Girls Will Be Girls

What a treat. I'm so glad I knew nothing about this film. I heard no buzz, had no opinions. Don't even know why we watched it. But the night we did, I don't think I've laughed that hard since I was on a teen field trip to see Romeo and Juliet (1968 version) with my class. After the movie, they screened Life of Brian, and for some odd reason, our teachers allowed us to stay. The Bigus Dickus scene had me gasping for air.... and I can assure you, my reaction was more than a snicker.

Back to this film. In the proud tradition of camp, drag, too much makeup, and false eyes, John Waters I'm sure had a proud grin whenever he saw this one. I'm intentionally saying very little about the film, because, its really not worth getting into. This film is more of an experience. See it with friends, straight or gay (mix is best). I'm sure we'll be popping this one in the DVD player, probably as a warm up or cool down for future Rocky Horror night.

One last note: Idea for an extra on a future DVD release of the film... Have each of the ladies read, the bad reviews from the IMDB. I enjoyed those almost as much as the film.

Now pardon me, I'm going to pop my last remaining copy of Asteroid into the VCR...

Later darlings.

Like the love child of "Absolutely Fabulous" and every novel Jacqueline Susann's ever written, "Girls Will Be Girls" is an 80-minute festival of campy trash, hilarious one-liners, and bitchy, catty women. The only catch this time is that the women are all played by men.

Evie (Jack Plotnick) is a washed-up B-movie actress who is decidedly not aging gracefully. She lives with Coco (Clinton Leupp), her more grounded friend who functions mainly as Evie's maid and abuse magnet. Into their lives walks their new roommate Varla (Jeffery Roberson), an aspiring starlet whose late mother Marla (also Roberson in flashbacks) was also Evie's most hated acting rival. All of them have dreams, of course. Evie's dreams involve drinking as many martinis as she can and then having plenty of sex with anyone available. Coco still pines for the hunky abortion doctor that operated on her many years ago. Varla hopes to become the actress that her mother couldn't while dealing with the advances of Evie's gorgeous but microscopically-endowed son Stevie (Ron Mathews). Of course, there are hidden motives galore, and more than one mean-spirited one-liner.

The gimmick of this film, that all the women are played by men, is never as overstated as you may think. After all, the characters are all female, and they are treated in the story as if they are female. It's only slightly different than young boys performing the female roles in Shakespeare's plays. The camp value of the movie focuses not on the drag spectacle, but on the unrelenting melodrama and silliness of the plot, taking the elements of ridiculous films like "Valley Of The Dolls" and upping them to a level so ludicrous, they can only be considered comedy. That the framework of the film makes all of these developments seem perfectly natural and realistic is a credit to director and writer Richard Day.

The actors are all quite game and in on the absurdity of their surroundings. Plotnick is quite humorous, dropping the most mean-spirited one-liners you'll ever laugh at, and the clips of Evie performing in the 60's stinker "Asteroid" resemble nothing less than Morgan Fairchild on quaaludes. Leupp reprises the role of Coco from his scene-stealing moments in the movie "Trick", and he imbues the character both with a humorous sense of bad luck and an immediately sympathetic personality. Roberson is not quite as spectacular as his co-stars, but he gives the naive, trusting Varla a great heart and a hilarious scene involving opera and cheese in a can. Even Mathews is great, all melodramatic soap hunk and hair product.

While the movie receives high marks for style, including efficient and effective set design and a very nice score, it's a very loud movie in the sense that every scene is turned up to 11. While this works most of the time, even at the film's short running time, it tends to strain. The ending veers sharply away from comedy into deep melodramatic territory, and even though it is diffused quite handily, the film almost drowns in TV-movie-of-the-week sap before the mood lightens again. Also, some may find the hostile attitudes of some of the characters, mainly Evie and to a degree Coco, to be too off-putting for comfort. Evie, especially, is one of the most unsympathetic characters you'll meet in a film this year.

Regardless, the film is hilarious and immensely entertaining. A high recommendation for anyone who likes divas, camp, or catty fun. And don't forget to bring the cheese. 8 out of 10.

I have not had the opportunity to laugh out loud like this in a very long time! Three men play three women with lust in there hearts and stars in there eyes in an homage to sketch comedy, B-movies, bad wigs, tasteless humor, and everything else that was not nailed down.

Intentionally silly plot twists and over-the-top acting make what could have been a very bland "Hollywood production" into a laugh-fest that will keep you smiling everytime you see a can of Cheez Wiz. There were several shameful laughs at everything from incontinence to abortions to rape to suicide. This movie is a wake-up call for anyone that actually thought that "To Wong Foo..." was funny and not patronizing to men in drag.

So put some sass in a glass, loosen your corsette, and see this flick with somebody that doesn't think your laugh is stupid!

The last person that commented on this movie needs to LIGHTEN UP! The comments made about "women" are to be taken lightly and jokingly. First of all, they are all men playing the roles of women. There are no women in the cast...that's the joke behind the movie! Plus, the characters are making fun of themselves. It's a comedy, it's not reality...in fact, far from it.

Jack Plotnick's character of Evie steals the show by far!! Her b*tchy, catty dialog had me rolling through the entire film. Maybe we can get the director to consider a Girls will be Girls 2???!!!!

I found the movie HILARIOUS, not just because I'm gay, but because I know how to take a joke, and enjoy a good, funny movie!

The film can't be taken SERIOUSLY as a comedy-drama. It is just very good camp. Having seen the three leading "ladies" before I knew it was going to be good. Jeff Roberson is an excellent performer on stage and he didn't let me down in this film. It was laughable all through the film. I bought it because I want to watch it over and over again. You must watch the DVD extras to see the boys becoming the girls and the commentary of the cast lets you in on the "secrets" of the movie. I hope to see more of these "actresses" in the near future. They deserve a bigger audience so their talents can be appreciated. I hope the idea of role reversal movies makes a comeback, this is sure to become a cult classic.