K-11

I had super low expectations going into this film, but I surprisingly liked it.

The characters feel very real and damaged. Raymond Saxx Jr.'s plight is uncomfortable and unfortunate for him.

D.B. Sweeney is solid as the waste of space Lt. Gerald Johnson. Goran Visnjic gives a sympathetic portrayal of record producer Saxx who got too deep into drugs.

Kate Del Castillo as Mousey is not bad. She has flashes of brilliance as the trans-gender. Portia Doubleday is unnerving and heartbreaking as Butterfly.

Obviously, the film is low-budget, but I'm confused why the critics trashed it like they did. I bet some of them never bothered to watch the film. Although, this is not the type of film critics would love. It's not an amazing film, but it's hardly exploitative...so take it for what it is. I enjoyed the ending and I would watch it again if I saw it television. An interesting directorial debut for indie director Jules Stewart.

... It would've been nice to see a real transgender actress on screen.

I will write a review but what we have here is an amazingly American "pile on" by the press. What I realize after having seen K-11 is that virtually none of the critics who gave this film zero stars even saw it. If you see the term "CAMP" or "EXPLOITATION" or here them claiming "it couldn't decide what it was" you know that those critic's wrote a review on the trailer and not the film. This film has one problem only to them , Jules Stewart is Kristen Stewart's Mom . They cant get to Kristen so they attack Jules. They attack her even after Kristen was intentionally NOT cast in K-11 http://gawker.com/5990662/kristen-stewarts-mom-wanted- her-to-play-a-character-thats-raped-repeatedly. Interviewers will start asking about the film and then turn to Kristen , helpless in their own lack of imagination and drawn finally to a personality that blinds them to everything around them. Years from now when Kristen is no longer a young star people will re-examine this film. Kristen is not even in this film , intentionally. The press lie, that is what they do.

K-11 is a straight film, not exploitation or camp. Portia Doubleday ,Goran Visnjic , DB Sweeny and most of all, Kate del Castillo, are brilliant. So what has the critics babbling ? They can't put it in a box. They use the term "its like " because they need something to compare it to. Its a great little film that you should compare to every great directors first films because it is vastly superior to Canmeron's "Piranha Part Two: The Spawning" ! Its an incredibly good first film. Making a film of this kind for a first time director is virtually impossible because everyone "knows better". Jules stuck to her guns, finally taking the film back from her first editor and recutting it to the original script. The films most memorable quote "Bad things happen to bad people" . If that were true a few critics here would spontaneously burst into flame. This is a great little film that stands on its own and the cast and crew did a terrific job.

Someone likely had a good idea in planning this film: place a straight man in a prison cell area reserved for homosexuals and all variations of gender role playing. That concept could prove interesting as an exploration of 'community' among the 'unwanted' of detainees. But as written by Jared Kurt and Jules Stewart and especially as directed by Jules Stewart the film loses all semblance of originality, for one reason - because it casts women in the roles of transsexuals and transvestites so as not to offend the actors or the audience with same sex variations.

But that is only one reason this film sinks. The script is tepid to poor, a story is practically nonexistent, and the characters are tropes played by actors who seem embarrassed by what they are asked to do. What little story there is can be summarized as follows: a wealthy but drug addicted and alcoholic record produced named Raymond Saxx (Goran Visnjic, one of our stronger actors usually) passes out, is arrested for homicide, and thrown into LA County Jail in a unit reserved for Homosexuals and sexual deviants K-11. From there it is a power struggle run by transvestite Mousey (the first female - Kate del Castillo - cast as a male and it doesn't work). Cocaine and other drugs are readily available through the corruption of Ben (Jason Mewes) who works in the office of the deputy Sgt. Johnson (DB Sweeney) who is likewise drug addled and preys on the inmates for sexual favors. Bad things happen, such as the murder of child molester Detroit (Tommy 'Tiny' Lister) by transsexual Butterfly (Portia Doubleday) and Raymond finally comes out of his cloudy drug abused head and figures a way out of this very odd confinement, but not without a series of meaningless circumstances that serve only to point out the depravity of the inmates.

Yes, it is that bad. Try as you may to find a saving grace to this film is without success. Perhaps if the writers and director had had the courage to use an all male cast instead of putting female actors in the roles of men who are range from simply nelly to butch to surgically transformed (in various stages) into transsexuals the film may have had a reason for being made. As it is, it is an embarrassment for Goran Visnjic, and DB Sweeney and the rest of the actors who for some reason signed on to this poorly conceived and made project.

Grady Harp

There will be people hating on this film because of various reasons, but I loved the story, even though it could have been much much better, I'd say this is rather rushed, but I wouldn't say it's bad. This homosexual prison camp never came across my mind, at least it doesn't seem to exist in my country.

I looked up Doubleday's filmography and found this movie, at first I wasn't expecting much from her but I must say her role as Butterfly is really really fabulous, same for Visnjic, although I think he'd have done better with his emotions.

If you have spare time, it wouldn't hurt to check this out as it is a rather different experience with other films.