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