Kiss and Tell
Reel Affirmations 2004
Review by Nancy Legato
Rating: 
(3 out of 5)
Wednesday, 10/20/2004, 9:00 PM
Shorts presentation, $9 at Cecile Goldman Theater at the DCJCC
THIS BASIC LESBIAN short collection offers up some fresh ideas on the waxings and wanings of lesbian relationships. R.J. Spencer’s Crush () is a fine example. With that title you might expect the usual frothy encounter, but in fact you’ll find an investigation of how two women face one partner’s breast cancer diagnosis together while harkening back to their start as a couple. The movie’s theme is handled with less than aplomb, but its heart is definitely in the right place.
Xmas Past () also deals with loss, this time in a humorous manner as widow Sophia (Dawn Akemi) copes with the meddlesome ghost of her former partner (Karen Mitchel) haunting her very first date with promising prospect Cole (Exandra Pitts). On the opposite side of its title, Risk () shows a woman starting up a new relationship just as her long-gone stale current relationship is finally officially kicking the bucket. We know we do this, girls, do we really need to see it over and over again in a movie? ‘Nuff said.
Meanwhile stand-up comic Julie Goldman brings Sex and the City back home to us queers in Butch and the City () . Terry Madshaw (Goldman) and her equally spoofed cohorts, Marnie (Mary E. Matthews), Charlie (Jocelyn Ruggiero), and Sam (Cynthia Levin) evoke just enough of their originals’ mannerisms and foibles to keep us giggling through a mini-episode of dykely magnitude.
Desiree Lim gives us a bird’s eye view into some tea and bat bo (busybody gossip) in Out for Bubble Tea () , with three Chinese-American girlfriends dishing romantic gossip and complaining about parental difficulties. On the Shelf () features an irrepressibly cute and earnest book lover, played by Chalee Snorton, who just can’t be interested for long in any date who doesn’t have a damn fine book collection. Thankfully, a bookstore pal of hers hooks her up with dream date Katari Hall, and the two read happily ever after.
Kiss and Tell concludes with Laura Jean Cronin’s Leave It () , which shows us all just how useful a dog can be in getting dates with hot babes. It’s a cute enough idea, but we would have wished for a stronger end to this bunch of ho-hum featurettes.
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