Girls Will Be Girls Short — Film/Video Review
My fella and I went to see a screening in the 2008 Philadelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival this past week. (The Festival runs through tomorrow.) I was attracted by the title, Girls Will Be Girls Shorts and the fact that Scott Thompson former member of Kids In The Hall was guest starring — and Varla Jean Merman and Coco Peru were co-starring — and all the female roles are played by men! The world premiere was last Sunday night but we couldn’t get to that showing and had to make do with the second screening on Monday. We loved it!
Prior to the Girls shorts the Festival screened a gay comedy from France about three men who fall in love with each other and settle in for a full time three way. It’s a musical called King Size and the title doesn’t refer to any anatomy. It’s cute but no crossdressing involved meant I kept tapping my pedicured foot as I waited for the shorts.
Finally there they were! First to hit the screen was The Jizz Party. It’s nine minutes of silliness and bad taste. (Just what is that taste? Don’t ask.) Coco (Clinton Leupp as Coco Peru) has to move back in with Evie (Jack Plotnick) after domestic violence with her man. Coco and Evie roomed together before, back in 2003, which was documented in the original movie, Girls Will Be Girls (see the FabuBabe column in the Library for a mini review) so it’s plain to see these girls have a history with each other.
The second short, Delivering Coco: Part 1, brings in Scott Thompson as Coco’s mom. Coco has always felt that her mom doesn’t like her that much. Guess what? It’s true! Coco is her third favorite child and… mom’s got liver cancer. What’s a daughter to do? Coco does the “right” thing and donates part of her liver to mom.
In Delivering Coco: Part 2 we learn that while Coco has been in a coma after the liver surgery, Evie has been “caring” for her “recuperating”mother. The fight with I.V. needles is priceless. More truths are revealed and in the end mom… well, I don’t want to spoil it for you so we’ll just go on to the last shorts which finally bring in the lovely and talented Varla Jean Merman.
In Girl Stalk: Part 1 Varla Jean announces that she’s got a part in a major motion picture. Evie, who is a “retired”actress is just thrilled by that development. Meanwhile Coco tries to rest in her sex dungeon bedroom (you have to see the 2003 film to find out why there’s a sex dungeon bedroom) and Evie reveals that she has a stalker. But is it really her stalker? Oh, and by the way, Varla Jean is a homophobe! It comes back to bite her in the padded butt in Girl Stalk: Part 2 when her nasty comments hit the evening news and the stalker, who turns out to be Coco’s, is murdering every man in Coco’s address book. Oh the poor pizza man!
The actors do a great job with the standout performance coming from Jack Plotnick. Evie was so funny I plottzed! The script by first time director Richard Day is so witty and the jokes come so fast and furious it was hard to get all of them as laughter in the theater obscured the punchlines of several of the follow up jokes. I suspect that it would be a bigger treat to watch on DVD so you could roll back a bit and catch the missed parts.
Jack Plotnick is the biggest name actor in the shorts (and the 2003 film) with credits going back to a role on the Murphy Brown sitcom. His more recent work has included the voice of the character Xandir the gay elf warrior on the adult cartoon Drawn Together, and he’s appeared in several episodes of Reno 911. Oddly enough it seems as if Evie is his only drag role.
If you like male actresses, humor in the vein of Reno 911 but with more wit and style, and fast paced, take no prisoners comedy then you’ll like Girls Will Be Girls Shorts. My boyfriend has already added it to his NetFlix list. We can’t wait to see the original 2003 film and watch the shorts again to pick up the jokes we missed.
You can catch the shorts online at the Girls Will Be Girls website.
See the trailer for the 2003 film.
Girls Will Be Girls Shorts
Director: Richard Day
Cast: Jack Plotnick, Clinton Leupp, Jeffery Roberson, Scott Thompson, Jay Johnson, Kevin Kirkpatrick, Michael Lucid
Screenwriter: Richard Day
Producer: Michael Warwick
Cinematographer: Jim Hansen
Editor: Richard Day
Category: Transgender Fun & Entertainment
About the Author (Author Profile)
Angela Gardner is a founding member of The Renaissance Transgender Assoc., Inc., former editor of its newsletter and magazine, Transgender Community News. She was the Diva of Dish for TGF in the late 1990s and Editor of LadyLike magazine until its untimely demise. She has appeared in film and television shows portraying TG characters, as well as representing Renaissance on numerous talk shows.Subscribe
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