SLGFF 2010
Oct. 26th, 2010 06:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tiggymalvern
The 2010 Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival wound up this weekend, and as well as Pandora Boxx, I did go to see a bunch of films. Since I'm short on time, the reviews will be less detailed then I usually like to do.
Mississippi Queen. Documentary. Paige Williams fled her southern home town after coming out as gay. Her parents' reaction was to became preachers with an ex-gay ministry. Paige returns with her wife to learn more about the ex-gay ministry, and different experiences of gay life in the south.
The ex-gay ministry in question is not one of the more extreme variety - the 'ex-gays' who have joined the church are still fully aware they are gay, they have simply chosen to be celibate instead of acting on their feelings. There are some very candid stories told, including one lesbian whose Catholic mother broke down in tears and told her, "You were so much happier when you were with the women." The ex-gay point of view is contrasted with interviews with homosexuals who have left the Church because of their orientation. This film has some great stories, and a fascinating look into some truly weird mindsets, but the film-maker is not experienced and it shows, so the whole thing doesn't pull together as well as it might. 3/5
The Sons of Tennessee Williams. Documentary. In the 1950s and 1960s, gay men in New Orleans faced imprisonment and public shame. Using the cover of Mardi Gras, they created exclusively gay clubs to hold drag balls, some of which still continue today with original members. The film interviews a number of elderly gay men about life before and after being open about their sexuality, and follows the organisation of a modern day drag ball. A great mixture of sadness and fun. 4/5
Eyes Wide Open. Two gay men fall in love in an ultra Orthodox community in Jerusalem. This film is full of repressed longing, and contains the expected long, quiet scenes of inner contemplation and doubt. It is beautifully filmed, with great music, good acting and intense drama. The repressed longing is not confined to the gay men - there is a subplot with a het couple who are separated because her father wishes her to marry someone more suitable. Ultimately, this is a portrait of a small, closed community, where everyone not only knows everyone else's business, but considers it their God-given duty to interfere. 4/5
A Marine Story. Alex Everett returns to her small town home, having been expelled from the marines under DADT. She is career military from a military family, and has to reconstruct some kind of life in a future she had never envisioned.
I had such high hopes for this one. It stars Dreya Weber, from The Gymnast, which I have raved about here before, and has the same writer and director. But sadly A Marine Story didn't deliver - the plot was trite, cliched and predictable. It's not a bad film, it's simply unsubtle, and a little more originality would have done wonders for it. The cinematography lacks the stunning impact of The Gymnast too, although admittedly the material is not so visually dramatic to work with. So why is A Marine Story scoring 9 at imdb, while The Gymnast only scores 6.6? Beats me, people are weird. 3/5
Children of God. Inter-racial romance in the Bahamas, where homophobia is still the public norm, and not infrequently violent. One of the pair is openly gay, and lives in fear of oppression, both verbal and physical, while the other is closeted, and lives in fear of his family. While the central romance is sweet and unavoidably stressed by outside forces, this film is also more of an ensemble piece, with a number of other major characters, including the angry wife of an anti-gay preacher and a more moderate preacher who wants to help his parishioners and struggles with his faith.
I thought this film was pretty damn good. It runs the full range of emotional impacts, and at one point made me cry. It is beautifully filmed, and several characters who should have been sterotypes avoid it by virtue of good writing (although there is one character in particular who still remains a stereotype). 4/5
Elena Undone. A lesbian writer, recovering from the death of her mother, meets Elena, mother of a teenager and bored in a loveless marriage. The two fall in love, but clandestine relationships are never fun for long, and all sides of the love triangle soon feel the strain.
This definitely feels like a film in two parts. The first part is so much fun, with entertaining, smart dialogue and a cute, funny, believably awkward romance. The interludes with Elena's love guru friend and his films of couples relating their unlikely love stories initially seem a little gimmicky, but they turn out to be witty and in some cases downright adorable, a gimmick which works and which I loved. The two main characters are gorgeous, and their scenes are genuinely erotic. Sadly, the second part of the film turns into a trite angst-fest, with predictable soap opera dialogue and people making the kind of idiotic decisions that I hope they really only make in fiction. The film would also have been improved if Elena's husband hadn't been such an arsehole. It would have added emotional tension to the film, and as it is, you're left wondering why Elena stayed with him even before her lesbian romance. I scored the film 3/5, though ideally I would have liked to be able to score it 3.5, because the first hour was definitely a 4.
Mississippi Queen. Documentary. Paige Williams fled her southern home town after coming out as gay. Her parents' reaction was to became preachers with an ex-gay ministry. Paige returns with her wife to learn more about the ex-gay ministry, and different experiences of gay life in the south.
The ex-gay ministry in question is not one of the more extreme variety - the 'ex-gays' who have joined the church are still fully aware they are gay, they have simply chosen to be celibate instead of acting on their feelings. There are some very candid stories told, including one lesbian whose Catholic mother broke down in tears and told her, "You were so much happier when you were with the women." The ex-gay point of view is contrasted with interviews with homosexuals who have left the Church because of their orientation. This film has some great stories, and a fascinating look into some truly weird mindsets, but the film-maker is not experienced and it shows, so the whole thing doesn't pull together as well as it might. 3/5
The Sons of Tennessee Williams. Documentary. In the 1950s and 1960s, gay men in New Orleans faced imprisonment and public shame. Using the cover of Mardi Gras, they created exclusively gay clubs to hold drag balls, some of which still continue today with original members. The film interviews a number of elderly gay men about life before and after being open about their sexuality, and follows the organisation of a modern day drag ball. A great mixture of sadness and fun. 4/5
Eyes Wide Open. Two gay men fall in love in an ultra Orthodox community in Jerusalem. This film is full of repressed longing, and contains the expected long, quiet scenes of inner contemplation and doubt. It is beautifully filmed, with great music, good acting and intense drama. The repressed longing is not confined to the gay men - there is a subplot with a het couple who are separated because her father wishes her to marry someone more suitable. Ultimately, this is a portrait of a small, closed community, where everyone not only knows everyone else's business, but considers it their God-given duty to interfere. 4/5
A Marine Story. Alex Everett returns to her small town home, having been expelled from the marines under DADT. She is career military from a military family, and has to reconstruct some kind of life in a future she had never envisioned.
I had such high hopes for this one. It stars Dreya Weber, from The Gymnast, which I have raved about here before, and has the same writer and director. But sadly A Marine Story didn't deliver - the plot was trite, cliched and predictable. It's not a bad film, it's simply unsubtle, and a little more originality would have done wonders for it. The cinematography lacks the stunning impact of The Gymnast too, although admittedly the material is not so visually dramatic to work with. So why is A Marine Story scoring 9 at imdb, while The Gymnast only scores 6.6? Beats me, people are weird. 3/5
Children of God. Inter-racial romance in the Bahamas, where homophobia is still the public norm, and not infrequently violent. One of the pair is openly gay, and lives in fear of oppression, both verbal and physical, while the other is closeted, and lives in fear of his family. While the central romance is sweet and unavoidably stressed by outside forces, this film is also more of an ensemble piece, with a number of other major characters, including the angry wife of an anti-gay preacher and a more moderate preacher who wants to help his parishioners and struggles with his faith.
I thought this film was pretty damn good. It runs the full range of emotional impacts, and at one point made me cry. It is beautifully filmed, and several characters who should have been sterotypes avoid it by virtue of good writing (although there is one character in particular who still remains a stereotype). 4/5
Elena Undone. A lesbian writer, recovering from the death of her mother, meets Elena, mother of a teenager and bored in a loveless marriage. The two fall in love, but clandestine relationships are never fun for long, and all sides of the love triangle soon feel the strain.
This definitely feels like a film in two parts. The first part is so much fun, with entertaining, smart dialogue and a cute, funny, believably awkward romance. The interludes with Elena's love guru friend and his films of couples relating their unlikely love stories initially seem a little gimmicky, but they turn out to be witty and in some cases downright adorable, a gimmick which works and which I loved. The two main characters are gorgeous, and their scenes are genuinely erotic. Sadly, the second part of the film turns into a trite angst-fest, with predictable soap opera dialogue and people making the kind of idiotic decisions that I hope they really only make in fiction. The film would also have been improved if Elena's husband hadn't been such an arsehole. It would have added emotional tension to the film, and as it is, you're left wondering why Elena stayed with him even before her lesbian romance. I scored the film 3/5, though ideally I would have liked to be able to score it 3.5, because the first hour was definitely a 4.
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Date: 2010-10-30 01:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-30 04:18 am (UTC)