Philadelphia Weekly

The Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival is back and stronger than ever. The following is a sampling of the first week's offerings:

Itty Bitty Titty Committee

It's being touted as a "revolutionary romantic comedy," but the only revolutionary part of this film is a visual gag that appears in the last 10 minutes before the credits roll. Mind you, the gag's not revolutionary for its skillful execution or its creativity, but rather for its brazen disregard for believability. It's as if the screenwriters just threw up their hands and decided to toss in the most preposterous denouement imaginable. It all starts well enough when Anna (Melonie Diaz)--a sheepish, naive lesbian underachiever just out of high school--meets Sadie (Nicole Vicius), a chipper, pixielike lesbian anarchist. Sadie initiates Anna into the Clits in Action, or C(I)A, a small "seed group" of young women (and one trans-man) whose goal is to alert women around the world about society's misogynistic ways. The C(I)A's tactics involve, among other things, the didactic spouting off of 19th Amendment facts and the death rate of liposuction patients, frequent vagina- and penis-innuendo, acts of vandalism against breast enhancement clinics and basically anything that justifies a switch to grainy, shaky montage sequences accompanied by beats from Le Tigre or Peaches. The film initially moves along with a rambunctious sense of fun, but it's bogged down by the script's compulsive need to preach without offering any kind of cohesive insight. Diaz and Vicius manage to stay mostly afloat in the often unnatural dialogue, but both of their characters are eventually rendered irreversibly unlikable by the romance that blossoms and leads to contradictory and frustrating behavior. In fact, never mind that the aforementioned grand finale leaves some huge (like, Grand Canyon-sized) plot holes in its wake--viewers will just be glad some of the film's initial sense of fun has returned to divert attention from the forced, nonsensical romantic drama. C- (Philip Malaczewski) Sat., July 14, 7:15pm, and Sun., July 15, 2:15pm. Prince Music Theater.

Bears

The post-Spellbound onslaught of niche documentaries continues with this expose of the International Bear Rendezvous, where the nation's hordes of fat, hairy, bearded gay men gather to compete and bro' down. Director Marc Klasfield manages to score a plethora of worthwhile insights and tidbits when profiling each of the main contestants--for one, "bears" became popular during the infancy of the AIDS epidemic because they looked healthy. But once the ceremony begins--with some 30 minutes left--Klasfeld lets the film turn into what amounts to a goddamn awards ceremony. There is such a thing as a short-subject documentary, fellas. C+ (M.P.) Wed., July 18, 9:30pm. Arts Bank.

Blueprint

There's nothing especially involving about the story in director Kirk Shannon-Butts' debut feature Blueprint. Shy Keith (the handsome Damion Lee) and enigmatic Nathan (Blake Young-Fountain) meet at a Harlem coffeehouse, take a motorcycle ride to the country where they skinny dip and are eventually stranded, make their way back to the city and finally spend a night in bed (fully clothed). Though the story meanders, Shannon-Butts manages to fill his film with a number of striking images. Featuring two richly drawn African-American characters ably portrayed by Lee and Young-Fountain, Blueprint is a quiet look at a pair building a foundation for the future. B (J. Cooper Robb) Fri., July 13, 5pm, and Sat., July 14, 5pm. Arts Bank.

Eternal Summer

Leste Chen's examination of a high school love triangle peaks early with a boy and girl taking a whirlwind trip into the city that ends when he can't seem to get it up. The rest of the film, which examines said boy's confused feelings for a longtime male friend, is merely well-felt, capturing the awkwardness of first love without exactly reinventing the wheel. Playing characters who are unsure, the actors wisely dial down their performances. Good thing too, because if they were pitched at the same level as the persistent, drippy piano score, then Jesus Christ. C+ (M.P.) Fri., July 13, 7:15pm, and Mon., July 16, 9:30pm. Prince Music Theater.

Hollywood Dreams

Seminotorious improv-nut Henry Jaglom (Eating, Venice/Venice) returns with another barrage of self-conscious actorly doodling, but this time with a new find: Tanna Frederick. As a Hollywood starlet wannabe prone to segue suddenly into crying ad nauseum, Frederick mercilessly blurs the line between neurotic and psychotic, even after she's adopted by a gay producer and his lover (Zack Norman and David Proval). As is Jaglom's wont, most of the film is devoted to aimless, unedited yammering, which can try the patience of even ardent fans. Jaglom hopes for non-preprocessed magic. Sometimes it happens; usually not. C+ (M.P.) Fri., July 13, 9:30pm, and Sat., July 14, 12:30pm. Prince Music Theater.

Life of Reilly

Released onto the festival circuit last year, this filming of Save It for the Stage, Charles Nelson Reilly's life-spanning/career-capping monologue, opens with Reilly himself making fun of how everyone thought he was dead. (And as of May, everyone's now right.) But Stage doesn't need poignancy to still get you. Spry even in his mid-70s, Reilly pauses only when getting misty, otherwise plowing through the lesser-known parts of his life--i.e., not so much on Lidsville, Match Game or his roughly 100 appearances on The Tonight Show (!)--with the expected sudden shifts between sincere pathos and screaming fits. If only the film itself were well constructed. B- (M.P.) Sun., July 15, 3pm. Prince Music Theater.