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julycarla
Reviews
The Little Death (2014)
Came in with high hopes, left disappointed
I expected good things from this film that seemed on the surface like it was about exploring love and fetishes. I was shocked by the disturbing messages of mysogyny. The director did a Q&A and talked about how the things in the film were "harmless" yet it involves a vignette that depicts a husband that drugs his wife and drags her around the house unconscious and tries to depict him as a loving spouse. Yeah, the movie got its laughs, but I think a lot of the women in the audience were laughing more out of shock and bandwagon approach than laughing because they thought this was in any way acceptable. It goes to show how far off-base the disconnect really is between a man's perception and humor and the reality of the world women live in. This was telling a sexist joke to a group of women and expecting them to "see it your way". I don't think story lines like this do anything to make the world a more positive place and exemplify how far we still need to go as a society. I also didn't like how reductive and basic fetishes were made out to be. What I saw here was a bunch of cheap shots at humor and jokes that were just immature. There were some decent vignettes and laughs mixed in but as a woman (and a very liberal one at that), even I found these scenes (and passing them off as harmless or funny) very disturbing, as I did the sex offender character and how no one seemed to care about his crimes over something as small as cookies. Totally unrealistic. To be honest, that storyline didn't feel too different to me from the drugged woman, just really creepy unacceptable behavior being passed off as funny, amusing, or no big deal. Yikes. I really have to worry about what messages this person is sending out.
The Gymnast (2006)
Woman finds strength in herself.
Everyone who worked on this film did an AMAZING job. This is honestly one of the best lesbian films I've seen in a LONG time. The acting, writing, cinematography, music, visuals, everything was top notch. As an avid fan of the genre (both lesbian films and gymnastics), I was so unbelievably pleased by this film. It truly gave me so much more than I expected across the board. Hearing the Q&A with the cast and crew was great, the lead actress has so much positive energy and is so humble and gracious, it's a pleasure to see people who can be talented and not lose sight of what's really important. And the writer did a hell of a job, as well as directing and the editing was awesome. Thanks so much for making a great film! Thanks also for the line about 'if you're going to slap a label on yourself, it would be bisexual'. I'm so tired of movies where characters who have a relationship with both sexes get passed off as gay or straight, it's wonderful to see bisexuals getting recognition for existing and being part of the gay community, and it was nice that labels weren't even necessary at all in this film. What an ending! Just when I thought it couldn't give me more, it did. Beautiful work and my applauds to all. I will spread the word, this is definitely a film not to be missed!