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| Raunchy Gay Movie Finds Cult Following | |
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| Topic Started: Mar 13 2008, 08:09 PM (18 Views) | |
| Phoenix | Mar 13 2008, 08:09 PM Post #1 |
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Raunchy Gay Movie Finds Cult Following by Brent Hartinger March 12, 2008 Posted Image Once upon a time there were three little girls. Except they didn’t go to the police academy. Oh, and they technically weren’t even girls. They were three drag queens, Coco (performed by Clinton Leupp), Evie (performed by Jack Plotnick), and Varla (performed by Jeffery Roberson), each with their own stage personas and enthusiastic followings. But veteran TV producer-writer Richard Day, the Charlie to their Angels, took them away from all that and put them in a movie he’d written and was directing called Girls Will Be Girls. Made on a shoestring and filmed almost entirely in Richard’s house, the plot involves an old, never-was actress (Evie), her put-upon best friend (Coco), and their new roommate (Varla), an aspiring actress who may or may not be aware of the role Evie played back in the 70s in undermining Varla’s mother’s promising movie career. left to right: Clinton Leupp, Richard Day, Jack Plotnick, Ron Mathews, Jeffery Roberson Posted Image The result? Some of the raunchiest, most politically incorrect sequences and one-liners ever set on film, but also some of the funniest and most original (see our review). The movie, which had a modest theatrical release in 2003, has seen its status as a cult film grow since then. It will make its television debut on IFC, the Independent Film Channel, on March 16th at midnight, and will repeat later in the month (including a “children’s matinee” on March 26th at 7 PM). In addition, Richard and the Girls girls have moved online, recently introducing a series of original short “webisodes” for their website Posted Image Ironically, Day saw the project as a television series all along. “I thought it was a hundred million dollar idea,” Day says. “The Golden Girls as drag queens.“ But others didn’t quite see the potential. Day pitched it to television executives all over Hollywood. “We couldn’t get arrested,” Day says. “The answer never came back yes. I like to say, ‘No one will ever look stupid turning down Girls Will Be Girls.’” One person told them flat-out, “If we go out with that pitch, we will lose all credibility. No one will buy it.” At one point, Showtime did commission two scripts for a would-be series. Day was worried that without the over-the-top element of drag queens reading the parts, the show’s bitter humor would “read” uglier than intended. He lobbied unsuccessfully for a table-read. Sure enough, Showtime passed. “People who don’t get it always say the same thing,” Days says. “They say, ‘Why don’t you just cast women?’ But drag is about taking a female character and imbuing it with a male sexuality and a male aggression that creates a dynamic that’s hilarious. Drag exaggerates everything to a cartoon level. Drag queens don’t really look like women, so you don't take anything they say or do or that happens to them seriously." Posted Image While pitching the project to a gay television network, one executive asked, “How is this different from blackface?” Day says, “I thought to myself, ‘I could explain it, but I have the feeling no matter what I say, the answer is no.’” Next page! "I look like a cheap drag queen in some tawdry homemade video!" Posted Image Still, the finished movie won raves on the film festival circuit, including the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, where the three lead actors shared the “Best Actress” award. The film also made its way to Sundance where it was acquired by IFC. The Japanese rights also sold, in a bidding war that more than paid for the film’s $400,000 budget. Not everyone got the joke. Reviews were almost surrealistically split. Most liked the camp, its take-no-prisoners humor, and especially the performances. But some were outright hostile. “Cheap, ugly, mean-spirited, [and] poorly lit,” said the Onion’s A.V. Club. Posted Image “There are two kinds people who don’t get Girls Will Be Girls,” says Jack Plotnick, who executive produced the film along with being one of its stars. “People like my mom, who doesn’t like anything I do except things she feels comfortable showing her neighbors. Those are the people who just don’t enjoy raunchy humor. The other kind [of people who don’t get the joke] are those who have a knee-jerk reaction to drag. [If they’re gay], they’re embarrassed to see a gay guy dressed as a woman.” Even Day admits he wasn’t always a fan of drag. “But it’s not the three of them getting up there in a dress and lip-synching Cher,” he says. When the film was released on DVD, its status as a cult film began to grow. “People come up to me all the time and say, ‘I just watched Girls Will Be Girls for the first time, and I love it!’,” Plotnick says. Meanwhile, Day, the actors, and producer Michael Warwick eventually turned to the Internet to keep the project alive. “I knew there was a reason Al Gore invented that thing,” Plotnick says. “Oh yeah, I think people also use it for porn.” Like the movie, the online episodes are produced on a shoestring — an even cheaper shoestring than the movie. The entire budget for the five webisodes they’ve filmed so far is $500. “All in food,” Day says. “Just what we’ve eaten.” How are they able to do it so cheaply? “People [in Hollywood] go on strike because they’re not getting paid enough,” Day says. “But then they’ll work for free if they love the project.” In one recent webisode, guest star (and former Kid in the Hall) Scott Thompson receives a compliment on his wig. “Oh please!” the actor ad-libbed. “I look like a cheap drag queen in some tawdry homemade video made by a bunch of out-of-work actors and striking writers.” Clinton Leupp (left) and Scott Thompson Posted Image “Just like in the film, the webisodes are done under the radar of the Hollywood dumbing-down machine,” Plotnick says. “It’s just a group of friends getting together and putting on film what really makes us laugh.” Day and Plotnick still hope, perhaps against all hope, that someone in a position of power will see the beauty of their idea and give them a shot at television at last. “Americans love Dame Edna,” Plotnick says. “If he could get a TV show here, it would be a big hit. But good luck with that. And same with our show.” http://www.afterelton.com/movies/2008/3/gi...wing?page=0%2C0 |
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5:01 AM Nov 26
