty, insightful and very well written, Wave Babes features a solid cast that raises the material to a level far outshining their obviously tiny budget. It was kitchy, silly, poigniant and above all FUN - a total joy to watch. It's out of DVD so see it for yourself!

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Anonymous

This film sucked A LOT! Very bummed that I stayed all the way through it. I saw it with my pals Irwin and Martin both of whom hated it almost as much as I did. Why do these first time writer/directors spend so much time, money, and energy on the irrelevant aspects of the film and so little time on actually telling an engaging, interesting STORY?

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Father & Son

This one seemed like a slow-moving Russian film bothered more with cinematography than anything else. After my experiences with other slow moving "arty" projects this year, I decided to pass on Father & Son so that I could go to the Castro and see other films with Martin and Irwin...

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Testosterone

I've finally seen David Sutcliffe in a lead role. He was awesome, unfortunately this film sucked and had basically nothing to do with testosterone or manly love fueled by it. I can't believe how bad this film was. The director also directed Edge of Seventeen and that film was great so I expected more from this project. WHAT A F***ING LET DOWN. What was David Sutcliffe's character's motivation? Who gives a sh** after five too many plot twists and secrets within secrets I found myself laughing at the absurd "resolution" to the story. Martin and Irwin thought I was completely bonkers or heartless for laughing when the ex-lover gets beheaded but honestly by then I felt the film became a parody of itself and deserved derisive laughter if not utter contempt and outrage...

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Sugar

This film was based on a collection of short stories by my Friendster Bruce LaBruce. It's exactly the type of film that my pal Irwin abhors because it glamourizes urban self-loathing homos engaged in destructive, shallow relationships. I was utterly shocked to find him attending this film because I've known Bruce LaBruce for years and I'm familiar with a lot of his work. I enjoyed this piece a lot. I think much of the sex and violence was difficult to watch and yet it wasn't extraneous or gratuitous as it was in SHINER. By showing the aftermath of violence, this film humanized the characters and made their story much more universal.

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Dorian Blues

This was probably on of the better produced projects I've seen this year. Irwin and I saw it at the Herbst and I really enjoyed it. My pal Martin saw it at the Castro for one of the day time showings and he told me that the writer/director said he was trying to show how Dorian became his father by the end of the film... WHAT? Now that I know that, THIS FILM SUCKED! It was an utter failure in showing Dorian becoming his father... The father was such a sharply drawn character and Dorian seemed to be his antithisys through most of the film. Even when his mum said they were alike in many ways, I just felt like "sure lady that's what mothers always say"

If the father had a catch-phrase or frequent epithet that Dorian could aquire by films end, I could see the writer/director's point. As it is, the dinner argument in the begining of the film should have been mirrored at the film's end with Dorian replacing his father at the head of the table drilling his self righteous vitriol into everyone around him - THEN I would have gotten the point of the film...

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Straight-Jacket

This kitchy, parody of 50s era Hudson-Day films was cute, harmless fluff. It was sad to see how much less they achieved with twice the budget of much better conceived Wave Babes. The big "Hollywood Hottie" wasn't very handsome and was totally unbelievable and an unconvincing Rock Hudson parallel. The lady in the Doris Day parody nailed it on the head and totally made this an enjoyable film. It's a cute gay date film but hardly worth the effort to rent it...

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