2008 Inside Out Film Festival
Toronto's 18th Lesbian & Gay Film & Video Festival
From May 15-25, 2008, Inside Out will bringing audiences the best of gay and lesbian cinema in Toronto, Ontario. Here are early reviews of 2 of the films to be screened.
On May 15th, 2008, the 18th annual Inside Out Lesbian & Gay Film festival comes to Toronto. Featuring hot ticket items such as XXY, The Walker, Savage Grace & Like a Virgin, Inside Out is a “must attend” event for cinephiles.
This is the first batch of reviews to come from the festival. Thus far, Out at the Wedding, She's a Boy I knew and Saturn in Opposition are the stand-out films.
Mulligans
Directed by Chip Hale
Rating - 2/10
Mulligans is the kind of film that should appeal to all of the guys out there who have ever wanted to boff their best friends dad; which one can only assume is an enormous demographic. Tyler Davidson (Derek Baynham) has brought his best friend Chase (Charlie David) home to his family, Nathan, Stacey & Birdy Davidson (Dan Payne, Thea Gill & Grave Vukovic) for a vacation. Chase does a bang up job integrating himself into Davidson family routines, getting along well with everyone and being supportive while Stacey voices concerns of her young daughter’s dalliances with genital exposure and inappropriate lesbian tendencies. He also finds himself taking on some work at the golf course with Tyler and attending some wild ‘n crazy keggers with Tyler’s summer girlfriend Bre (Amy Matysio) and her perpetually horny friend Christie (Nhi Do). Problems arise when Chase decides to tell Tyler that he’s a big Moe, which stirs feelings of man-on-man arousal in Tyler’s hunky father Nathan. It isn’t long before Chase and Nathan are secretly playing hide-the-sausage; which starts innocently enough, until Stacey catches them in the act. This somewhat dirty and unconventional plot may intrigue those curious about the perverse coupling, but the sloppy filmmaking, overacting and crappy writing are likely to stifle that intrigue within mere minutes. Unnatural conversations, as well as peculiar plot transitions and character motivations are the main issues with Mulligans. With such a disjointed and stilted screenplay, it’s unsurprising that the actors often overact and misread scenes. Dan Payne manages to hold his character together to the most effect, showing inner-struggle and turmoil with his closeted married man character. On the other hand, Thea Gill gives an over-the-top stage performance that simply doesn’t work on film. The director really needed to step in with her and say “smaller Thea, smaller; you’re not in Stratford”. A large mystery within Mulligans is how anyone thought the character of Chase was straight in the first place. The boy might as well have been wearing a pink baby-T with a rhinestone penis on it while donning a Madonna tattoo just inches above his vagina. Some occasionally inspired cinematography and a penchant for visual montage show that director Chip Hale may have some talent, but David’s screenplay was in desperate need of some rewrites before production.
You Belong to Me
Directed by Sam Zalutsky
Rating - 4/10
You Belong to Me is a promising urban thriller a la The Apartment, with a decidedly homosexual twist. Despite some weak secondary performances, occasionally perplexing direction and a perfunctory ending, Belong is an engaging and quirky experiment in dark tonality and utilizes a nice Hitchcockian MacGuffin. Interrupted by his sassy roommate Nicki (Heather Simms) while porking his bland and aloof love interest Rene (Julien Lucas), Jeffrey (Daniel Sauli) is pissed. When Rene takes off, expressing little interest in further fornication, Jeffrey follows under the guise of dog-walking. Discovering that Rene has another paramour named Robert (Duane Boutte), Jeffrey relentlessly follows, all the way to their apartment building, where he sees a “for rent” sign and an enthusiastic landlady named Gladys (Patti D’Arbanville). With a mixture of passive-aggressive bitchiness towards his roommate and some creepy stalker tendencies, Jeffrey decides to rent the apartment, ensuring proximity to the reluctant Rene. Moved in and sprucing up his new pad, Jeffrey finds an abundance of Gladys everywhere he goes; bringing up dinner and housewarming gifts, she demonstrates a clear affection for her new tenant. The initial build up of the film is really quite clever, painting Jeffrey as a subdued prick who seems to care very little about anyone but himself. It works in creating an isolated world for the protag, which comes in to play later in the film; as do some water damage renovations. Daniel Sauli delivers a solid performance, staying grounded and layering his character with many subtleties. Also, Patti D’Arbanville keeps her off-kilter character in check, giving some believability to unexpected outcomes. She could have easily blown this character out of proportion in a Sally Kirkland kind of way, but instead ensures that Gladys radiates a perky innocence. Unfortunately, the film falls apart in the third act, with some forced manipulation and thus credulity straining character arcs. Had more effort been put into writing the exchanges between Gladys and Jeffrey in the latter portion of the film, the outcomes would have had significantly more dramatic ire.
Tickets are still on sale. Visit the Inside Out website for more details.
Read More Inside Out 2008 Reviews. More to come.
