Home Media Magazine - April 27 - May 3, 2008 - (Page 22) REVIEWS www.homemediamagazine.com I FUN IN GIRLS’ SHORTS Street 5/13 Strand, Drama, $24.99 DVD, NR. ollections of shorts often contain a few rotten apples — low-budget films that mean far too well for the skill involved and were probably submitted for college credit before they were submitted to the festival circuit. Fun in Girls’ Shorts, a silly-named collection of six lesbian-themed shorts, proves an exception to the rule. Each short film stands well on its own and the collection provides a pleasant balance between the romantic and sad and the comedic and heartwarming. C I THE CRY: LA LLORONA Prebook 4/29; Street 6/3 Monterey, Thriller, $24.95 DVD, ‘R’ for disturbing violent images & some language. Stars Adriana Dominguez, Christian Camargo, Carlos Leon, Miriam Colón. B ased on the legend of La Llorona (The Crying Woman) that has haunted generations of Latin Americans for more than 500 years, The Cry is an absorbing, intense, provocative and deeply disturbing film. The movie attempts to straddle two styles of filmmaking that, unfortunately, do not meet frequently enough: the ambitious, intelligent, artistically challenging feature and the downright creepy horror flick. While to some the results are wildly effective, impressive and satisfying on all counts, the film still might confound conventional, conservative audiences looking for a traditional scary movie and might prove to be just too dark and unpleasant to viewers who are drawn in by its ample style. The story of La Llorona that has been passed down through the ages involves a woman who murders her own children to spite her unfaithful husband. The plot shifts its attention between two New York City detectives looking into a rash of child disappearances, a single mother who is having troubling visions of kids in peril, and a mother who claims that she was mysteriously and inexplicably compelled to kill her infant. The storylines gradually intertwine. The officers’ Hispanic heritage begins to inform their investigation, and their personal responses to the mythic child killer surface — reactions that range from the doubt of one of them to the slowly unfolding wave of realization in the other, himself a grieving father. With style, mood and atmosphere to spare, The Cry is agonizing but oddly hypnotic despite focusing on a subject matter that is hard to watch. Bonus features include a fascinating statement from the director that details her reasons for making the film, and another documentary segment that examines the historical legend. Watching both features after screening the film only adds to the already considerable creepiness. – David Greenberg I NORIKO’S DINNER TABLE Prebook 4/29; Street 5/27 Facets, Horror, $24.95 DVD, NR. Stars Kazue Fukiishi, Ken Mitsuishi, Tsugumi, Yuriko Yoshitaka. In Japanese with English subtitles. apanese filmmaker Sion Sono has made an art of showcasing the growing disconnect between today’s youth and society. His 2002 cult classic Suicide Club was a horrific commentary on the ever-growing suicide rate in Japan. In Noriko’s Dinner Table, a whimsical extension of Suicide Club, Sono digs deeper into that teen angst, delivering a provocative, poetic mix of horror, drama and dark satire that shatters the J-horror mold. Noriko’s Dinner Table is broken down into five chapters, telling a story through the eyes J of its four main characters. The film’s catalyst is Noriko (Fukiishi), a 17-year-old girl looking to start a new life away from her provincial seaside town and her controlling father, Tetsuzo (Mitsuishi). With help from a mysterious online social networking site called Haikyo.com, she takes on the alluring moniker Mitsuko and hastily runs off to Tokyo to meet with her new friends. Noriko tracks down the site’s moderator, Kumiko (Tsugumi), a manipulative, street-smart young woman who indoctrinates Noriko into a strange cult who rent themselves out as family members to lonely people. Six months later, Noriko’s sister, Yuka (Yoshitaka), discovers Haikyo.com and sets off to find Noriko, becoming the newest member of Kumiko’s familyfor-hire business. To find his daughters, Tetsuzo must go through Kumiko’s service. Though tied to Suicide Club, Noriko’s Dinner Table is strong enough to stand on its own. Lacking the gore of its predecessor, Noriko’s Dinner Table shows Sono’s skill as a filmmaker and storyteller, allowing him to produce this adult fairy tale that is as beautifully abstract as a David Lynch film. The film’s acting is solid, and every detail, including the music, adds to this nearly three-hour masterpiece. – Matt Miller The most well-known contributor is Guinevere Turner, an actress and writer of The Notorious Bettie Page, Go Fish and American Psycho. Hung, the 12-minute short she wrote and directed, concerns a group of five lesbian friends who take a potion to grow penises for one day; the results are sexy, confusing and very funny. In Hi Maya, two older women recognize each other at a hair salon; their earlier teenage friendship had also been a love affair. Their reunion is liberating and beautiful. Jenn Kao’s Outside is a haunting love story that leads to emancipation for a woman in a post-apocalyptic society. The acting is perfect, and the atmosphere is both fascinating and suffocating. The award-winning short was created in 2004, and it’s a shame that Kao hasn’t directed or written anything since then. Another creative entry is Jen Heck’s Airplanes, in which she juxtaposes a carnival flirtation between two young women with a 1950s instructional film about airplanes. Two more shorts round out the collection — one dealing with a teenager’s awkward attempt at finding a fellow lesbian and another that humorously mocks the rigidity of queer-identity politics. There are only a handful of smart, funny and realistic representations of lesbians in film and TV out there — such as But I’m a Cheerleader, If These Walls Could Talk 2 and Showtime’s “The L Word” — and Fun in Girls’ Shorts is a welcome and worthy addition to that far-too-small list. – Laura Tiffany 22 Home Media Magazine April 27–May 3, 2008 http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://www.Haikyo.com
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