Even though I’m sure I would have watched some films being shown at this year’s Frameline Festival, it definitely helped that I won a survey last year and earned myself a gold membership. That means my name showed up in the program! Now, I wasn’t flying out to San Francisco to participate in the in person festivities, but lucky for me they had an encore streaming week! Here’s what piqued my interest!
Where Butterflies Don’t Fly – You know, this movie had a really intriguing concept. What happens when a gay history teacher and his gay seventeen year-old student get stuck down in a cave during a school trip? The answer is…not much, really. Yes, there were some more serious conversations, but most of them still felt kind of stilted. I do think the boy’s teacher helped him come to terms more with who he really is, but most of the film (all two hours of it) saw them walking aimlessly around this enormous cave looking for an exit. Which, fair. But, most places in that cave looked exactly the same and after a while it just became a little claustrophobic to watch. All in all, it didn’t quite live up to the expectations I had for it.
It Is In Us All – After the slight disappointment in the first film I watched for this fest, I was skeptical about everything else I chose to watch. This movie was pretty great. It was atmospheric and eerie, but also a drama if that’s not confusing at all. Hamish, a stiff and prickly English businessman, heads back to a remote Irish village to take care of the home his recently deceased aunt left for him. On the way there, he gets into a car accident where one boy dies while the other, Evan, lives. The two meet the next day and then begin spending a lot of time together. Evan is carefree, despite the recent tragedy in his life, while Hamish feels like he’s getting to live a life he never allowed himself to. He also learns more about his mother, and how she wanted Hamish to experience life in this town. I really hope this movie finds a distributor because I’d love to see it again someday!
Three Headed Beast – Well this movie surprised the heck out of me! I thought it was going to come off in a somewhat poor quality, and while it wasn’t the best picture I’ve ever seen, the concept was really unique! We first see Peter hooking up with Alex and I think rightfully assume they are a couple, until we see Nina also leaving a lover’s house only to go back to the one she shares with Peter. That’s right, they have an open marriage. It’s interesting to see the split screen of these three individual’s lives. All of this activity within the first half of the film is completely wordless, which was really neat to see! Words really only flow when the three meet for the first time. It leaves Nina feeling left out, seeing how much attention Peter is paying to Alex, and the end of the film leaves you wondering what will happen next. Will Nina ask Peter to close their relationship, or will she end up more willing to embrace his relationship with Alex? Intriguing!
All Kinds of Love – Woof. This was kind of a terrible rom-com. Max gets divorced from his long-time, commitment-phobic husband just as soon as marriage equality becomes more widespread. He tries his best to find love, but ends up finding it with his new, accidental roommate. I mean, I appreciated the wide range of different types of relationships shown in this film, but it was just kind of painful to watch from a dialogue perspective. It gave off television movie vibes, and that’s not really a good thing. I don’t know, I’m probably being over-critical, but it just wasn’t for me.
Private Desert – This was another unexpectedly unique drama. We meet Daniel who is taking care of his dementia-suffering father. He seems gentle and attentive, and it’s then that we learn he’s on disciplinary leave from his precinct for very violent behavior, the specifics we don’t learn about until later. Daniel decides that he needs to get away, mainly to find Sara, a woman he’s been in a text-only type of relationship for quite some time. It’s understandable why she drops him from her life, because Sara is the life Robson wishes he was living all the time. He lives these dual personalities so he can still maintain a relationship with his family. It was interesting to see what happened when Daniel finally managed to find Sara, but really, this film was more about the two finding and accepting themselves for who they are away from the influential people in their lives. Definitely a thought-provoking film.