Watching a lesbian movie is a bit like having dinner with your family. You want it to go well because you love them and want to support them, but it’s equally likely that it will go sideways pretty quickly.

I’d like to hope that every lesbian flick I see is a brilliant representation of queer women, but the truth is that a lesbian with a camera and a story idea does not automatically translate into a good film. After watching a string of mediocre lesbian movies recently, I was about to conclude that it might actually be dangerous to combine lesbians with film cameras.

But taking a look back at some of our best first-time features, including Go Fish, The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love, D.E.B.S., and Desert Hearts, showed me that good films can indeed go hand-in-hand with low budgets, inexperienced actors, and first-time directors. It just requires that magic combination of solid storytelling, acting skill, and directorial confidence—obviously something that is much easier to say than do.

One of the most important elements of a good film—if not the most important—is good storytelling. This doesn’t mean we have to have a plot filled with red herrings and fast-paced car chases, but it does mean that a good story is about more than “high concept.”

How to Pick Up Girls (2003), which recently screened at the 2004 Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival, starts off with a hilarious idea: two dating-savvy dykes teach their shy best friends how to pick up girls. Filmed in the style of a “mockumentary,” each of the four women tells stories about their (bad) date experiences, and we follow along as they fumble their way into romantic relationships.

Unfortunately, the great concept gets lost in a meandering storyline that distracts attention from character development, and left me mostly confused. At the end of the movie I couldn’t remember the characters’ names, and I wasn’t particularly enthralled by their dating conquests. What was memorable were the funny Saturday Night Live-type segments interspersed throughout the film, including things not to do during your first date, and a brief documentary in which a string of lesbians recount their worst dating experiences.

In comparison, The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love (1995), Maria Maggenti’s first feature, shows us that it’s not important to have a high concept in order to create a memorable movie. Based on the tried-and-true teen romance formula, Two Girls in Love tells the story of Randy Dean (Laurel Holloman), a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, who falls for rich popular girl Evie Roy (Nicole Parker). Their romance, while slightly complicated by homophobic friends, sticks to the traditional first-love storyline, and allows the viewer to get to know both characters as they get to know each other. As a result, by the end of the movie we’re rooting for the girls’ romance to succeed because we’ve seen how both characters care about each other.

Another example of a good story concept gone wrong can be found in the movie Make a Wish (2002), which has screened this year at various gay and lesbian film festivals across the country. Directed by Sharon Ferranti, the film puts a lesbian twist on the slasher genre made infamous by Friday the 13th, and centers on Susan (Moynan King) and her annual birthday weekend camping trip—to which she invites all of her ex-girlfriends. This could result in enough dyke drama to make for a seriously horrific weekend in the woods, even without the crazed serial killer who is killing off all of Susan’s exes one by one.

However, the storyline is hampered by bad dialogue and overly-predictable plotting. The heavy foreshadowing that precedes each character’s death is amplified by “scary” music that signals the arrival of the serial killer. And it’s obvious from early on in the film who the prime suspect is—not because she is painted as an evil psychopath but because so much care is taken to distract attention away from her.

In comparison, Angela Robinson’s D.E.B.S. (her first feature film), which puts a lesbian twist on a different Hollywood formula—a top-secret spy agency along the lines of Charlie’s Angels meets James Bond—succeeds because its plot, while predictable, is written with tongue firmly planted in cheek. It incorporates unbelievable coincidences into the story with a wink and a nudge (for example, the heroine literally running into the villainess and then falling in love with her), whereas the unbelievable coincidences in Make a Wish (a girl wanders the wrong way in the woods only to be killed, for example) are somewhat boring because they lack a sense of humor, or because the humor is so over the top it's not that funny.

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