Well, Monday I returned for a double feature at the Texas Spirit Theater inside the Bob Bullock Texas Museum. The first feature was preceeded by a similarly themed short titled THE MAIDEN AND THE PRINCESS. Writer/director Ali Scher presented the audience with an awesomely done fairy tale about a young British girl named Emmy coping with her budding feelings towards her same sex. Ridiculed by her classmates, and misunderstood by her parents, Emmy tries to suppress these feelings. In the fairy tale land, The Grand High Council of Fairy Tale Rules charges her guardian fairy Hammond (David Anders) to write her a traditional fairy tale to set her on the "right" path. Hammond begins his tale traditionally, but soon realizes that tradition is not appropriate for everyone. This short adorable tale is written and produced for gay and lesbian children and teens who feel lost and cast out and can't relate to classic traditional fairy tales. Scher does beautiful work with this relevant and modernized fairy tale short.
PARIAH
Following the short and the subsequent Q & A with Ali Scher, the Texas Spirit played an incredible film titled PARIAH. This movie, which is more realistic and takes on a more serious tone than of its preceeding fairy tale, tells the story of high school student Alike (Adepero Oduye) and her day to day struggles to juggle duality. To her family, Alike comes across as a tomboy, but still grudgingly wears girlie clothes her mother Audrey (Kim Wayans) buys her. At school and among her circle of lesbian friends, Alike feels more free to be herself wear masculine clothes. She and best friend Laura (Pernell Walker) spend lots of their nights at the local lesbian club where Laura and Alike try to pick up women. In addition to the marital strife suffered by Alike's mother and father (Charles Parnell), things eventually come to a head regarding Alike's sexual identity and she finally decides to out herself when she grows tired of the deception.
Writer/director Dee Rees does an excellent job with this, her first feature film. Based on her acclaimed short by the same title, Rees shows some genuine raw talent that gives her movie an incredibly realistic feel and look. Along with a superb script, PARIAH showcases an outstanding cast. The entire cast and Rees deserve nominations in all of the major film awards. The biggest surprise for me would be Kim Wayans who normally is known for comedy. She and this film really blew me away. I know for sure that this movie will make my top ten list of films this year.
Mark Saldana
The Movie Doc
No comments:
Post a Comment