| an intimate friendship |
 |
1999 |
Written and Directed by: Angela
Evers Hughey |
Static direction, trite acting and almost sickeningly bad writing
makes this film one of the worst lesbian releases in recent memory.
It was such a shame because I went into the film really looking
forward to it, having enjoyed the preview I saw on the film's
website.
You know a film really stinks when a room full of women are laughing
hysterically through the whole thing, and there isn't a decent
joke told in the entire movie. It was everything bad about lesbian
and independent film multiplied by ten.
The story revolves around a young actress/playwright Faygen who
finds out that her best friend Danielle is gay and is sleeping
with the producer of her new play. She feels something about the
development, but isn't sure what, and gets involved with another
friend, Jamie, who is the nicest guy but doesn't arouse any feelings
of passion inside her. Finally she comes to her senses and realises
that Danielle is the love of her life, and she goes about trying
to tell her this in disastrous and seriously annoying ways.
A sub-plot involving Danielle and the antagonism between her
and her kid sister over the "gay" thing is easily the most interesting
part of the film, especially when the little sister enrols in
the counselling session for friends and families of gays and lesbians.
I think I would have preferred a film about that, rather than
the romantic am-I?-aren't-I? angst of the main plot.
I hated Faygen, I thought she was annoying, so I just didn't
care what happened to her. About halfway through the film I was
counting cliches and rapidly running out of fingers and toes.
Note to director - moving people around in a film is a very important
thing. These characters were like cardboard cutouts, immobile
and two-dimensional.

Unfortunately, as you could hear in the sound problems that plagued
the film, sitting people down and making everything static and
boring seemed to be the only way they could get the sound right.
Sometimes people sounded like they were speaking from two rooms
away when they were standing in the same shot. The editor must
have been tearing their hair out in frustration, just trying to
get usable material.
I found absolutely nothing in this film to recommend. It may
just have overtaken Claire of the Moon
as my least favourite dyke film ever. I'm giving it half a star
for effort, but can't in all honesty give it anything more.
Got a comment? Write to me at nancyamazon@gmail.com
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