Out and about on the Silver Screen

The oldest continuous film festival in Los Angeles, hits the 25 mark this year. Although if features some 235 films and videos from 25 countries in nine different venues across the Los Angeles area over the next 12 days, Outfest is more of a happening than a mere film festival. It is a place where people from all sexual orientation persuasions can commingle in continuum in vis-à-vis cinema.

The following are some capsule reviews for films playing at this year’s festival.

“Butch Jamie” - I liked this movie the first time they made it. It was called “Tootsie.” Yet I can appreciate that the plot of a man or woman achieving fame only after switching sexes is a deliciously irresistible one and so I can’t really fault Writer-Director Michelle Ehlen for giving the starving artist in drag concept another go. Especially since Ehlen, in the role of the title character, Jamie, is so bang-on-the-money good. You’ve probably already guessed the plot: Jamie can’t get a gig. Everyone else, including her roommate’s cat seems to be able to, but not so for Jamie. And so when there’s an opening in a new independent flick Jamie gets the chance of a lifetime…playing a man, that is. That may sound very formulaic, but in actuality, there’s nothing formulaic about “Butch Jamie.” As it turns out, it’s an irreverent and often hilarious ride with the right blend of pathos and slapstick to make it well worth the watch. Recommended. CJ Johnson

“High Art” – In the apartment upstairs from Syd (Radha Mitchell) and James (Gabriel Mann) – typical Manhattan yuppies of the 90s - there is a revolving population of heroin junkies including lesbian lovers Lucy (Ally Sheedy), a famous photographer of yesteryear, and Greta (Patricia Clarkson), a past star of Fassbinder films. Syd has just been promoted to associate editor of a chic New York photo magazine. Entranced by her neighbor Lucy, Syd wants to snag her a gig as a photographer at her magazine. The two women use each other with a subtle maliciousness for the endgame of their professional ambitions while simultaneously falling in love with each other, slowly tearing Lucy away from Greta. Greta (channeling Fassbinder’s hollow heroines in stature and style) responds by using heroin as a last ditch enticement to lure Lucy away from her newfound success and romance. Director Lisa Cholodenko (“Laurel Canyon”) maturely deals with drugs and sexuality in a realistic yet stylish fashion in this, her 1998 debut feature. A menagerie of contemporary photographers were enlisted to shoot various scenes; lending a fragmented, artsy highness to “High Art.” Shudder to Think’s notoriously queer brand of 90s indie rock saturates the soundtrack. Don Simpson

“Itty Bitty Titty Committee” – Anna (Melonie Diaz) is a young Latino lesbian aimlessly moping through life recovering from a recent break-up. Cue sexy Sadie (Nicole Vicius) and her radical feminist comrades the C(I)A (a clever acronym for Clits in Action). Hiding meekly behind the stylishly grainy film montages, momentous female-fronted riotous soundtrack (featuring Le Tigre) and precisely placed (and paced) onslaught of feminist messages, a quaint little romance develops. Just wait for the climax - the blowing [up] of the most prominent phallic symbol in the U.S. Jamie Babbit’s (“But I’m a Cheerleader”) feminist diatribe, “Itty Bitty Titty Committee,” teaches as much as it entertains as it tows the fine line between triteness and pretentiousness. Don Simpson

“Nina’s Heavenly Delights” - Writer Director Pratibha Parmar’s “Nina’s Heavenly Delights” is a confectionary bundle of goodness set within a Scottish-Asian community in Glasgow. Nina (the beautiful Shelley Conn) arrives home after her father’s unexpected death to find his restaurant, The New Taj, in danger of being taken over by the competition. A cook in her own right down in London, Nina decides to enter the New Taj into a best of the west cooking competition, with the help of her fabulously feisty new business partner Lisa (Laura Fraser). As the competition heats up, so does their friendship, blossoming into something far more potent. Nina’s hang-ups about their relationship are largely due to her fear of not being accepted by her Mother, Suman (Veena Sood). If this had been a stereotypical film, Suman would have been hostile at her daughter being a lesbian and bored us all stiff with talk of tradition.  But this isn’t a stereotypical film and Suman proves Nina’s fears to be unfounded — as a loving mother, what matters to her the most isn’t her daughter’s sexual preference, but her genuine happiness. Of course, Nina should have known she didn’t have much to fret about seeing as her mother absolutely adores her flamboyant brother Raj (Art Malik), who is an aspiring Bollywood star with a dancing troupe called ‘The Chutney Queens.’ (Gotta love that.) Sure, Parmar really caters to the viewer’s sweet tooth with a heavy dose of saccharine, but there is enough complexity here to save it from romantic comedy humdrum hell. Recommended. CJ Johnson

“Poison” – A triad of stories (“Hero” featuring Edith Meeks as Felicia Beacon; “Horror” featuring Larry Maxwell as Dr. Graves; “Homo” featuring James Lyons as Jack Bolton) are fatefully intertwined sharing in their brutally grand allusions to homosexuality, sadism and AIDS; revealing the horrors of media and society’s opinions and treatment of the outsider. Playfully blending his love for midnight movies, Kenneth Anger, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Jean Genet (whose novels inspired the film, most obviously the “Homo” thread) Todd Haynes (“Far From Heaven”) created a dark, mesmerizing and engaging feature debut (following two rarely seen shorts, “Assassins: A Film Concerning Rimbaud” and “Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story”). As obvious and heavy-handed as the allegories appear, the interpretations and readings of “Poison” have been polarized and confused. Nevertheless, Haynes’ premiere collaboration with wunderkind producer (and fellow Brown alumni) Christine Vachon stands as a seminal and unparalleled film in the history of queer, avant-garde and U.S. independent cinema. Recommended. Don Simpson

“Spider Lilies” - File this one under movies that make you go ‘Huh?’ Two hours of watching miserably unhappy people do an awful lot of soul-searching results in a whole lot of…nothing. This aimless, awkward (romance?) revolves around a girl named Takeko (Isabella Leong) who owns a tattoo parlor in Taipei. Jade (Rainie Yang) comes into the parlor one day, wanting a tattoo of a spider lily like the one displayed on the parlor wall and on Takeko’s arm. But Takeko is, oddly, unwilling to oblige. When Takeko later has a look at Jade’s website, she finds out that Jade is a webcam sleaze star and, more to the point, she realizes that she once had a childhood crush on Jade. Her reluctance to give Jade the tattoo is owing to her hang-ups regarding her father’s death and the film spends a lot of time exploring the matter through flashbacks. The film also spends a lot of time wasting perfectly good opportunities to turn the story into something engaging and even remotely appealing, but Thai Director Zero Chou seems more interested in silly webcam teases and a thoroughly pointless subplot involving an Internet cop. The chemistry between Takeko and Jade is lukewarm at best, making their intimate moments on screen rather boring affairs. The surprise force in the film is that of an exceptional John Shen as Takeko’s mentally disabled younger brother, Ching — he is thoroughly absorbing. Leong is a capable enough in the role and Yang has a relative amount of charm, but their talents are left largely untapped and “Spider Lilies” collapses into a forgettable and unfortunate missed opportunity for Chou. CJ Johnson

“Tick Tock Lullaby” Sasha (Lisa Gornick) and Maya (Raquel Cassidy), two lovers that met at an alcoholics anonymous meeting in London decide that they want to have a baby. They want, more than anything else, “to enjoy being there for another person and to enjoy being needed continuously.” Todd (William Bowry) and Fiona (Joanna Bending) are a couple thinking about having a kid, although Fiona’s continued hesitations frustrate Todd and strain their relationship. Writer-director Lisa Cornick’s “Tick Tock Lullaby” is a thoughtful, sober account of their journeys towards parenthood. “If I’m gonna do sperm, I want that sperm to fancy me,” says Sasha. “I want my baby to be born from genes that crave each other.” And so both she and Maya go on the hunt for a perspective, worthy donor. They spot a hunky prospect, Laurence (Jake Canuso), an unassuming actor whose fascination with Sasha forces them all reevaluate exactly what it is they really want. On the straight side of the tracks, Todd’s momentary liaison with Fiona’s slightly scary photographer sister (Sarah Peterson) ends up being exactly the sort of kick Fiona needed and ends up driving her and Todd closer together. Gornick’s film is made memorable by her own moving portrayal oft the spirited artist Sasha. The film dawdles and feels sluggish when she’s not around — but whenever Gornick is on screen, she ignites it. Recommended. CJ Johnson

“Vivere” From Germany comes Angelina Maccarone’s “Vivere,” a superbly crafted film in which three very different people discover why life is worth living when fate throws them together on a cold Christmas night in Rotterdam. Francesca (Esther Zimmering), bitter and lonely, is compelled by her father to go and search out her young sister Antoinetta (Kim Schnitzer) who has left home to be with her boyfriend. Her grudging search brings her into the path of Gerlinde (a fabulous Hannelore Elsner) a middle-aged woman who has just been in a car accident.  Gerlinde’s quiet mystery both frightens and intrigues Francesca and her search for Antoinetta is put on the backburner as she is overcome with needing Gerlinde — someone who is emotionally distraught after having been dumped by her own lover. When Gerlinde doesn’t respond, Francesca storms off to search for her sister. Francesca finally tracks down Antoinetta in a back room of a music club…in a bed with Gerlinde. And so the intricately layered events of the night unravel in a retrospective by both Gerlinde and Antoinetta that is nothing short of fascinating. They seem to be creatures of the night, living in a grainy, dark world, until these three silently suffering women realize they absolutely require each other in order to keep going, but when the morning sun rises they are again beautiful and fresh and drive off together to start life anew. Maccarone’s expert handling of the richly textured plot is ultimately mesmerizing, captivating the viewer with searing simplicity. Highly Recommended. CJ Johnson

For more information about Outfest 2007 call 213/480-7065 or email boxoffice@outfest.org