Philadelphia Weekly

And Then Came Lola 


The lesbian yuppie culture of San Francisco is revealed through Run, Lola, Run -style hypothetical scenarios in a single day. Lola (Ashleigh Sumner) is a gay photographer whose full-speed race to get to her girlfriend’s meeting in time to hand off some prints for her design job could go any way, depending on her timing, and influence the outcome of the relationship. Offering fun but somewhat sparse flashes of San Franciscan femme-community tell-all, And Then Came Lola is a decent 70-minute ride. Sumner is vivacious and fun, as likable as any true-to-life space cadet queer girl whose charm draws you in. B+ (Becca Trabin) Sat., July 11, 7:15pm, Prince Music Theater. Sun., July 12, 4:15pm, Ritz East 1 .


Autopsy


This film by Jérôme Anger is more like a drawn-out version of Law & Order: Gay Paris . The silly, slim plot is that a tough police captain, Rico, is investigating a murder of a gay man, who’s been sliced up in an alleyway. When the captain goes to the autopsy, his straight eyes meet with those of gay Emmanuel, the new pathologist, who’s filling in for Rico’s beloved friend, who’s in a soap opera coma. Before you can say s’il vous plait , Emmanuel has turned our tough-talkin’ policeman gay—even taking him to the opera. But Rico soon finds clues that lead him to question Emmanuel’s connection to the dead man … Could he be guilty? Could Rico thus be accidentally gay? The ending is so ludicrous, it makes the rest of the film seem rational. C (Liz Spikol) Fri., July 10, 5:15pm, Ritz East 1. Sun., July 12, 12:15pm, Ritz East 2 .


Baby Love


It could almost (stress “almost”) be a Matthew McConaughey-Sandra Bullock vehicle: A gay man (Lambert Wilson) knee-deep in baby fever drafts an illegal Argentinean immigrant (Pilar López de Ayala) to marry him and have his baby. But the thing about Vincent Garenq’s drama is how incredibly earnest it is—
almost cartoonishly so. The considerably less bouncy French title, Comme les autres , translates into Like the Others ; featuring the marginalization of both gays and immigrants, the film’s far more interested in converting minds than creating belly laughs. Though its third-act crisis is too neatly resolved, Wilson gives his usual calm, cool, collected performance. B- (Matt Prigge) Tues., July 14, 7:15pm, Ritz East 1. 


Boy


Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros director Auraeus Solito—whose first film limned a 12-year-old’s love for a policeman—returns with a less explosive subject, namely a young kid who sells his comics and action figures to purchase his first piece of rough trade. (And on New Year’s Eve. In the room next to his mom.) Boy can go too hard on the earnest—our meek protag is a budding poet!—but its cluttered, tacky mise-en-scène always holds the attention, and the sweet-cum-raunchy shtupping centerpiece nicely recalls Breathless ’ half-hour bedroom sequence. B (M.P.) Fri., July 10, 9:30pm, Ritz East 1. Sat., July 11, 12:30pm, Prince Music Theater. 


Chef’s Special


Terrific Almodóvar regular Javier Cámara­—the sweet-natured rapist of Talk to Her —greatly improves this wackier-than-usual food movie, in which his workaholic gourmet chef supposedly learns the usual de-assholification lessons after he’s unexpectedly saddled with his estranged children. The kids are, respectively, more bitter and more aloof than usual, there are romantic entanglements involving a bisexual neighbor, and Cámara—even after the inevitable goopy tone shift—remains a foul-mouthed prick. And though the film’s lucky to have him aboard to rough up the edges, no actor’s that good. C+ (M.P.) Sat., July 11, 9:30pm and Tues., July 14, 9:30pm, Ritz East 1 .


Drool


How sad: Naomi Watts gets Oscar noms and star vehicles and name international directors, while Laura Harring—her (nearly as) talented Mulholland Dr. co-star—is stuck doing tone-deaf fest circuit comedies. As a Southern belle so willowy she threatens to evaporate on the screen, Harring suffers the indignities of a husband so horrible he even objects to a friendship with black next-door neighbor Jill Marie Jones ( Girlfriends ). When one of them is improbably shot, Drool threatens to transform into farce; instead, it turns into a road movie that gets a flat right away. Harring’s performance is near-demented, but Nancy 
Kissams’ writing is crude and superficial, and her direction is without energy. C- (M.P.) Fri., July 10, 7pm, Ritz East 2. Sun., July 12, 12pm, Ritz East 1 .


Homewrecker 


Like a gay lifeboat lost at sea (no association with Big Gay Al), Homewrecker floats through gay cinema parody territory but doesn’t quite find land. Parody itself is not enough to sustain the bad acting, amateur shots, piss-poor editing, left-field dialogue, life-denying character development or plot that feels like it’s falling down more than one flight of stairs for 102 minutes. Then again, some people take pleasure in watching films like Scary Movie IV . The one redeeming quality of Homewrecker is lead actor Dylan Vox, whose smorgasbord of facial expressions, mannerisms and delivery are delightful and chameleonic to a high degree. A former Olympic ice skater, law school graduate and freelance sports writer, Vox clearly likes to master a wide range. (And his Southern drawl will charm your pants off.) C ( B.T.) Sun., July 12, 9:15pm, Prince Music Theater. Tues., July 14, 5pm, Ritz East 1 .


It Came From Kuchar


The fest’s requisite avant-garde cinema doc—which have in the past feted Kenneth Anger, Jack Smith and Derek Jarman—tells of the Bronx’s beloved and insanely prolific Kuchar Brothers. Given an 8 mm camera at 11, the boys—Mike and the much gabbier George—became the “fun” filmmakers of New York’s ’60s underground, making kitschy, no-budget parodies of/homages to overheated Hollywood—Douglas Sirk in particular. But their hundreds and hundreds of films are nearly impossible to find, even on YouTube. Perhaps that’s because—as the doc suggests—their cinema is intentionally made for a niche audience: It was filmmaking as a community exercise. B (M.P.) Tues., July 14, 9:15pm, Ritz East 2. 


Hollywood, je t’aime


Don’t take the title of this opening-night feature literally; it’s meant to be served with a heaping dose of irony. Parisian Jérôme (Eric Debets) finds himself at loose ends when his boyfriend breaks up with him for another man. After seeing a poster in a travel agency, Jérôme decides to leave his rather conventional life and go to California, the land of sandy beaches where dreams of stardom come true. What he finds is a far cry from what he expected: He ends up bunking with a black homeless tranny prostitute (Diarra Kilpatrick), an old white drag queen, a blond gay drug dealer (Chad Allen) and is baffled by the characters he encounters on L.A.’s bus system and at auditions. A pleasing mix of comedy and drama, Hollywood features a great supporting turn by Kilpatrick (pictured above). (L.S.) B+ Thurs., July 9, 7pm, Prince Music Theater. Sat., July 11, 2:30pm, Ritz East 1 .


No End