QFest 2010 Megapost (Part 2)

The film festival is almost over, while I don't think I've had enough that's probably because of all the films we have chosen, they are actually quite good and I don't regret seeing any. Here's the last three:



You Should Meet My Son is a comedy about a closeted young man who's constantly being matched up by his mom and her sister. After broken up with his boyfriend who disguised as his best friend and roommate in front of his mom, the mother learned the fact that his son is gay and took a crash course on gay life from a neighborhood boy and a night at a gay club. When she has found a suitable match for his son, the son changed his mind.

The movie was hilarious and fun. Of course, this movie sets in the unlikeliest situation but it's what gay men imagine their mom would do if they went cruising online or hung out at a gay bar. Set in Alabama, the aunt draws all her modern living tips from Glamour magazine but both sheltered from anything else. It was indeed fun up to a point, but after the mom gets to meet a lot of different gay characters. The cast suddenly expanded 4~5 folds and it kinda became a circus. The religious element got a bit old and the path that the son chose to take was illogical and creates negative feelings. Some of the casts are unconvincing and a bit awkward in delivering their dialogue but generally it tries to deliver jokes after jokes. B-

With the film, this short film from Director Keith Hartman was also shown which I'm sure we all loved.



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It seems to be a trend now that there's a zombie for the past 3 festivals and I went to see them all. I walked out of the extremely pretentious Bruce LaBruce's Otto; Or, Up With Dead People, ZMD: Zombie of Mass Destruction was fun and impressive. This year's tag along Danger After Dark horror fest brought us the best zombie movie yet. It doesn't have anything to do with being gay, but the only sold out movie I went to is Big Tits Zombie 3D. You heard me right. Big Tits. Zombie. 3D.

This campy softcore porn of a gem from Japan tells the story of a bratty drunk girl that just came back from Mexico and for money she contacted an old acquaintance who operates a strip club. In the club she met four other girls from different background, the five of them performed in a rundown town nightly for customers that you can count with both hands. The story took an unsuspected turn (oh who am I kidding?) when they found a key for a door that linked to an abandoned building across the street.

The 3D is completely bullshit, but the camp value of this film goes through the roof. Blatant countdown on 3D moments where actors themselves will put on the glasses with you, unnecessary shots where bras would be ripped off bodies of female characters, pyrotechnics out of places you never wanted to see, midgets, the famed tentacle monster, handsome Japanese men with giant chests with too little cameo time but they are all hilarious. It's the most laughter I've heard in a movie theater in a long time, it even got me curious of the repulsive RoboGeisha. One could only hope that all B-movies are as good as this one. B+



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The last movie is a beautiful story from Brazil called Do Começo ao Fim or From Beginning to End. It dabbles in the dangerous topic of incest. The story doesn't have too much of a plot or any twist and turns, it's just a simple story about two brothers, Francisco and Thomas, growing up together and living codependent in the suburbs of Rio. Their family is very well-to-do and even they noticed that the boys were being a little too intimate from a nearly age, they figured it's better to let it run its course than to traumatize them. When their parents died, moved out and leaving them alone in the house, all boundaries came loose.

It's a sentimental and romantic movie beautifully lit, staged and captured. The actors are all gorgeous. The director focused a lot of time describing the childhood of these boys, maybe I've seen too much Hollywood movies and I keep on expecting some major plot twists but they never came. Then suddenly the years have passed and even the first sex scene was beautifully filmed, I'm not quite sure of the logic behind it. I also don't understand the sexuality of the brothers, it seemed if it's not for each other they might not necessarily be gay. And as abruptly as the years has passed, the ending was also a bit poorly edited. If the beauty wasn't there, the film itself can be seen as boring. I wonder if it's an attempt to normalize a subject as controversial as incest, it's almost just like any other epic love stories you see, told by beautiful people.

Maybe not every stories need car accidents and tragic endings. B



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I already miss the festival before it was gone.