Lesbians on DVD: October 2005 by Sarah Warn, October
25, 2005
A
museum director and her pregnant ex-girlfriend, a surgeon and
a ballet dancer, soccer moms, teens looking for trouble, and
Janeane Garofalo: these are some of the lesbian couples found
in the lesbian-related DVDs this month.
Here's
a short overview of this month's offerings.
The
L Word Season 2(2005) The
second season of The L Word is finally out on
DVD today, and if you were buying this set for the extras,
you'll be disappointed. While on the surface, there appear
to be several extras, in reality, it's just a handful
of shallow, two-minute interviews, fairly uninteresting
finale commentary by Ilene Chaiken and EZ Girl, and advertisements
marketed as bonus features. No bloopers, no deleted scenes.
The only extras really worth watching are two funny segments
in which the cast members are asked to define words they've
never heard of, and to give one word that describes things
like their first kiss ("forgettable" said Rachel
Shelley).
Nonetheless,
most fans of the series will want to buy or rent the
second season on DVD simply to be able to watch it at
their leisure. After a marathon session of the second
season in the last few days, I still find Bette's character
evolution to be the best storyline of the season, and
Mark's hidden-camera stunt and Jenny's endless dysfunction
the most annoying. But when viewed in context of the
season as whole, I do have slightly more appreciation
for some of the things I didn't like the first time,
like Bette's power struggle with her father and the
character of Tonya in general. That new tolerance does
not extend to the theme music, but that's the great
thing about DVDs: the ease of fast-forwarding.
Saving
Face (2005)
With its release on DVD this month, the terrific new Asian
American lesbian romantic comedy Saving Face
can finally be seen by those who live outside the handful
of cities it played in earlier this year. The story of
a mother and daughter both dealing with the fall-out of
unconventional romance in their Chinese-American community
in Flushing, New York, Saving Face offers a well-acted,
well-written story about two lesbians falling in love.
The
movie's charm and quirky humor--and the fact that it features
the first Asian American lesbian couple in an American
theatrical release--makes its occasionally too-slow pace
entirely forgivable.
There are lots of extras with this dvd, including commentary
by writer/director Alice Wu in which she talks about everything
from why she chose the music used in the film to why she
included the sex scene between Wil and Vivian. She also
makes some amusing revelations, like "the Kristy
McNichol t-shirt always kills in gay festival audiences,"
and the fact that the sounds coming from the TV when Ma
is watching the porn video are actually made by Wu, her
editor, her editor's husband, and the sound designer,
because they couldn't spare the time or money to go through
tons of porn videos to find just the right dialogue. There
is also a diary of the film's whirlwind premiere at Sundance
in January, a making-of featurette, and deleted scenes.
All
in all, a DVD that's rich in story and extras.
My
Summer of Love (2004) Chronicling the spiraling relationship of two
unhappy teenage girls who are drawn together out of mutual
misery and troubled pasts, the British film My Summer
of Love is perhaps the opposite of Saving Face.
In other words, this is not a feel-good romantic comedy.
But what My Summer of Love does have in common
with Saving Face is solid performances from its
lead actresses, and an interesting if occasionally slow-paced
story. If you liked Heavenly
Creatures, you'll definitely want to check this
one out.
The
extras on this film consist solely of trailers for other
Focus Feature films. Read
review / Buy
Arrested
Development Season 2 (2004-2005), High Tension/Haute
Tension (2005) Kicking and Screaming
(2005), Jiminy Glick in La La Wood (2004), and
Eternal (2004). Portia
de Rossi plays a hilariously shallow heterosexual in Arrested
Development Season 2 (review
/ buy);
lesbians get stalked in the French horror film High Tension
(review
/ buy)
Rachael Harris and Laura Knightlinger play the lesbian parents
of one of the kids on the soccer team Will Ferrell tries to
coach on the comedy Kicking and Screaming (review
/ buy);
Jeneane Garofalo plays a lesbian in the unfunny comedy Jiminy
Glick in La La Wood (2004) (buy
if you must); and scantily clad female vampires hook up with
each other occasionally in Eternal (review
/ buy
or see The
Hunger instead).
