tlavideo.com

Review

Cheryl Dunye’s latest cinematic endeavor The Owls is bold, gutsy and simply brilliant.

At the height of its career, the riot grrrl rock band "The Screech" had it all. But that was ten years ago, and even though their memories are in the distant past, these former queer rockers have a hard time moving on from their broken dreams.

Passionate Lily (Lisa Gornick, Tick Tock Lullaby) and compliant Carol (Dunye herself) are in a stagnant relationship of convenience that will be irrevocably complicated if they decide to have a child. Sexy Iris (Guinevere Turner, Go Fish) is a raging alcoholic who occasionally disappears, and her ex-girlfriend MJ (V.S. Brodie, Turner’s co-star in Go Fish) lives in seclusion in West Hollywood, masturbating to porn.

The foursome sporadically gets together, and on one such occasion a pool party chock full of cocaine and booze goes horribly awry when aggressive, brooding Cricket (Deak Evgenikos, Itty Bitty Titty Committee) shows up. Things quickly unravel and the angry twenty-something disappears. All is seemingly forgotten until a dark, handsome stranger shows up and disrupts all of their lives!

On the surface this is a mysterious black comedy, but what is hidden in between the lines is intricate storytelling interwoven with each actor expressing her multifaceted, multicultural character. As Dunye confidently lets the audience into the creative process, she once again brilliantly redefines queer filmmaking.

 -- Kelly Burkhardt