The Venus Effect

 This Danish film directed and co-written by Anna Emma Haudal is billed as a lesbian rom com. Well. Not so sure about that.... 

 Taciturn Liv works at her parents garden centre and has a meet cute with hippy wild child Andrea when the latter's car breaks down and she bursts in wearing a pussy costume. 

 The first 15-20 minutes are quite intriguing as the writers weave in notions of growth and natural elements: trees, bees, plants making music. I was quite hopeful. 

 But once the two women strike up a relationship, the film falls flat. There is no sense of why these two disparate characters would get together, much less Liv cheat on her boyfriend. There are several set pieces in which characters sit down to uncomfortable meals that could be hilarious farce. But not here. It's just lots of awkwardness. It put me in mind of some of Joanna Hogg's work, with her tense silences and people putting on brave faces and being polite. I have never warmed to Hogg's work, and this felt equally stilted. Plus the two leads have no chemistry. 

The last 20 minutes pick up considerably, as we finally get a satisfying conflagration (over Christmas dinner), and Liv finally expresses some deeply held emotions after 80 minutes of being frustratingly passive. Over goes the tree. No cha cha heels, though. So, not so much rom com as low key drama.  

One thing I noticed was that the references to plant life also disappeared in the middle part and the director throws in very oddly paced cut aways to trees. A shame she didn't develop that strand as relationship and plant growth are a good match. 

Trailer

THE VENUS EFFECT is available on streaming services from 2 June.
 

The Ugly Stepsister

 Strap in for some Scandi horror, as writer-director Emilie Blichfeldt delivers a wickedly black humoured retelling of the Cinderella story, here presented as a 19th century marriage mart. 

While not as gory as I had anticipated, the film does regularly serve up truly gruesome imagery. I was expecting a rivalry between stepsisters Agnes and Elvira, but actually it becomes more of a war between Elvira and the social expectations of her to contort herself to find a husband. Her sights are firmly set on drippy poetry-writing Prince Julian and to this end she is willing to allow various body parts to be broken, reshaped and in a fingers-over-the-eyes climax, to be lopped off. 

But before all that, Elvira goes through dance and deportment lessons and in the course of this swallows a tapeworm to lose weight, as you do. As soon as this happened, I thought: this tapeworm will be making a reappearance. And, OMG, it really, really does. 

The voice of reason in all this is Elvira's little sister Alma who watches, learns and offers the sensible comment that Elvira is not right in the head. I rather expected to see more of Alma and was intrigued by her turning up in Elvira's room late in the day wearing boys' clothes. This was never explained, so maybe something was edited out. 

The power shift between Agnes and Elvira is quite interesting and the viewer may well find sympathies shifting. To my disappointment, there is very little sisterhood on show. And the mother of the two girls. My god. She really is a piece of work.

 While it was quite well done, I would have liked to see someone in this deadly game realise they are all being played and bail out. 

The Ugly Stepsister trailer

 The Ugly Stepsister is available for digital download in UK from 9 May. 

Queer East: Incidental Journey

 For my final post from Queer East, I am looking at Incidental Journey, a 2001 film from Taiwan (dir Jo-Fei Chen) and shot on 16mm. I honestly thought this was a much older film as I watched as it's quite slow and dreamy and nobody uses modern tech. 

It's quite short for a feature, running at 61 minutes, and there are long stretches without dialogue as heartbroken Ching picks up hitchhiker Hsiang in a remote location and the two then get stranded. They end up spending most of the film at the truly gorgeous home of Hsiang's friends Ji and Fu who grow their own food and live near a river. Ching and Hsiang spend a lot of their time smoking and not speaking to each other, which is how we know they must feel an attraction. Honestly, I started to get annoyed at their lack of speech. But they grow on each other over time and on us, the audience. 

Ji is the interesting character as it is clear she shares some history with Hsiang. She proves a catalyst in moving the action along a bit. 

Can't say I loved the ending, as it baffled me, but that seems almost a given for the films I have watched for this festival.

Incidental Journey trailer

Queer East continues through 18 May.

Queer East: Extremely Unique Dynamic

 This one starts off quite well and then tails off, which really should not happen as it's only 67 minutes. Playing with the concept of meta reality, Extremely Unique Dynamic features two guys living in LA who are facing a separation as one of them is moving to Canada. At first I thought they were meant to be a couple but they are actually pals and one of them is getting married. But first they want to have one weekend to have fun... and make a film. As you do. 

But these two are both frustrated entertainers. Ryan is an actor not getting booked while anxiety-ridden Danny whose raps about loving tacos somehow have not made him famous. Ryan proposes a film within a film within a film (if I have counted properly) in which they film with both a DV cam and an iPhone to record their "unique dynamic" and somehow make a film with no real plot. 

The first 10 to 15 minutes are quite funny, as we see them trying to ride every internet wave and use services like "Giggle" etc. But once they start filming themselves, it gets a bit self-indulgent and not very funny. The self awareness also feels a bit cringey at times, with Ryan's marketing speak and Danny's nerd chic wearing thin over the running time. The cameos from a YouTube personality and an actor feel random, as if the filmmakers (the actors plus a third person) had called in favours. Most oddly, the unseen fiancee's voice comes from Kelly Lynch!

With the drama hinging on whether Danny will tell Ryan he's gay, it doesn't feel like much jeopardy. The footage of Danny and Ryan's childhood antics, which largely seem like them jostling to be in front of the camera, is also not that exciting.  More back story might have helped.

This feels like it would have been a great short which has been stretched to breaking point to make feature length. 

Extremely Unique Dynamic trailer

Queer East: Rookie

 Quite the departure from my recent viewing, Rookie, a film from the Philippines directed by Samantha Lee, takes us into the world of high school volleyball as awkward new girl Ace tries to acclimatise to her new school and the hostility of the team captain, Jana. 

That these two find common ground eventually is not really in doubt but it is quite refreshing to see high school sport used as the setting for this budding romance. My hazy memories of volleyball at school are mainly centred on my inability to serve properly. But I cannot remember receiving any coaching in the sport. 

Coaching is at the heart of this film, not just from the earnest Coach Jules but her shady assistant Kel and the upholders of the mores of the school. When Jana and Ace decide to go to prom, there are issues. And the shock of the nattily attired Ace being told by a nun her outfit is not modest is too much. This girl has the soft butch look down!

The team ethos grows over time, with several of the girls providing revelations about Kel and this offers a very satisfying, if brief, revenge scene.  

The climactic competition scene goes on a bit and then leads to a rather curtailed ending. But this film will give you the feels if you found school a bit awkward and wished you had asked that cutie to prom.

Rookie trailer

Queer East: Murmur of Youth

 This is my first time reviewing some of the titles from this festival which is on now until 18 May in locations in London. 

The 1997 drama from Taiwan, Murmur of Youth, is a curious beast, stretching to 104 minutes, during which not very much happens for the first 80. Two girls, both called Ming-Lei, are shown leading their lives in and out of schools in their very different environments. One lives in a rural area with her extended family and one lives in a high rise block. Their paths finally intersect 43 minutes into the film when they start working in the same cinema. 

And then the floodgates open. They speak! They joke! They confess their crushes and bodily secrets. It is quite the jolt from the previous sedate, almost wordless pace. I did wonder at why it was in a queer festival, but then that became clear in the last 15 minutes, which was also a jolt. 

I don't really know what to make of this film. I found it quite dull for the most part, but I did have questions afterward. Also, one will have to google to find a translation of an important document toward the end. A bit of a mystery all around. 

Murmur of Youth trailer

Two to One

 This German film from writer-director Natja Brunckhorst is set in the summer of 1990 as the GDR was waiting to be absorbed by its neighbour. As teenaged tearaway Jannek spends his days writing graffiti on abandoned buildings, parents Maren (Sandra Hüller) and Robert (Max Riemelt) ponder their newly unemployed status and wonder what fate awaits them. 

With the return of the hulking Volker (Ronald Zehrfeld) from Hungary, tensions rise among the three adults, with questions raised about their previous relationship and particularly in regard to Maren's daughter Dini. 

Meanwhile.... a stash of soon to be worthless Ostmarks is sitting in a conveniently located warehouse where Uncle Marke happens to work. So, they hatch a scheme to trade them in for D-Marks. What could possibly go wrong?

Billed as a heist comedy, Two to One is actually an odd mix of sepia hued Ostalgie for a lost dream, with a bit of love triangle and then a smidgen of action thrown in as an afterthought. It is not especially comedic but it is quite cryptic, a slow burn of building discomfort. By the quite rushed and confusing end, I had quite a few questions, mostly involving the currency scheme and also what had happened with the three protagonists. I couldn't work out if they had been a throuple gone wrong, a fling, or possibly had an open relationship. 

Brunckhorst's screenplay provides several moments that suggest impending drama or a confrontation only to pivot to the next scene, depriving the audience of the satisfaction of seeing how a scene plays out. But the film is quite affecting.

What is most extraordinary is this story is based on true events, as the closing credits explain. Numismatics will be thrilled by the trading machinations, but those with little knowledge of German politics may be a bit bewildered by the events as presented. 

Two to One gets its UK release on 2 May. 

Trailer

BFI Flare: Onda Nova

 In my final post from this year's Flare I cover a feature and a short both set in and around a women's football team. 1983's Onda Nova was banned in its native Brazil and is now getting a revival after a digital restoration. Rarely has a film irritated me so much. 

The Seagulls are a football team in Sao Paulo who are getting by and we meet various members of the team in various states of undress. This is Onda Nova's calling card, a mix of softcore sexuality, a bit of football and lots of ridiculous situations. The only characters who really stood out were Lilly, the goalkeeper, who is the smallest member of the team, Neneca, who is quite tall and the only black character, and Rita, a blonde woman who drives a gorgeous purple car. 

There is no real narrative, no character development, just a series of scenes that appear to have been shot, thrown in the air and edited together. Characters have a conversation and then for no discernible reason have sex wherever they are, whether in a clubhouse or a car. Most of these are male-female couples and it is disappointingly straight for a film showing at a queer festival. 

There is a lot of camp, mostly in the form of the singer Helena who performs early on and then just turns up in her boyfriend's kitchen and flirts with his daughter Potato (yes, really). No idea what Helena was up to. Ditto for most other characters in the film.

My favourite bit was the opening credits, spraypainted on sheets by two characters. PFFT. 

The short Solers United is a bit more coherent, featuring a football team facing the loss of its ground while a love triangle develops. This was good fun but felt like a proof of concept for a longer film.  

And that is a wrap. 

Onda Nova trailer

BFI Flare: Four Mothers

 This Irish indie comedy is an absolute joy, albeit with some sadness. Novelist Edward (James McArdle) is caring for his elderly widowed mother who is recovering from a stroke and cannot speak. For rather incredulity inducing reasons, he ends up looking after three other elderly mothers after their sons dump them to go to Winter Pride in a Spanish town. 

So, Edward is left running to keep up with the demands of his visitors, while also trying to pursue his writing career and keeping his dormant private life at bay. There are moments of farce but also the sadness of seeing someone losing himself in the service of others, while also recognising that the four women are also seen as a burden. 

The mothers are outstanding, especially Fionnula Flanagan as Alma, Edward's mother whose entire performance is wordless. Niamh Cusack turns up as a medium in Galway, sparking a moment of realisation for Edward about his relationship with his dead father. There is also the pull of a possible romance with Raf, his mother's carer. So much angst! 

Fish is a short written by and starring Cara Mahoney in a semi-autobiographical comedic tale of a woman coming out as bisexual while having lots of second guessing. There are some funny moments, mostly sparked by her panic over not knowing what gold star means. 

Four Mothers trailer

FOUR MOTHERS will be released in UK cinemas by BFI Distribution 4th April 2025.
Break Out Pictures will release the film in Ireland 4th April 2025.
 

BFI Flare: Lakeview

 My viewing has been a bit short on comedy, so this Canadian indie was quite the treat, featuring dyke drama galore, heartfelt songs and some gorgeous scenery courtesy of its lakeside setting in Nova Scotia. 

Writer-director Tara Thorne serves up a gathering of assorted ladies with a shared history who are attending their friend Darcy's divorce party, as you do. What ensues is a weekend of simmering resentment, raging sexual tension and quite a few hilarious off the cuff conversations riffing on pop culture (Swifty alert). I also detected that the character names cover all three boygenius members, plus some more musical icons. Cute. 

But after a lot of laughs, the last third turns serious and melancholic in a way I had not expected. Can we not have one totally fun lesbian film? Apparently not. Lessons must be learned the hard way and the morning after is not nearly as fun as the night before.

BFI Flare: Summer's Camera

 This Korean drama starts out as a coming of age tale and segues into a reflection on grief, mourning and finding your way. First time feature director Divine Sung crafts a really thoughtful and dreamy meditation on first love as teen Summer finds herself attracted to football star Yeonwoo while also grieving the recent loss of her father. The two girls move toward each other tentatively, watched by their gossipy friends. 

But really Summer's relationship with her lost father and her use of his old camera becomes the focus of the film as she discovers mysterious pictures on the last roll of film he shot. Then she meets someone from his past, prompting her to question her family relationships. It is really intriguing and very clever use of analogue (the tech I grew up with) camera equipment to chart her developing feelings, as well as memories of her dad. I especially liked the idea of listening for the shutter click before you take the photo.

The ending is a bit cryptic and abrupt but this is a fine debut from Sung with standout performances from the two girls. 

 Trailer

BFI Flare: Really Happy Someday

 This Canadian drama from J Stevens is a laconic meditation on changing bodies and minds as Toronto musical theatre performer Z struggles with the effects his intake of testosterone is having on his voice. Over the 90 minutes, his relationships with his agent, his girlfriend and his boss at the local bar all undergo stress and strife. 

After a failed audition, Z hires voice teacher Shelly to try to get back the upper range he has lost and over their sessions, he repeatedly expresses frustration at the shift in this crucial musical instrument. At one point, he exclaims, "I fucked up!" and bemoans how taking T has caused him to lose control of the one thing he could count on. 

My question was why did he not know this would happen? Surely if you are about to embark on gender alignment, you would do a lot of research to understand what changes that might bring, especially if your livelihood depends on your voice? I could not understand his utter bewilderment at his voice changing. 

Generally, Z is a pretty passive protagonist, constantly whinging to his girlfriend, friends, colleagues but failing to actually take control of his life. And he also smokes and drinks, which surely would do more damage to his fragile voice. I got pretty annoyed with him but OK, I guess it provides more drama. 

Watching the changes over time provides some interest but there is something a bit detached about this film which stopped it really moving me.

BFI Flare: Sally!

 Not really sure why the exclamation mark is there, but director Deborah Craig's doc on writer and agitator Sally Miller Gearhart touches on significant sections of US queer and feminist histories over the last 55 years. 

Gearhart was well known to me when I lived in SF back in the 1990s even if I now cannot remember exactly why. Protest marches? Talks? Events? Writing? All entirely possible. She was an academic, public speaker and all around lesbian icon. I did not know her life story, and this film is an eye opener. 

A Southern belle and established teacher who moved to SF in 1970 and immediately bought a motorbike and became a prolific seducer of women, Gearhart also bought land in the north of California to establish a community in line with her book The Wanderground, about a women's utopia. This I knew nothing about and the archive footage is fascinating but also familiar--lots of nakedness, laughing, cats and dogs and power tools. Ah.... a forgotten Eden. 

But the film has its darker strands, too, as Gearhart falls out with an ex whose stepson offers some cryptic comments about not speaking to her later in her life. 

And then the bombshell: Gearhart was suffering from dementia in her later years. Which begs the question: why the tittle tattle when she was in no condition to defend herself? The film seems ever so keen to move her away from her stated separatism to a more centrist position, as if to satisy some off-screen viewer. But can't people just have their belief systems? Why wouldn't a thinker and activist hold a range of views that might change over time? 

The saddest thing is they had to sell the land to pay her carer bills. So much left to do to achieve a just and equitable system to allow elders to age with dignity. 

But a cracking film about someone who is not necessarily as well known as she should be. 

Sally! trailer

BFI Flare: Respect Your Elders

 "Hey, old lady!" is not a greeting I have heard, but it surfaces several times in the delightful Korean dramedy Manok (dir/writer Yu-jin Lee). The titular character is not even all that old, perhaps mid 40s, but the teens she encounters in her small home town are not especially deferential. Having moved back from Seoul where she owned a queer bar, she is finding her feet but her every move is thwarted by her vengeful ex-husband, who is the town chief or mayor. When she realises how controlling he is, she vows to run against him. 

At times hilarious and then sad, Manok is a special film, brimming with wonderful performances, absurd set pieces (a rap battle in a police station comes to mind), and a timely message about people overcoming their differences to realise what they have in common. Manok's interactions with her ex's gender non-conforming child allow her to realise that the youth of today perhaps don't have it easier, as she thought. I thought a plot line might develop in which she pursued an old love, but this was a red herring. Never mind. Perhaps there will be a sequel. 

In the short Shoobs, an awkward teen attending a house party is shadowed by a mysterious older figure who offers her advice in pursuing the object of her affections. It gradually emerges who this fashion doppelganger is... An intriguing premise with a cryptic ending, it looks at how people get caught up in what might have been. 

Manok trailer

BFI Flare: I'm Your Venus

 What a heartbreaker this doc is. Directed by Kimberly Reed, I'm Your Venus is a sensitive and devastating reopening of old wounds in the name of healing as it revisits the 1988 murder of Venus Xtravaganza who was featured in Paris Is Burning. 

Quite incredibly, some 30 years later, Venus's brothers join forces with the House of Xtravaganza to seek answers from the police and find ways to honour her legacy. Reed's camera finds its way into legal conferences, council meetings and the ballroom scene as the various protagonists raise awkward and painful questions about the dead woman's life and death. 

In particular it is painful to watch the brothers wrangle with their own feelings of guilt over how they treated their sister 40 years ago. Clearly, mistakes were made and they are only really put on the spot by a member of the House who knew Venus. Still, it is gratifying to watch them try to be good allies and honour her by changing her legal name and preserving her childhood home. 

I had so many questions, mostly to do with what investigation was actually done by the police in 1988 and why the family knew so little of developments. But one doc can only do so much. 

This is a teary but necessary watch. 

BFI Flare: Familial Demands

I must admit that when I heard that The Wedding Banquet was being remade, I was sceptical. Why? I wondered, go back to a film from the 1990s? Ang Lee's breakthrough film has now been remade with one of the original screenwriters and a new director, Andrew Ahn, with the setting moved to Seattle. 

Bowen Yang is familiar to audiences as a comedic actor on SNL and as the GBF in films, but here he is handed a weighty role as a commitment-phobe drifting into his 30s and living in a friend's garage with his boyfriend Min (Han Gi-Chan). Lily Gladstone and Kelly Marie Tran are Lee and Angela, the couple who live in the main house, which is owned by the former. As the film unfolds, decisions must be made and life choices embraced, with the pressure of Min's grandmother pushing him to take over the family business while he wants to pursue his art. 

Once grandma arrives, things really pick up, with some delightful farce, including a frantic de-gaying of the house and a cringy Korean wedding ceremony. Gladstone, best known for her dramatic roles, is not a natural comic but has some great moments. But the film is really stolen by the two matriarchs, Angela's mother (Joan Chen) and Youn Yuh-jung as Min's grandma. It's laugh out loud and also moving. A delight. 

We Are Faheem and Karun is billed as Kashmir's first LGBT film and is a dreamy, thoughtful drama of forbidden love between a military man guarding a checkpoint and a local resident. As the two, Faheem and Karun, exchange grins and pieces of fruit, one wonders where this budding romance will go. In amongst the pressures brought by well-intentioned parents and a hotheaded brother, there are also flashes of humour. Viewers would greatly benefit from understanding the Kashmiri conflict and the cultural and religious differences in play. But one can glean the barriers facing the two would-be lovers and appreciate the quiet moments they share, against the gorgeous backdrop of the mountains. 

The Wedding Banquet trailer

Time Travel Is Dangerous!

 A British indie sci-fi mock doc, TTID! reaches for the stars and flies high if unsteadily over the roof tops, as Ruth and Megan discover a time machine and use it to restock their vintage shop in Muswell Hill. What could possibly go wrong?

Directed by Chris Reading and written by Reading and the Shakespeare Sisters, the film is narrated by a typically acerbic Stephen Fry and features the requisite shaky camera work and whip pans typical of documentaries. Ruth Syratt offers a hangdog performance as Ruth while Megan Stevenson is more expressive as Megan. The sound dipped at various points, perhaps as a nod to the documentary method and sometimes swallowed the dialogue but the two actors have good chemistry.  

There is also a host of Easter eggs for those with the energy to look for them, in the form of actors popping up from Buffy, The Witches and The School for Good and Evil. Plus Brian Blessed as an octopus, and, dear lord, Johnny Vegas as an angry robot. I know some find Vegas hilarious, but every time he appears on screen, he seems to suck the life out of every scene he is in. Jane Horrocks appears in a very odd steampunk sequence shouting a lot and I actually did not recognise her.

Truth be told, the pacing and tone of the film are all over the place. When the cast are trying to sort out the issues of time travel it is a lot of fun, but the more serious scenes feel out of place. 

So, yeah, time travel is a bit of a bumpy ride. 

Time Travel Is Dangerous! is on UK release from 28 March. 

Trailer

Barrelstout's Women's Day Picture Show

 The DIY filmmaking duo of Bev Zalcock and Sara Chambers has been collaborating for a few decades now, producing underground cinema drawing on Eisenstein, Deren and a host of others. On Friday they presented a selection of their work at Birkbeck Cinema. 

I had not been to Birkbeck for some years, probably pre-Covid for an earlier Barrelstout night. It was very odd to be out after dark and around lots of people. I am still being cautious, so I sat at the back and looked down on the audience, many of whom also appear in the films.

 While I have seen a lot of their work, several films were new to me, including two world premieres. While Bev favours Super 8, Sara is more in the digital realm, so the films are often a mixture of media. Suzi and Brandi in Needlepoint featured old S8 of two friends, which Bev had worked with a needle. Very hands-on. SLAGS, on the other hand, was composed of still photos of friends and the Kent town of Sandgate, which presumably were all digital. Those were the two new films.

Of the older ones Andi Andi was also new to me, featuring a femme biker cooking in full leather, and I recognised Diamanda Galas on the soundtrack. Diamanda was a total shock to me when I first heard her in the 1980s, thanks to a goth friend. At some point I played one of her records at the wrong speed and quite liked the effect. In any case, it was good to hear her soundtracking frustrated lesbian desire played out in the domestic sphere. 

Humour tends to run through Barrelstout's films and their punny titles reflect this. Among the films not shown were Oh, Odessa! and Mad, Bad and Barking, but these may come back at some point. There was a mention of re-editing some of the older films, which was intriguing.

Well worth a journey out on a Friday night and I also got to see some lovely spring flowers in the gardens around Bloomsbury.

Oh My Goodness!

 This one is a lot of fun. Nuns + cycling is the combo we didn't know we needed and this farce from director Laurent Tirard provides a marvellous cheerfully blasphemous confection. 

St Benedicts convent somewhere in rural France gets involved in a local cycling race hoping to use the prize money to bolster the funding for an old people's home. But only one of the sisters, trainee Gwendoline, shows any aptitude on a bike. Then a crew of rival nuns turn up and things get ugly.... 

Well, as ugly as a comedy about cycling nuns can get. The two mothers superior turn out to be old frenemies and concoct various schemes to do each other down. It is great fun watching nuns be devious and I did laugh out loud several times. For one brief moment it looks like the two trainees might run off but the mothers get it together and nobody goes to hell. Phew.

Trailer 

Oh My Goodness! (Juste Ciel) opens in the UK on 14 March. 

Die Alone

The stark title of this film by writer-director Lowell Dean really does not do it any favours. A futuristic dystopian thriller, Die Alone drops the viewer into a global environmental crisis in which human beings are being attacked by some kind of virus that turns them into plant zombies. At first the filmmaker seems to be drawing some kind of parallels with Covid, as newspaper articles speak of riots and resistance.

But then the film goes off in another direction. A young man called Ethan stumbles from his car and searches for his girlfriend Emma. A woman called Mae (Carrie-Ann Moss) takes him in and looks after him. As he gets in a number of scrapes, his amnesia prevents him from remembering those around him. Mae seems to be some kind of survivalist who carries a gun and has to keep her cranky generator running. Very few human beings are left after the plant attacks but there is one skeleton called Myrtle that hovers in the background.

Suffice to say Ethan and Mae are linked in some way and there is a massive twist toward the end.

Preposterously intriguing or intriguingly preposterous, Die Alone tries to be a sci-fi thriller and love story and perhaps also a warning of the damage human beings are wreaking to the planet. The zombie angle is not really pursued to any satisfaction. Why do they attack some things and not others. What happens to the people turned into plants? Do they decay and die or live forever? Who was Myrtle? I wish the film had filled in some of these details as the premise is solid. But it does rather let itself down. Great to see Carrie-Ann Moss being a badass but something is missing. Not so much Die Alone as To Die or Not to Die.

Trailer

Die Alone will be available on Home Entertainment from 10th March 2025

Who We Love

 This adaptation of his short by director Graham Cantwell is a well intentioned if rather clumsy drama about Dublin teens negotiating school, parents and budding queer life. At the start Lily seems to be in bed with a woman in flashback, but then heads off to school to give her best bud Simon a badge she tells him is from her visit to San Francisco over the summer. Since we have seen her cutting out the letter S I thought perhaps she made up the story of her visit and indeed the romance and spent most of the rest of the film wondering when she was going to come clean. But No, that sequence was so that we would see the exacto knife she used to cut the letter. The reasons for that will become clear later in the film...

Lily seems to lack confidence and does not seem to have told Simon she likes girls even though he is clearly out and proud. Nor does she tell her parents or anyone at school or even go online to find support. Seeing as Simon and Lily live on the outskirts of Dublin their isolation from a queer community seems most odd. The film really feels like it should have been set in the 1990s, not the present day. I could easily imagine it as a Channel 4 Out on Tuesday production. There are so many on-the-nose moments as characters make histrionic declarations like "Leave me alone!" as if their feelings are so hard to understand. There really is an Only Gay in the Village vibe that feels very off. 

So rather than go find some queer kids their own age, Simon takes baby dyke Lily to a gay pub to meet Oonagh who for some reason has taken on the role of lesbian den mother and gives  Lily a pep talk while constantly insulting Simon in language that feels more like a peer than an older woman chatting to a teen. Again it feels off.

Sadly, Oonagh is one of very few "older" characters who has any kind of compassion, with the parents being hostile or distracted and school authorities completely out of touch with the students. Lily's nemesis is her friend Violet who has violent tendencies and a mother who tells her she is "winning at life" in some of the worst parenting committed to screen. Another "older" character is a sleazy voyeuristic gay man who likes to watch. It gets quite uncomfortable. 

There is some satisfaction in watching Lily turn the tables on her bully but the film is an exercise in frustration at watching a collection of stereotypes and melodramatics in search of a coherent plot or character development. 

Trailer

Street Trash

 For my first post of the new year, it's this trashy remake of the 1987 film of the same name, courtesy of director Ryan Kruger. Set in Cape Town, Street Trash presents a familiar tale of underdogs vs The Man, as evil Mayor Mostert plots to do away with the troublesome homeless by vaporising them with a spray called Viper. 

The aesthetics are very much teenaged boy humour (lots of chat re: erections and humping) and B-movie sci-fi (exploding bodies and slime). Sometimes it works, with characters emerging over the piece to show a depth of emotion. Grizzled street dweller Ronald (Sean Cameron Michael) and newcomer Alex (Donna Cormack-Thomson) are particular standouts, growing from grudging allies to good pals. A sub-plot involving the subterranean Rat King is rather confused and adds little. 

What is impressive about this film is its embrace of lo-fi strategies and the energy of the cast. The feel of griminess is palpable. The mayor is little more than a cartoon character but the desperation and anger of the disenfranchised comes through strongly. Quirky exchanges between characters seem a bit reminiscent of Tarantino and the addition of a blue sex-obsessed ghoul only visible to one character is certainly an interesting story choice.

I could have done without the phallic obsession and the cringy post-credits coda is typical of this. Perhaps the director suffers from insecurities in this area. Grow up, Ryan.

Trailer