Prends-moi

"FAQs" has a daring concept, but it is almost irretrievably lost by its amateurish execution. The film is about the construction of a family of throw-away teens rescued and mentored by a flamboyant drag queen/pornographer named Destiny (Allan Lewis). It boldly portrays the grittiness one would imagine such a situation would entail. The characters' resentment of their past abuses is palpable in every scene, and the film never compromises its heroes or its message. It's not a wimpy film.

The major strength of the film is Lewis's deft performance as Destiny. His portrayal brings out both Destiny's power and her vulnerability. The viewer can sympathize with her while disagreeing with some of her judgments and admire her without adopting her attitudes wholesale.

The other outstanding element of the film was the music. It supported the action of the film beautifully without intruding and calling attention to itself.

Virtually everything else about the film was lacking. The dialog was uneven, sententious, and often artificial. The pace was ponderous, all the more so because of the long, dead silence between many of the lines. I suspect some of these silences could have been corrected by editing, but in many of the running takes, the actors simply didn't pick up their lines. Apart from Lewis, the actors were uneven at best in their performances.

Finally, the film looks awful and sounds worse. I finally gave up trying to find an appropriate volume and turned on the subtitles.

If one is looking for an angry gay film well-made on a low budget, one might settle on "The Living End." Because "FAQs" has a more promising premise, I couldn't abandon it. I really wanted to like it, but ultimately it was a huge disappointment.

Everett Lewis is a writer/director who continues to look at the various aspects of gay life and the way it is influencing young people. His work is a bit raw and unpolished as yet, but his sentiments are strong and translate well in the films he has created thus far.FAQS is a strong conceptual film and one with a new take on gay activism.

India (a talented natural actor Joe Lia) is a young runaway from Colorado who has come to Hollywood where he can be the gay person he accepts he is. Living homeless under a bridge he is obliged to make his living as a hustler, and as we meet him he is participating in a demeaning pornography film at the smarmy hands of a cheating pornographer. After the shoot he is ambushed by two gay bashers and is saved only by the intervention of a tall, flamboyant black drag queen Destiny (Allan Louis) who gains India's respect and is invited to live with Destiny in her small apartment, a place she shares with other gay people in need such as the lesbian cross dresser Lester (Minerva Vier). Destiny sets down rules of the house: no drugs, be careful of straights, spend two hours a day naked in respect for your body, always use condoms, etc. and India settles in, feeling 'home' for the first time. Soon he meets another hustler Spencer (Lance Lee Davis) who is bent on killing his bigoted parents (just as India is bent on revenge for his pornography adventure), but who falls for India's loving attention and the two become lovers.

At the time of India's encounter with the gay bashers Destiny takes the coat of one of them for India's warmth, a coat which bears the basher's name Guy (Adam Larson) and address. India and Spencer decide to find them and take retribution, but when they confront Guy, India senses Guy's sexual proclivities and the three return to Destiny's ever growing 'family'. The manner in which the other basher intervenes and the changes that occur among the tenants of Destiny's home supply the predictable but satisfying end.

So why with all this praise does this film only rate 3 stars? There are production problems that prevent a higher rating: the sound is poor, the dialogue is often buried in ambient noise, the editing is choppy, etc. But the actors are surprisingly good given the fact that most are inexperienced. Allan Louis as Destiny gives a bravura performance, one of the finest roles of a drag queen ever filmed. There are some well managed sexual encounters and some frontal nudity (but only with Joe Lia and that is so in character that it works well): the chemistry between India and Spencer is palpable and credible.

But despite these minor flaws (each of which is imminently forgivable) this is a well-made film that shows the power of 'extended family' in the lives of gay youths at risk in a homophobic society. There is tenderness, there is comedy, and there is a solid amount of political statement! Recommended. Grady Harp

Knowing that director Everett Lewis equated his characters with gay superheros goes a long way toward enjoying this quirky but extremely well-done film. Even when the acting is awkward, there is an honesty about the portrayals that is extremely watchable. Allan Louis is terrific as Destiny, the drag queen "avenger" who is part mother, part Dirty Harry. The cinematography is surprisingly good and the guys look terrific obeying Desiny's '2 hours of nudity a day' rule. Last minute cast substitution Minerva Vier seems incredulous at first as a tough street dyke, but her spunky reality won me over quickly. I cracked up at Destiny's line "Child, I feel just like Mrs. Brady. So white. So suburban. I'm gonna have to get me a pert blonde wig, honey. 'Cause I just feel pert. Pert, pert, pert." Classic. There are some lapses of credibility in the plot, but this is a superhero world, not real life, so go with it and you'll enjoy getting the FAQ's.

It starts off in a promising way. Some interesting characters with some way-out ideas. It even reminded me a little of an Almodovar film at the beginning, and that's always a good thing.

However, it doesn't live up to its early promise. The characters turn out to be very shallow. Some of the more interesting ones just disappear from the plot without a trace of explanation. There are some "twists" in the plot which which had my eyes rolling around in my head. I wanted to scream out a request for a bit of originality.

Worst of all, it relies, like far too many other films, on the outrageous concept that problems of violence can be solved with guns. This notion is not just annoyingly simplistic. It's extremely dangerous

While I liked the movie, I didn't really like the beginning. It has a documentary feel with facts about gays and the state of Texas...and then all of a sudden we're in L.A. So that was confusing. The eye-candy in this film is pretty good. Some of it is predictable and some is just really not believable as far as I'm concerned. I hated the ending tho. I thought the ending scene could have been written much better. I thought the main character, India, was really cute but Spencer really got on my nerves and I kinda wish he'd have been ditched at some point. And I usually can't stand drag queens, but Destiny was actually a pretty cool character. All in all tho I gave the movie a 7.