Visions and Revisions: By Hook or By Crook

 You know you're old when films you viewed on release get a 25th anniversary re-release! And that's what's happened with the Dodge/Howard debut, By Hook or By Crook. By chance I was (re)visiting San Francisco in 2001 and was able to chat to Silas Howard about the imminent release of the DIY project, which was news to me as I had been away for awhile and only knew Silas as the rhythm guitarist in Tribe 8. We chatted a bit about the film and the gender politics behind it. Some months later I was sent a VHS copy of it, which was hard to watch as I had to play it on a PAL machine. Anyway... I was struck by what a time capsule it was of the queer SF of the time, full of familiar streets, venues, faces...

25 years later the film has undergone a 4K restoration and is doing a tour of select US cities and I was able to watch it in a crisp online version. Everyone looks very young and so many of the venues are gone, the streets have changed and quite a few gender identities have also altered. What was a butch buddy film is now more of a butch/trans masc buddy film. The two protagonists can be seen in different ways and it will be interesting to see how a new audience finds them. 

I was struck at the time how much Valentine (played by Harry Dodge) reminded me of Raymond in Rainman. Now I would probably view the character as being on the spectrum with possible PTSD thrown in. Howard's Shy still has the butch swagger of before but with added gender fluidity, which was always there in the shifting pronouns on show. The story of the two ducking and diving through a world that is not built for them is even more poignant as the world is still not built for them. And there seems less space for the marginal in my beloved SF. Sigh. 

The film is still overlong and the sound is not great in some scenes, especially as Valentine is given to long, rambling, mumbled monologues. But it is quite the debut from the two, with cameos from Joan Jett, Kris Kovick and many more queer icons. 

Trailer 

BY HOOK OR BY CROOK will screen theatrically June 12th - 18th in NYC and June 16th in Los Angeles, and expand to additional cities throughout the US. Digital and physical releases will follow later this summer. 

Brute 1976

 Well, this was one I was looking forward to: a period horror B-movie (dir Marcel Walz) with queer characters set in the desert. But it proved to be a let-down. 

Raquel and her girlfriend June break down in the desert and wander into an abandoned town with a creepy cave they just have to visit.... It goes downhill from there with a bit of exploitation, a helping of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and a soupcon of Midsommar all stirred up into a rather bland mixture involving a photo shoot, booty shorts and some rather gory kills. 

That sounds more fun than it is. Somewhere in the midst of the hilarious wigs and the terrible acting, I wondered if Walz was making a spoof, but it is really not funny enough to qualify. There are a few chuckles to be had, with one creative toilet encounter and some drawled dialogue about the Browns going to the Super Bowl. If only Walz had a lighter touch, it could have been grand. But, like one of the goons' chainsaws, this one feels a bit blunt. 

Trailer 

Brute 1976 was released on 3 May on various streaming platforms.  

Kelso Camera Club Exhibit

 Passing through Kelso today I happened upon the Kelso Camera Club annual exhibit, held upstairs at Town Hall. What a lovely array of images! Everything from seascapes to animal portraits and even some urban vistas . 

I was quite taken with one of a cat that looked remarkably like my own late feline and even shared her name. Viewers are invited to choose their top three images and I had a good walk round before I narrowed it down to my own top three from among the 100-plus on show. 

 Kelso Camera Club's exhibit runs through 3 May at Kelso Town Hall. 

BFI Flare: Slow Burn

 Another languid watch, Bearcave is a Greek drama about a couple who are not really together and then for most of the film are very definitely apart. Anneta and Argyro seem to have a secret relationship and when the former announces she is pregnant by her boyfriend, that seems to be that. But as the film unspools from different POVs, it seems Anneta is not happy with her decision. The cinematography is great, with zoom shots of mountains and a cool sequence at a theme park, but it goes on a bit. And I did not really understand Anneta's decisions and her treatment of Argyro. The actor's performance very much made her seem untrustworthy. And there is a very confusing set of events related to pregnancy. Still, I now know about nettle pie. 

Final shorts: Spiders on My Lashline is quite dramatic, as an exotic dancer stumbles into a church and then has flashbacks. There is some kind of revenge plot but I was not clear if it was real or fantasy. Saints is a dreamy Italian film in which two girls share a kiss while preparing for a religious event that involves one of them flying as an angel. Beautifully shot but the finale is underwhelming. Nest also features teens prepping for a ceremony with lots of gossip and chat and a stain on a dress. It felt like a proof of concept film.  

BFI Flare: Thwarted Desires

 The film at this year's festival I have most been looking forward to is Montreal, My Beautiful (writer/dir Xiaodan He), a Canadian drama starring Joan Chen as a Chinese immigrant who pushes at the boundaries of her life as a wife and mother. 

The film starts with a comedic scene of Chen's Feng Xia attending a gyno consultation with her daughter who has to translate her mother's intimate health issues to the male doctor. This sense of comic awkwardness is not repeated during the rest of the film's 117-minute running order, but Feng does have a tense relationship with her daughter who is thoroughly at home in Montreal and chastises her mum for not speaking French. So Feng enrols on a course and through that comes to know a young Cuban immigrant who turns her on to online dating, as you do. We never see this character again. 

Before you know it, Feng is online and pulling a younger woman called Lisa who invites her over for friends with benefits sex. It seems implausible that Feng would be rushed into this state, but the film drops these bombshells and then lingers on tiny details to create extended tableaux, like Feng sitting outside smoking, which she does often, gazing into space. It is a frustrating watch. 

Eventually, we do learn a bit more about Lisa and Feng, but the drama that ensues becomes quite melodramatic and the film did not quite jell for me, as I found it a chilly watch. The daughter largely disappears from the story for long periods, leaving Feng to inhabit a joyless life with her husband, frustrated in his career and life. After a time, I was willing the film to come to some conclusion, but after a fiery confrontation between the spouses, it seemed to peter out into another unresolved ending. Chen is luminous, but the film does not really do her justice. 

Of the shorts I have seen, I will mention Seek No Favor, a messy but ambitious tale of vigilantism and wig thievery set in NYC. Sunday Lunch is a well-done farce concerning a lesbian couple arriving at a family do with secrets to share. Nice Jewish Girl is an Aussie teen drama in which a girl at camp finds a porno mag which unleashes repressed desires. 

Montreal, My Beautiful trailer

BFI Flare: New Adventures

One thing I have noticed so far is the number of films that don't end well, as in don't end clearly or decisively. Perhaps the filmmakers like ambiguity, but it is a bit frustrating for me as a viewer. 

 Low Rider, the much anticipated return of Campbell X, spends most of its running time on the road, as Londonite Quinn seeks out her father in Cape Town. The film is a quest, a road movie and a bit of a search for the authentic self as Quinn falls in with Harley (a wistful Thishiwe Ziqubu), a duck and dive local with a rusty Toyota. 

I enjoyed their rapport but grew frustrated as the film's bumps in the road largely came from bad decisions by Quinn. There was no real sense she wanted to have a spiritual makeover, either, until the last 10 minutes of the film took a sharp left turn and she ended up in some kind of Afrofuturist commune led by a steampunk leader. Most odd and quite jarring. 

The short Notice Me certainly does have a decisive ending as it is a Hackney set rom-com in which a new girl has a meet cute with a hunky barista and then spends most of the film running from any possible happy ending. It is quite fun and great to see some local faces on film, too. 

BFI Flare: Teens on the Run

 Jone, Sometimes (dir Sara Fantova) is a languid drama centring on 20-year-old Jone who is looking after her father and younger sister while also trying to figure out her own life. The film takes place during a week-long festival in Bilbao which allows Jone to get out and meet her friends and also stir up a romance with Olga, who is visiting from Madrid. I liked that it was not a typical coming of age. There is no coming out drama: Jone's friends are totally casual about her desires and encourage her to go after Olga. It never feels like a rom com but rather a well-rounded portrayal of someone caught in the middle of several competing pulls. 

 The short Newbies baffled me. Two young people spend most of its 17-minute running time voiceovering about a single tooth and then wandering around New York and ending up on the subway. I really have no idea what is was supposed to be about, but it looked great, with lots of moody night-time cinematography.  Oh, and Danny Glover pops up. 

 Jone, Sometimes Trailer