GO FISH
A film review by Phil Trubey
Copyright 1994 Phil Trubey
Written by: Rose Troche Directed by: Rose Troche
Summary:
Black and white "docu-drama" about lesbian life. A low-budget film that works both as a low-key venture into lesbian life and as a truly artistic film.
Review:
I describe this movie as a "docu-drama" primarily because the movie works more as a view into lesbian life that it does as a traditional story--the movie does have a plot, but it is simplistic and predictable. The movie is ostensibly about Max, a young pretty woman who is desperately searching for the perfect soul mate. We sometimes hear passages from her stream of consciousness written journal. Her roommate, Kia, carefully sets Max up with Ely, a woman who has been hanging onto the ghost of a relationship for the past few years. The rest of the movie follows the blossoming relationship between Ely and Max.
Along the way, however, are several cinematic, artistic, and dramatic devices that move this movie from being merely okay to being a real treat to watch.
One of the most powerful scenes is a beautifully done piece just after one of the characters sleeps with a male friend of hers. As she is walking back, all sorts of guilty, peer pressure thoughts race through her mind--is she truly a lesbian? How will other women react? Will she be outcast from both straight and gay communities? She ends up defending herself before a back alley mock trial of her peers in a surreal, dark, judge and jury atmosphere. The viewer is left to make up their own minds about what it means to be "lesbian," "straight," or "bi"--and whether any of these labels make any sense anyways.
The movie is also infused with some genuinely funny scenes--we see the hilariously distorted imaginings of what went on the night before as Ely and Max describe what happened to their respective roommates. The part where four women try to come up with a colloquial name for "vagina" almost threw me off my seat.
Unlike Hollywood's attempts at slickly "exposing" male gay life, GO FISH doesn't ram any messages down your throat. It matter of factly shows slices of lesbian lifestyles and lets you extract what you want from the movie.
If you're looking for an alternative to this summer's bland offerings of mindless Hollywood shoot em up action adventure movies, go see GO FISH. It is an artistic treat that will spawn many good cafe discussions.
-- Phil Trubey NetPartners E-mail: phil@netpart.com
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