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Photos courtesy of STUDIOS
(from top) AND THEN CAME LOLA and PATRICK, AGE 1.5
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HOME > OUT IN DC > COVER
COMMENTS
 
Reel Affirmations, Washington’s gay film festival staged each year by One in Ten, returns this week with a two-week run in which the 19th season will unfold with a dizzying blend of drama and documentary, U.S. and foreign films, high- and low-budget and everything in between. The one thing they have in common? They all explore aspects of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender experience.
Blade staffers review most of this year’s batch here. A few were unavailable for preview and a few other preview discs were defective. Margaret Murray, One in 10’s wonderfully accommodating director, did her best to get replacement copies but time ran short. The festival’s program booklet gives extensive information about each film, though it doesn’t review them. Visit www.reelaffirmations.org for more information about venues and the shorts, which weren’t reviewed.
Look in next week’s edition for films slated to be shown Oct. 23 and 24, the festival’s closing weekend.
Contributing writers: Joey DiGuglielmo, Amy Cavanaugh, Jaimie Schock, Rebecca Armendariz, Jeanni Centofanti, Robbie G. Barnett, Lynne Brown, Phil Rockstroh, Rob Boeger and William Rawls.
And Then Came Lola
7 p.m.
Harman Center for the Arts
1 hour, 10 mins.
It’s “Run Lola Run” with a lesbian twist — and without the bank robbing and guns. “And Then Came Lola” follows Lola as she makes her way through a San Francisco obstacle course in an attempt to deliver photographs to her girlfriend, Casey, who needs them in 30 minutes.
Detained by an ex-girlfriend, a meter maid, a dog and other things, Lola races against time to get the photos to her girlfriend — and make sure that Danielle, her girlfriend’s new business partner and former lover, keeps her hands off Casey. Luckily for Lola, she gets three tries to make it, and with her second and third tries she’s armed with the knowledge of what happened previously.
It’s not just the plot that’s lesbian-leaning — “And Then Came Lola” stars three lesbian actresses, Ashleigh Sumner (Lola), Jill Bennett (Casey) and Cathy DuBuono (Danielle), and it has a fun, poppy soundtrack of lesbian artists. It isn’t necessary to have lesbian actresses to make a great lesbian film, but this just makes it all the more fun. A- (AC)
Patrik, Age 1.5
9 p.m.
Harman Center
1 hour, 38 mins.
Reading the program blurb, you imagine “Patrik, Age 1.5” is going to be the kind of predictable cinematic pablum gay film festivals are so fond of showing, but then you start watching it and realize you might be in for a surprise. It’s short lived, though. By movie’s end, it’s apparent the seemingly refreshing plot turns were mere dramatic red herrings and all has been resolved with a tidy pink bow with all the principal players bounding down a hill complete with dog in tow.
In Swedish with English subtitles, “Patrik” is the story of gay couple Goran (Gustaf Skarsgard) and Sven (Torkel Petersson) who yearn for a baby. A typo indicates Patrik is a year and a half, but he’s really a 15-year-old homophobe and delinquent apparently beyond redemption.
Sweden, it appears, isn’t so different from Hollywood at its most hackneyed where seemingly happy relationships, regardless of sexual orientation, are presented only to navigate choppy waters and hoodlums are introduced only to find redemption.
The movie’s entertaining enough. It’s a dramedy that bounces along with all the light humor and heartstring tugging of an episode of “Seventh Heaven.” Gay audiences may be more inclined to begrudge it a few points on the smarm scale because the characters are also gay.
But gay storylines — no idea if these leads are gay in real life (a reunion sex scene was tenderly explicit and convincing) — do not guarantee a strong movie and this one, sadly, is ra-ra-gay tripe on a dramatic par with Lifetime. It’s also way too similar to last year’s gay adoption dramedy “Breakfast with Scot.” C- (JD)
Fagbug
1 p.m.
Harman Center
1 hour, 23 mins.
This movie was unavailable for preview.
Mr. Right
3 p.m.
Harman
1 hour, 41 mins.
“Mr. Right,” a comedy from brother/sister team Jacqui and David Morris, follows a group of gay Londoners, loosely joined by their friendship with Louise (Georgia Zaris) who’s embarking on a new romance but fears her new beau (Jeremy Edwards) might be gay.
Harry (James Lance), a TV producer, is seeing Alex (Luke de Woolfson), a caterer and aspiring actor always looking for the positive of any situation. Lars (Benjamin Hart) is the hunkiest of the batch but also the slimiest, constantly taking advantage of his see-no-evil sugar daddy, Tom (co-director David Morris in ...
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